Support a Survivor-Created Resource to Help Abuse Survivors

In my work as a writer and an advocate for abuse survivors, I’ve had the honor of meeting many survivors and hearing their stories. Often, the catalyst for these survivors to leave their situations is finding information that educates them on abuse, gives them vocabulary to make sense of their experiences, and empowers them to make decisions for their own well-being. Information and education are powerful means to work toward abuse prevention and helping survivors escape.

My friend C. is a survivor of covert/coercive abuse and recognizes the need for more education on the insidious forms of abuse that might go unrecognized. She has been advocating for abuse survivors for more than a decade, spending 20 hours a week unpaid to show up for women here in West Michigan. In 2016, she helped bring Lundy Bancroft (author on domestic abuse) to speak at Hope College. In 2017, she organized a conference about abuse, attended by thousands. She has led support groups for women, led staff training on abuse for churches, walked alongside women going through the legal process, and regularly meets up with survivors over coffee to validate their experiences and point them to resources.

In 2024, C. created an educational pamphlet simply called, “Relationship Guide” to help spread understanding of different kinds of abuse. She has already distributed 300 copies (paid for out of her own pocket), including in health care facilities and little free libraries and to other advocates who have distributed the pamphlets throughout Michigan. These pamphlets are easy to slide into a book or purse unnoticed and are designed to avoid scrutiny from abusers. They help women gain clarity about their relationships and give them validation that they aren’t alone. The pamphlet provides information about recognizing abuse and lists vetted resources for survivors to use. C. is currently working on a new edition of the pamphlet with updated information.

In 2025, our goal is to have 1600 copies printed and distributed. We would like to be able to distribute them more broadly, including nonprofits, counseling centers, hospitals, college campuses, churches, and public libraries. We would also like to pay survivors who speak other languages to translate the pamphlet, particularly into Spanish. The funds we raise will go toward printing/binding costs (currently about $5 a pamphlet), mailing costs, and translation fees. We also hope to one day create a website, as well as design a digital pamphlet and e-book.

C. and I are both survivors of abuse and understand the power of word-of-mouth resources, especially when internet access might be controlled or limited. We hope to continue this work of sharing this resource to help survivors in our community and beyond.

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Cait West is a writer and editor based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As an advocate and a survivor of the Christian patriarchy movement, she serves on the editorial board for Tears of Eden, a nonprofit providing resources for survivors of spiritual abuse. She is the author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy and was recently featured in the documentary For Our Daughters.