Walking Toward Justice: Advocating for Change After Abuse

Friends, 

 
It’s been a while. How have you been? 
 
As we come into spring and this time of new life, I have something new to share. For the last eight years, so much of my work has focused on how we can cope with unsupportive environments.

That’s changing. 
 
I'm shifting my work to focus on creating environments where we don’t need to try so hard to cope.

It’s a shift from self-care to community care built around this well-researched truth— to be well, we must feel safe to share our truth, and our truth must make an impact.
 


More to come, but for now I want to share a story with you of how I created change in an environment by speaking my truth. 
 
Six months ago, I experienced abuse in a trusted relationship. I advocated for change in the systems that made this abuse possible, and I was able to document my process in an episode of “Everything’s Not Black and White” hosted by my friend, ally, and DEI expert Lachandra Baker and her husband Brian.  

See below for summary of our conversation, and you can listen at this link. 

Interested in how creating a culture of community care can shift your organization? Reach out.  

Talk again soon, friends— more to come. 
 

Big Virtual Hugs, 
 
Brandi 

Walking Toward Justice with Lachandra Baker

Here’s a summary of the conversation:

  •  My professional move from self-care to community care in my work, and why I made that change.

  • The role of advocacy in creating communities of care.

  • The abuse I faced from my spiritual teacher of over 8 years, and how I became an advocate for keeping others safe and having my voice heard.

  • The systemic pushback I experienced in trying to use my voice, and how this was another form of trauma.

  • The alienation that happens when someone speaks their truth in communities that aren’t open to change.

  • The important role of alternative communities of support in the process of advocacy.

  • The role of self-trust as the first step in advocating for our own safety.

  • The reality that we don’t need to wait until someone has assaulted us to say, “This person feels unsafe.”

  • The outcome of the complaint process.

  • How we can all be advocates who speak their truth, space holders that create safe conversations where all voices are heard and valued equally, and leaders who respond to the need for change in the process of creating communities of care in our organizations.

Brandi Lust