From Surviving to Thriving: Victim Empowerment

This presentation will discuss ways to engage survivors in your work or agency.  Creating a variety of opportunities for survivors to “speak and tell” is vital for engagement.  In addition to traditional support groups, demonstrating the potential of healing and hope through stories can lead to empowerment through finding their voice.  Other methods of connection and support can occur in safe environments where survivors are learning new skills such as yoga, meditation, breathing, and using creative arts to express their feelings and journey.  Through this process of creating relationships within the group, the goal is to have each participant gain the strength and courage to lead an exercise or project and share their expertise.  Progress and empowerment are expressed in moving through your story, not being stuck in it.

Objectives:

• Engaging survivors through creative outreach beyond support groups

• Understand ways to create opportunities for survivors share their voice

• Create and share ideas for survivors to learn new skills and share their knowledge or expertise