Reunion Online

All the latest from our blog and magazine by category | all posts

Highlighting NO MORE Day in the Media

Wednesday, March 13, marked the public launch of NO MORE, a national movement to end domestic violence and sexual assault. The coverage of the event has been overwhelming, and we know many of you want to know more about the day’s events and this important movement. We’ve compiled some of the initial articles about the launch that we’ve been reading here at Joyful Heart so that you can check them out too and get excited about coming together to say NO MORE to domestic violence and sexual assault. From the NO MORE congressional briefing to our meeting with the Vice President, from Mariska's inspiring speech at the National Press Club to the Washington Wizards saying NO MORE, there's plenty to read about.
read more

Mariska Hargitay on CNN: Rape kit backlog and destruction is outrageous

December 3, 2018
By
Mariska Hargitay

Much has been written this year about women's anger -- its power and potential, its evolution and necessity. But beneath the analysis, there is the feeling itself: anger, pure and simple. It's what I felt when I read CNN's report about the destruction -- the outrageous, careless, wrongheaded, uneducated, ill-informed, dangerous, willful destruction -- of rape kits.

read more

Hargitay hails impact of 'SVU' as It marks 20 seasons

September 21, 2018
By
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Mariska Hargitay thinks Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has played a huge role in educating people on sexual violence, but believes there is still a lot of work to do.

The star of the TV drama spoke as the NBC show celebrated its 20th season Thursday at the Tribeca TV Festival.

read more

I AM EVIDENCE examines problem of untested rape kits

April 16, 2018
By
Brian Lowry

After years starring in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay is now highlighting the subject matter in a new way by producing I AM EVIDENCE, a sobering and timely look at the way rape kits have been left to languish, a policy decision with the ghastly effect of enabling serial perpetrators to continue assaulting women.

read more

Mariska Hargitay’s new documentary shines light on epidemic of untested rape kits

April 13, 2018
By
NBC Nightly News

The HBO documentary ‘I am Evidence,’ produced by actress Mariska Hargitay, follows women who reported sexual assaults and provided DNA evidence but discovered it was never tested.

read more

The rape kit backlog shows exactly how we regard women in this country

April 13, 2018
By
Alanna Vagianos

There are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits currently sitting in police storage across the country. So, how did we get here?

That’s the question actress and activist Mariska Hargitay answers in her new HBO documentary “I Am Evidence,” set to air April 16. The film, co-produced by the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star and Trish Adlesic, and co-directed by Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir, takes a human approach to an epidemic that has reduced survivors, their stories and their trauma to a box of evidence. 

read more

A shocking number of rape kits are untested—Mariska Hargitay wants to change that

March 30, 2018
By
Kate Coyne

Mariska Hargitay has been investigating crimes as Olivia Benson on Law & Order for almost two decades. And now she’s fighting for real-life justice to end rape-kit backlog, which is the subject of her new HBO documentary, I Am Evidence.

read more

Mariska Hargitay and ‘I Am Evidence’ want to eliminate the rape kit backlog

November 29, 2017
By
Jean Bentley

When Mariska Hargitay landed the role of Detective Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” she had no idea that it would turn her into an activist for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. But in 2017, almost two decades after the long-running show began, she’s helped spearhead a mission to eliminate the rape-kit backlog in the U.S. — and has produced a documentary with HBO and her former SVU coworker Trish Adlesic called “I Am Evidence” that helps bring the issue to light.

read more

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mariska Hargitay and other well-known New Yorkers give. Here’s why.

November 28, 2017
By
The New York Times

After the post-Thanksgiving shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday, which kicks off the season of charitable giving.

As The New York Times continues its Neediest Cases Fund campaign, we reached out to some prominent New Yorkers to ask them to name an organization to which they devote their resources.

read more

Why Mariska Hargitay Considers Law & Order: SVU Her "Calling"

May 23, 2017
By
Chris Harnick

For Mariska Hargitay, playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU is more than just a job, it's a calling.

"Every day I get on my knees and thank God for this opportunity. It's not lost on me that God gave me this opportunity, this platform to speak about these issues. I really feel like it was a calling, it's not an accident I came on this show," Hargitay told E! News at The Joyful Heart Foundation gala. "I always wanted to be on service, but it's hard. You say, ‘What do I do? How do I be of service?' and this was an opportunity."

read more

Pages