Three years ago, after living through a domestic violence situation and surviving a brutal rape committed by a work colleague, Sarah Strong founded Not This Girl, a nonprofit dedicated to providing resources and a community to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
According to statistics, more than seventeen-million American women have suffered through an attempted or completed rape. Domestic violence numbers are even more startling with some estimates putting intimate partner violence at nearly four-million attacks each year.
The mission of Not This Girl is to build a community that supports those affected by sexual and domestic violence through empowerment, offering a bridge to resources, creating awareness and encouraging change. Sarah has tirelessly worked to make her vision of a community of connection and a force for change into a reality. She worked through her own pain and struggle, looked past it in order to use her experiences to help others. Leaving a successful business career and using her own funds to start and run Not This Girl until other funding could be found, Sarah worked relentlessly to give hope by creating NTG and continues to do so by creating the Library of Hope.
“At NotThisGirl.com we speak uncomfortable truths while offering resources to the wounded. We’re not experts though many on our leadership team know violence and suffering intimately. We have lived through or are watching as loved ones endure the brutal affects of domestic violence or sexual assault, including the often agonizing recovery process.
We acknowledge our righteous anger at the level of brutality being experienced and are openly exploring ideas of faith, community, transparency, accountability and forgiveness as a means to promote peace and security.”
The Library of Hope (scheduled to launch in September), an online collection of resources both for victims and for those working to help them. We’re working to end the silence that surrounds domestic and sexual violence, telling powerful truths by sharing stories, connecting one another to resources, and spreading hope. We’re working to spread the message, “You are not alone.”
Tags: activism, domestic abuse, domestic violence, feminism, hope, Library of Hope, love, love infinitely, love infinitely project, not this girl, rape, sarah strong, sexual abuse, sexual assault, survival
Dear Sarah Strong, you are my guardian Angel.. and she deserves this recognition like no body else in this world.. I met Sarah almost 2 years ago and being a domestic abuse/tape survivor, she has given me strength I didnt know I had.. I’m blessed to be a part of the NTG Family and thankful for all the angels of NTG! Your the best Sarah! Miss ya