Sanctuary for Families Survivor Leaders Coalition
As told by Laura Fernandez and Lucia Gonzalez
The survivor leadership development work of Sanctuary for Families has evolved over time. It goes back to work that started in the 1990s because they observed that survivors were constantly looking for ways to re-engage with the program even after their immediate needs were met. To respond to this desire for connection, they developed the Mentor’s Program which was about survivors becoming advocates and mentors to existing clients, for instance, providing accompaniment to public assistance or other appointments. Over time this program evolved and these mentors started doing outreach and going to the capitol to do advocacy so they built this work into their strategic plan in 2015 and elevated survivor leadership development as one of their strategic goals. During this time they created a Survivor Task Force including survivors and staff, organized a co-designed survivor conference and reimagined the scope of the program to be the Survivor Leaders Coalition.
With this new name and vision, the infrastructure for the effort expanded as well. A full time staff person was hired and she prioritized building a new framework for meaningful survivor engagement. This included a 12 week training where survivors grew their leadership, learning about public speaking, executive functioning, leadership style and self-care, among other things. They received stipends for their contributions to client support, outreach and advocacy but also for their involvement in program design and curriculum development.
The partnership with survivor leaders extended to improving processes internally at the organization as well. They were able to provide feedback on how development and communications can better engage survivors to avoid inviting current clients to share their struggles and approaches that resembled “trauma porn”. The survivor leaders offered insights on the ways that current clients might feel obliged to participate and not be able to exercise choice because of the dependent relationship they have with the program. As such, the program has determined that anything that involves talking to the press or providing public testimony should include survivor leaders that have been through the training, are committed to growing their leadership and receive a stipend.
Currently, two alumni from the survivor leaders training sit on the agency Board. While they had survivors serve on the Board in the past, they tended to be people with resources, not former clients that had come through direct services. This meant that the Board had to revisit their policies like a “give/get” or minimum donation policy and ask themselves what was actually necessary and how they valued lived experience in relation to material resources. Survivor participation has improved the Board’s effectiveness in many ways including for instance providing clear and specific guidance on how to improve economic outcomes for their clients. But this process was not without its challenges. Creating the conditions for survivors to be comfortable and be able to engage authentically takes time and effort.
Another way they are engaging survivor expertise is in the development of a Survivor Advisory Board for a new Human Trafficking project. In this case they have hired two survivor leaders as consultants to help design and launch the Advisory Board, including building out the framework and the values for the program. This Advisory Board will provide guidance and support to all parts of the program, whether it is feedback on surveys, outreach strategy or policy goals, to ensure that it is survivor centered. In this way they hope to continue to build the alumni survivor leader community and benefit from the diverse skill sets they have to offer in addition to their lived expertise.
Sanctuary staff were also interested in creating a community for survivors who had moved through their trauma but were still isolated and wanted to be connected to them. They wanted to be part of a community that was not about their victimhood and trauma. Whereas in previous phases of their work, Sanctuary saw survivor leaders as former clients, now they think of it more as partnering with experts with lived experience in the issues they are working on.
Survivor leaders are also invited to offer different levels of contribution including serving on staff committees. This presented new opportunities for growth as staff felt some resistance to partnering with former clients and survivors had to stretch to occupy a new role other than ‘former client’. It helped survivors and staff expand their understanding of how survivors are more than their victimhood and examine their own inclination to hierarchies that did not serve their goal.
Examples of the transformations of staff and survivors abound in their work, not the least of which is survivor’s own self-perception. Engaging in advocacy work helps them build their own resilience and confidence in what they have to offer. With the administrative support and trust of the project coordinator the Survivor Leaders are able to believe in their visions and bring their ideas to fruition. The events and programs designed in partnership with survivors have consistently been inspiring and transformative for everyone who participates.
Looking forward, the program is trying to support the goals and ambitions of survivors through connections and other resources. They are getting them connected to entrepreneurship opportunities, other career building supports, and housing recognizing that their needs do not stop just because they are no longer clients of the program. They aim to set them up for success and build long term resilience.
As with any effort to share power there were missteps and harm caused. There were some individuals with institutional power that embraced survivor leadership more slowly. This resulted in a situation where one survivor leader’s contribution was undervalued and dismissed. With patience, education and support, the executive was brought to understand what survivors bring and why they need to do it in ways that work best for them.
Over time survivors provided feedback that the lack of grievance procedures made it feel unsafe for them to collaborate with staff since they had less institutional power. This generated movement on a process to include survivors in the grievance protocol that existed at the organization. Similarly, when there was harm caused within the Survivor Leaders Coalition, they tried to repair by holding restorative circles. When that was not successful because of inequitable power dynamics within the coalition, they tried a facilitated town hall process with a DEI expert to get some outside support.
There was no one singular fix for every situation but these experiences drove home the importance of having systems in place to address harm that would inevitably occur between people. It also highlighted the reality that everyone has trauma in their lives and dealing with that trauma to be able to be in community and collaborate across lived experience was an critical step on this journey.
One moment that captures the transformative power of co-design:
Lucia: One moment I’ll never forget, that I continue to cherish every single time, is just witnessing these survivors accomplish something that they wanted to do. So if it’s doing a speech or if it’s hosting a panel or if they are hosting a workshop and it gets done, it brings me so much joy and satisfaction that I was there throughout the process, hearing them say ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I don’t wanna do it, I’m not ready, I’m so nervous,’ but then seeing them out there and showing up and you know that really inspires me to want to bring the best of myself and the best of the organization as well for them because they are so helpful in informing policy change for us.
Laura: Whenever the development team says ‘we can’t do that because that would be exploiting a survivor’ or that one staff person who was called out early on by a survivor has become so committed to understanding the importance of compensation and exploitation – her work with the survivor leaders will stay with her wherever she goes and whatever she does. For so long we loved to take the most tragic story and put it out there, saying this person is broken, give us money. That has completely transformed.
Actionable Insights
Compensate survivors well!
Update grievance policies to include survivors alongside staff.
Establish accountability practices in advance of needing them.
Things take longer, build in the time and it will be better than if you didn’t.
Raise dedicated funds to support staffing for survivor leadership efforts.