Safe Harbor
Transcript of my Survivor Story.
My name is Reverend Leonina and I am an immigrant justice advocate, speaker, community activist and artist living in Richmond, Virginia.
I am honored to be speaking this evening and I am always honored to bring into the spaces I have the privilege of navigating in my story, and I always start telling it this way:
“A year ago today, I was living in a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence…”
Depending on my audience I go into little or long details about life experiences lived and how Safe Harbor was there.
The reasons that brought me into this space called Safe Harbor were many, and not just pin pointed to one dangerous crisis or another, although there were plenty of those and one in particular that landed me into this safe space, but more to the point, the person I came into Safe Harbor as was a mixture of all of those situations, a victimized person filled with generational trauma, a family in need of help.
I imagined I would spend a couple of weeks at Safe Harbor, find work and get on my feet, thinking more of the work I needed to do to secure the material assets that would give me independence and not the things I needed to work within myself in my path to liberation.
Safe Harbor provided both.
The shelter was not just as a warm place my kids could sleep and cook and eat at and feel safe in, like a home, but also a place for healing and growing thanks to the staff and volunteers that we have interacted with through our stay.
I am so honored to speak on the way former shelter director Miss Cheryl touched my and my children’s life. She protected me in dangerous times, celebrated achievements and cried with me and Kim when things didn’t go well, which happened a lot of times in my stay. Most of all I thank her for her honesty and hard work, her person pours into the folks she meets and she inspired me personally to move forward and keep fighting just as Kim (the new director of shelters!) showed me to keep my head up.
I am really excited for this new chapter in my life, as I can soon volunteer my skills to the organization, until then I am happy to celebrate the people that make Safe Harbor safe and ask that they be continually supported and exalted in their incredible roles to our community.
Many times you hear survivor’s stories and are asked to remember our plight. I want you to know that even if you do not remember me or my story I will always remember and be grateful to the time I spent at Safe Harbor and each person I interacted with, wether roommate, staff or volunteer, I carry them proudly and will continue moving forward and fighting for all survivors.
