309: Kristen Faith: Life After Domestic Violence

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Your story doesn’t have to end with domestic violence.

Kristen Faith

After escaping an abusive relationship in college, Kristen Faith used Facebook to break her silence to the world by sharing her restraining order online. Her vulnerability and life experience has inspired thousands on social media to break the silence against domestic violence.

Kristen has served as an expert advocate for numerous publications to include: Investigation Discovery, ESPN, NowThis, Glamour Magazine, PEOPLE.com, HuffPost, New York Post, and MIC to name a few. She has spoken nationally to educate college campuses, first responders, health care professionals, and social workers on the complete scope of domestic violence from a survivor’s perspective.

In today’s conversation with us, Kristen describes how Break The Silence Against Domestic Violence started and quickly evolved into a national movement. She explains how they attract volunteers, raise money, identify good board members, and how they have been able to bring families together in the healing and recovery process.

Kristen also shares what is next for her, as she ventures beyond her story of domestic violence and the movement she created, to consulting and teaching others how to grow their movement and make a lasting impact in their communities.

What We Discuss With Kristen Faith

How to start a movement that inspires people to get involved
Grassroots ideas for creating awareness about your cause
How to choose your board members
How to raise funds using social media and through local community events
Finding purpose beyond the movement

Key Takeaways

The Break The Silence Against Domestic Violence Facebook page started out being all about quotes and poems and was an uplifting source for survivors, families, and people who wanted to be part of the movement.
There were so many people writing in and asking for help. Their needs weren’t being met and I wanted to create a solution. So I created this organization based on what I would have wanted when I was in that situation.
We tabled it at every possible community conference we could find in San Diego. People really loved our mission and how we saw and addressed the issue of domestic violence.
More people became part of the organization because we made them feel like family. So it wasn’t just that Kristen was showing up. Kristen was showing up with her whole family. It was really a positive ripple effect of people wanting to create change.
At one point it was five of us, being at conferences, offering education in schools, sending out mailers for donations and putting together events locally, i.e. car washes or bake sales.
8 years later we have volunteers in almost every state in the U.S. We have outreach volunteers who go out into the community and host events called Sister Meetups for survivors who want to get together and meet others.
We engage millennials by keeping it fresh, fun and engaging. If something is not working, fix it. If something is working, do more of it.
We’ve had board members who are incredibly involved, and we’ve had board members who like to say they’re on our board because we’re a national non-profit.
Passionate individuals are wonderful, but passion doesn’t get the job done. You can have great intentions about wanting to change the world, but are you actively going to make phone calls to donors, and show up at events and sell tables for your local charity gala? Are you actually going to show up for meetings and volunteering when we need help as an organization?
Beyond passion, we’re looking for board members who can share their skills, experience, and connections.
Every year we ask our board members to contribute at least $3000. That means you can donate outright, or you can fundraise through a bake sale or sell tables to a local dinner.
Our main source of donations this year is Facebook. We are one of the top 125 non-profits on Facebook that are utilizing their donation platform.
We are not a crisis organization. We do not have a shelter, offer legal aid, restraining orders, or court advocacy, because these services are already being offered.
We solve the problem by addressing domestic violence at its roots – which is education. If parents aren’t taught how to treat their children, or if people are not educated on how to have relationships with their family members, significant others or spouses that is one-third of the problem.
We focus on a sandwich model. One side is prevention, the inside is the crisis services, and the other side is healing and recovery. We need both sides, otherwise people are going to continue the cycle.
When it came to building my own personal brand, the doubt was real, because a huge part of me said, “Who are you without Break The Silence?”
Being a movement maker is absolutely game changing. However, if you don’t have self-care, and if you don’t have an identity outside of your movement, cause or business, who are you?
Don’t create a movement for the accolades, do it for the cause and the impact.
My story doesn’t end with domestic violence, that’s where it begins.
My message is not what happened to Kristen, but what we can learn from what happened to Kristen. Everything I’ve learned along this journey, I am willing to share.
Dreams are for nighttime. If you’re not waking up and doing it, why are you even thinking about it?

Episode Resources

https://breakthesilencedv.org
Helpline: 855-BTS-1777

Connect With Kristen Faith

Website: https://www.kristenfaith.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkristenfaith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamkristenfaith

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