
5 Things I Learned My First Week at The Younique Foundation
Guest blog post written by Annie Hartvigsen
Earlier this month I packed my things into my car and made the 350-mile drive from Idaho to Utah to start a new job at The Younique Foundation. As I drove through the sagebrush-dotted landscape, through rain and snow and then the rain again, my attention shifted from Idaho’s temperamental spring weather to the nervousness I felt about starting a new job. What if I don’t like my new boss? What if I’m not qualified to do the work they need me to? What if I don’t have any good ideas to contribute? As I worried about the unknowns, I began to reflect on the reason I wanted to work at The Younique Foundation in the first place, and I thought about the people close to me whose lives have been affected by childhood sexual abuse—dear friends, clergy, former boyfriends.
Through these associations, I discovered how widespread childhood sexual abuse could be. I knew the effects of trauma and how much abuse impacts not only the individuals abused but also families, loved ones, neighborhoods, communities. However, after my first week at The Younique Foundation, I realized just how much I still didn’t know about the epidemic of childhood sexual abuse and its lasting effects. Here are five things I learned my first week working at TYF.
While I have learned, and continue to learn, many things about childhood sexual abuse and the hope and healing that is available to survivors, one thing stands out to me above the rest—I have learned that we can each, individually, make a difference. We can collectively work towards cultivating an environment where sexual abuse is no longer enabled or tolerated as we listen to each other’s stories and create places where it is safe to openly discuss sexual abuse and jointly create solutions.
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