Reunion Online

Sarah Tofte is a researcher on sexual violence for Human Rights Watch who wrote last year’s report exposing the rape kit backlog in Los Angeles and across the country.

Yolanda Jimenez has been the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence in New York City since 2002.

Oscar Smith is a member of the NYPD Scuba Team. He sat down with Reunion’s Peter Hermann, to talk about his work and the toll it takes.

Elena Hull is a licensed creative arts therapist, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the clinical director of Midtown Marriage and Family Therapy center. She is also a Retreat Specialist with Joyful Heart and helped to create the Foundation’s retreat model.

Lani Kamau Yamasaki is the Founder and Executive Director of ‘Ano‘ano Aloha, a charitable non-profit focused on community social economic development and also operates Lani Yamasaki Communications & Design. For nearly three decades, she has worked within her community to facilitate trauma recovery and empower individuals.

All of the products sold to benefit Joyful Heart are designed to inspire and educate. To learn more about each of them, please visit the Heartshop.

Me&Ro jewelry designer Robin Renzi reveals her activist side. She’s passionate, she’s determined—and she’s turning up the volume on the issue of sexual violence.

The idea that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” reiterates to me how much it is going to take to reverse the problem we have on our hands. Sexual assault is a Goliath-sized issue and if we are going to get anywhere in the battle against it, it is going to take a Goliath-like number of passionate Davids to step up and do something.

Facing issues as daunting and pervasive as sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse can be overwhelming. The scope of these problems is so large that it can feel there is simply no way to have an impact. But you can make a difference.

Last November, on a sunny Saturday morning in LA, the Joyful Heart Foundation joined philosophy to raise awareness about the need for domestic violence support services throughout California. Facing one of the worst state budget crises in history, the State of California eliminated their domestic violence services budget, forcing many shelters to turn away or cut services to families in need.