Our Work
Transformative joy and bold advocacy for survivor-centered justice and healing
Our Approach: Awareness, Advocacy and Healing
The Joyful Heart Foundation is a national organization with a mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse by working to build a world that prioritizes survivors’ healing.
Since 2004, we have carried out this mission through programming designed to center survivors’ needs and fill gaps in the system where those needs aren’t being met. In order to meet evolving challenges and build a culture based in hope and healing, we focus on three key areas.
Areas of focus
Policy and Advocacy
We provide education and advocacy to legislators and policymakers on how to best take action and close the gaps where the system has failed to see, hear, protect and care for survivors. By providing research and guidance, we help recommend and promote legislative agendas that support survivors’ needs. Our key issue areas include ending the rape kit backlog, safeguarding against image-based abuse, eliminating the statute of limitations and reducing barriers to victim compensation.
Healing Programs and Resources
Initiatives like the Heal the Healers Grantmaking Program and Grantee Peer Learning Cohorts provide financial support and community building for the professionals who support survivors from the earliest stages of their journeys. Our Healing Resources Hub includes information on prevention, self-care and survivor support to empower our community to navigate their healing.
Awareness and Community Building
Through programs including the Joyful Heart Virtual Book Club, the National Council on Leadership and Innovation and our Joyful Heart Committees, we offer opportunities for our community to come together in conversations that channel hope and a drive for change into action and transformation. By working with authors, culture makers and thought leaders at the forefront of this transformation, this work helps create a strong cultural foundation for a productive, empathetic public conversation and paves the way to continue addressing emerging challenges in the field.
Build with us
Help us build transformative joy and survivor-centered healing today.
