Blog Posts & News – Katie Brown Educational Program

Mariska Hargitay: Using Visibility to Support Survivors by Amanda Miller

During Women’s History Month, we often reflect on women who have shaped movements for safety, justice, and equality. Some of these leaders have worked through legislation, advocacy, or community organizing. Others have used their platforms to bring conversations about violence into the public eye. One woman whose work has had a meaningful impact on discussions…

Remembering Madame Yucca This Women’s History Month by: Angela Marandola

Some women make history and then quietly vanish from it. Their stories fade, their names slip from the record, and over time, we forget just how many there were. In many cases, we never even knew their names at all. One of the women whose story nearly disappeared is Mary Kumpf, better known on stage…

Communication by: Michael Grace Helley

Communication is the ground base for healthy and strong relationships. This can be both romantic and platonic friendships. This is coming from someone who has completely shut down and refused to talk with my own family about my issues. Without communication, it is difficult to understand each other, and resentment can build up. I have…

What I Learned About Dating as a Teen in the Age of Social Media by: Amanda Miller

I was in high school from 2012 to 2016 and in college from 2017 to 2021. During that time, social media quickly became central to how we dated. Relationships no longer existed only in hallways or dorm rooms. They lived in text threads, Snapchat streaks, Instagram likes, and online visibility. Many of the dating rules…

How Sound Healing Has Changed My Work With Students by: Amanda Miller

I’ve been doing violence prevention work for many years and have practiced yoga for most of my life. I have over 400 hours of yoga teacher training from the Sva Ha Yoga Synergy of Sound Training Academy and have always believed in the body’s wisdom, in how it carries stress, emotion, and experiences in places…

Forgive Me, My Son: Frankenstein and Cycles of Abuse Written by: Joe Marandola

This blog contains movie spoilers! A good film stays with you during its runtime. A great film stays with you long after the credits roll. Very few films have stayed in my mind as much as Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025), inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel. The dark direction and cinematography, the eerie…

Opening the Conversation: Men and Domestic Violence

Men being victims of domestic violence in relationships might not be a common topic for some, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur. Sometimes men in violent relationships might not know that they are in one based on their previous view that men should be able to handle these types of relationships. Some men see…

Part of Your World

By: Angela Marandola, Programs Manager at the Katie Brown Educational Program It’s 3:15am. I can’t stop thinking about Sarah Everard. Her disappearance while walking home from Brixton, South London is keeping me from sleep and I can’t believe I’m not asleep. I’m exhausted. We all are—-because once again, womxn are not the problem. We’re just…

Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault

What to Say (and Not Say) When Someone Tells You They’ve Been Sexually Assaulted It’s never easy to know exactly what to say when someone opens up about being sexually assaulted. You might worry about saying the wrong thing or freeze because you don’t know what to do. That’s totally normal, but what matters most…