Irena walked into her first Personal Empowerment Program (PEP) class carrying a decision she wasn’t sure she’d made correctly. She had just filed a restraining order, the final step in leaving a relationship that had moved from financial control to emotional erosion, to violence. It was the right choice for her children’s safety. It didn’t feel like the right choice for her own heart yet. Still, she showed up, unsure but willing to see what the room had to offer her.
It was Valentine’s Day. The lesson that week was self-love, a subject Irena hadn’t given herself permission to think about in a long time. She picked up a pen and wrote herself a letter, the first words of kindness she’d put toward herself in longer than she could remember.
Week by week, something shifted. She listened to the statistics, the stories other survivors in the room were brave enough to share, and a truth she badly needed settled in she was not alone, and she never had been. The questions still came. What counts as abuse? How do I help my children heal? What does independence even look like for me? PEP didn’t just make space for those questions, it connected her with legal advocates who helped her find real answers.
Then came an ordinary Tuesday evening that felt like anything but. Irena turned on her favorite music in a home where fear no longer lived. She danced with her kids in the living room, laughing the way she hadn’t in years. She later said it was the happiest she had felt in a long time, and that feeling, she said, is what she’s building her whole life toward now.
In her own words:
“These classes have helped me in realizing the patterns I have been carrying since my childhood. I feel more at peace and a lot happier with my kids by my side. We’re healing together.”
Fifty years ago, our founders believed survivors deserved options, safety, and a voice in shaping their own futures. Irena is proof that belief is still alive today, not as a mission statement, but as a mother dancing in her living room with nothing left to fear. Stories like hers don’t happen on their own. They happen because someone was trained to listen, funded to help, and present at exactly the moment a survivor needed them. That is what your support makes possible.
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, help is available. Reach our free, confidential 24/7 Helpline anytime at 877-531-5522, or connect by email or text at LOVE@radiantfutures.org. No matter your background, identity, or circumstances, you do not have to navigate this alone.