ReStoryation

Virginia Restoryation

Who heals the healer? This question has bubbled below the surface in our movement for decades. It has become increasingly urgent over the past few years; since 2020, advocates working with survivors of sexual and domestic violence have been unheralded first responders, working behind the scenes in the face of the combined cataclysms of a global pandemic, national unrest, and disintegrating community safety nets. In the midst of the pandemic, while advocates were providing care to survivors, they grappled with their own uncertainties and losses. These emergencies have not abated.

As a movement, we needed breathing space and time to ponder. Virginia was one of 25 states and territories across the U.S. to participate in ReStoryation, a national storytelling project and needs assessment among professionals working in the movement to end sexual and domestic violence. The primary goals of ReStoryation were to employ storytelling to:

• Pause and reflect on the impact of the previous three years on ourselves and our work.
• Provide an opportunity for connection and healing through sharing our experiences and bearing witness to each other’s stories.
• Name what is needed to create a thriving workforce and movement going forward.

Why storytelling? Stories reveal, help us process, and reflect. Story circles have been part of our collective human experience across communities, cultures, and generations for millennia. The process of storytelling and the practice of bearing witness to one another’s stories is one of the most intuitive, most powerful, and most ancient medicines we have.

Our process: A small team of staff at the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance was trained in the summer of 2022 to facilitate story circles in Virginia using the ReStoryation Process Guide authored by Vanessa Timmons (healer, storyteller, and Executive Director of the Oregon Coalition Against Sexual Assault) for the national ReStoryation project. Between February and May 2023, Action Alliance staff facilitated ten story circles across Virginia with more than 100 professionals working in sexual and domestic violence programs. 97 of the participants responded in full or in part to a series of surveys created by researchers from Michigan State University who specialize in conducting assessments in the field of gender-based violence.

This Summer, we shared our final report from the Virginia ReStoryation Project. The findings described in this report reflect a workforce that is rich with an abundance of passion and commitment toward responding to and ending sexual and domestic violence, but one that is also experiencing depletion and burnout due to multiple colliding factors, including overwork, primary and secondary trauma, financial and other life-related stressors, and unsupportive work environments. We encourage you to download and read the report (below) in full.

REGISTER FOR OUR RESTORYATION WEBINAR SERIES:

October 3, 2:00 – 3:30 P.M., What Lessons Did the Data Teach Us?

November 18, 11:00 – 12:00 P.M., Virginia Restoryation Report Q&A