Transform Lives with Joyful Heart Foundation

The Joyful Heart Foundation has a special place in my heart. I am a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence myself, but I was lucky enough to have a family support system that helped me leave the toxic and dangerous situation I was in. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, there is not that type of support. Inside, it makes you feel isolated, scared, and alone, like no one is going through what you are, but sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse have staggering statistics in the United States. JHF is a foundation that helps support, empower, and raise awareness against these horrific crimes.

The founder, Mariska Hargitay, created JHF back in 2004 to raise awareness and bring the conversation of these violent acts to light and make it more common to talk about. Mariska got inspired to create this amazing foundation after taking on the television role of Olivia Benson on the NBC show Law and Order: SVU. Mariska has spoken many times about how she became aware herself about this issue and just how rampant it was in the United States alone. One huge inspiration for her was the numerous letters she got from her fans disclosing to her about their survivor stories, some of them for the first time.

In the last 20 years, Mariska and JHF have helped to raise awareness, change laws and regulations, and support survivors of these terrible crimes.

On their website https://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/ you can read the full story, but just a small part of it is....

"Since 2004, Joyful Heart has been a leading national organization with a mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever."

So I hope you will join me in helping to support this amazing foundation and everything it does to help survivors.