Our Mission:
Healing.
Tending the Garden is for marginalized sexual assault survivors who are looking for community, healing, education, and growth.
Our Mission
Tending the Garden is for marginalized sexual assault survivors who are looking for community, healing, education, and growth. We strive to provide this community through retreats, workshops, live events and resources. All of our programming is created to service underserved individuals who deserve to feel seen, supported, and heard in an environment wherein they will be respected and not re-traumatized.
Who We Serve
Tending the Garden is focused on marginalized folks, meaning we are already working outside of a traditional narrative of need and access. We know statistically that BIPOC and queer folx are more greatly impacted by sexual harm, often over-sexualized in our society and less likely to be believed if they do come forward. Lack of legal support and mental health resources remains rooted within the system that has caused perpetual harm to them. We seek to change that.
15x
Black Women
For every Black woman who reports rape, at least 15 Black women do not report.¹
7/10
Experience Long-term trauma
Approximately 70% of rape or sexual assault victims experience moderate to severe distress, a larger percentage than for any other violent crime.²
1 in 2
Transgender adults in the US
1 in 2 transgender people experience sexual violence.³
We’re part of the solution
The discrepancy between the treatment of marginalized patients and white/able-bodied/cis people in mental health facilities illuminates a greater issue when it comes to equity in mental healthcare. BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ identities have often been left out of the mainstream coverage of sexual assault. Tending the Garden was founded as a space to harness healing and support and place the experience and needs of these identities at the forefront of recovery work around sexual assault.
The Retreat
This 6 day retreat is a space where survivors are pushed out of their comfort zone and come out on the other side stronger and with a new idea of what a survivor can look like. It means that a collection of folks who have been historically pushed to the side, overlooked, and over-sexualized will finally take center stage. No longer will they feel alone in their healing journeys. Instead, they will finally get to exhale, be themselves fully, and tend to their gardens.
awareness
Marginalized identities, by definition, have been left on the periphery of conversation. With this, it becomes a more difficult task to bring people into the conversation. Raising the collective awareness around the experiences of marginalized sexual assault survivors is beneficial to advancing the treatment and experiences of all survivors.
Workshops & Live Events
One of the primary goals with this work is to help survivors get back into their body and reconnect with it. The workshops at Tending the Garden retreats are run by those who have a shared identity and experience with the participants. The purpose of this is to ensure that the workshops are led by those who can empathize, understand and connect with the experiences of those present.
Resources
An ongoing goal of Tending the Garden is providing free resources to all, including education around sexual trauma, guidance and exercises for survivors and tips for allies, families and friends of survivors.
Join the cause
We want Tending the Garden to be a space for survivors to heal from their trauma and find community of support and respect. Ultimately, this space would function free of cost for attendees and operate entirely off of donations and grants. All people have a right to access care and support, money should not be a barrier to healing. Currently Tending the Garden retreats require travel and are available through scholarship or at ticketed price. Online summits and workshops are currently ticketed with sponsored spots.
It is our mission to provide everything free of cost as we believe that financial situation and socio-economic status should not be a barrier to attending these retreats. A great way to help is by making a donation to get us closer to this mission.
Make a Donation
Donations go toward sponsoring survivors, supporting the team & facilitators.
Sign Up For a Program
Check out our upcoming events & announcements on Instagram.
