Rebecca Donley: Healing Our Stories (Advocacy for Survivors of Abuse)

Rebecca Donley is a professional advocate for people who have survived domestic and sexual abuse. With warmth, grace, and candor, she shares the story of her journey into this deeply emotional work, her experiences with burnout and recovery, and ultimately her vision for building strong communities that are sustained on a network of healthy relationships. How can we help bring this new world into reality? By reaching out to one another, building trust, and healing our stories -- together.

00:00 Introduction

01:15 Finding Unitarian Universalism

03:10 Getting Involved in Advocacy

08:07 How to Hold Someone Else's Story

11:53 Pod Mapping

15:11 Emergent Strategy

18:21 Love and Rage

21:31 Evolving Activism

26:22 Where Burnout Comes From

29:03 Healing Burnout and Finding a Different Way Forward

32:45 Another World is Possible

35:40 Creating Healing Everywhere

41:22 It All Comes Back to Us

45:37 An Ecosystem of Care

48:39 Orienting Towards Utopia

51:10 What Makes You Come Alive

Sparks of Justice is a podcast hosted by Leslie Mills with the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance (MUUSJA). The first season consists of six episodes interviewing UU activists from Minnesota, exploring each person's path to getting involved in social justice, resources for overcoming heartbreak, and the rewards of being involved in movements for change.