Our story
It began with an undergrad who noticed what was missing.
To inspire resilience in response to violence by promoting holistic community healing initiatives.
2019 → today
How a Strauss grant became three campuses.
In April 2019 a UC Santa Barbara undergraduate looked at what her campus offered survivors of interpersonal violence and found the same shape everywhere: services that began with a disclosure. Tell us what happened, and then we can help you.
She knew how many people that quietly excluded. With funding from the Strauss Foundation, she started building the alternative — a space where survivors did not have to talk about their trauma to receive trauma-informed care.
Working with local clinicians, that idea became Thriving, Not Just Surviving: a multi-week series of specialist-led healing modalities — yoga, reiki, creative work, embodied movement, dance. Participants came back reporting less anxiety, less isolation, and a sense of safety and belonging they hadn't had in a long time.
What started as one series is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit running each academic quarter at UCSB, San Diego State and San Francisco State — plus community programs open to people well beyond a campus.
What we hold to
Four commitments we don't bend.
No disclosure, ever
You will never be asked to describe what happened to you in order to receive care from us. This is the founding principle and it is not negotiable.
Free means free
Not sliding scale, not free-with-materials-extra. Every program and every material is provided at no cost to participants.
Community-led, not delivered to
Survivors shape what we run. Programming changes as the community's needs change, rather than because a grant cycle says so.
Healing happens outside the office too
Therapy is valuable and it isn't the whole answer. We build the parts that live in your body, your calendar, and your friendships.