Celebrating Five Years of Impact with Awake (PS: I'm Hiring!)
Hello friends,
As I’ve explained here before, In Spirit and Truth is my personal project, something I do on the side of my full-time work as executive director of a growing Catholic nonprofit organization called Awake. I believe in the power of stories to transform minds and hearts, so I think this blog matters. But Awake is where these words come to life - in a community of survivors, concerned Catholics, and allies committed to awakening, transformation, and healing from the wounds of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Over the past five years, Awake has grown from a small circle of Catholics gathered in a living room in Milwaukee to a respected national organization making a real difference in countless lives throughout the United States and beyond. The past five years have been such a whirlwind that it's a bit hard to remember what it was like when Awake was a tiny local organization just getting started. So much has changed over these years, but also, a lot has stayed the same - Awake is still a community that invests in relationships, speaks truth, centers survivors, works for change, and dreams big.
Today, our groundbreaking Courageous Conversations and powerful prayer events bring hundreds of people together for awakening, transformation, and healing. Our resources for priests, parishes, and dioceses provide much-needed resources to build a safer, more accountable, and more compassionate Church. Our monthly Survivor Stories lift up the voices and wisdom of those who have experienced abuse by Catholic leaders. Most importantly, our life-changing Survivor Circles and one-of-a-kind weekend retreat provide a transformative experience of community and support for those who have often felt isolated and forsaken.
Now, it’s time to launch Awake into the next five years of impact, and we need your help!
Yes, this blog post is turning into a request for support. If you’re not here for that, no need to unsubscribe! I don’t do this often, so you can just skip this post and come back next time for the Survivors’ Voices post.
Since Awake officially introduced ourselves as a national organization in January 2024, we have seen a huge leap in the demand for our services. Priests and parishes are requesting advice and resources; both Catholic and secular media are turning to Awake for comment on breaking news; public speaking invitations have increased; we hear from more and more people asking for help or wanting to get involved. For example - In 2023, we had 24 individual “welcome calls” with survivors interested in connecting with Awake; in just the first half of 2024, we have already welcomed 22 new survivors in this way, with many more connections in progress.
To meet these growing needs, we’re taking a giant leap of faith and adding another full-time staff member to our team, as well as increasing our program offerings in many areas. (We just posted the job announcement for our Associate Director position and can’t wait to bring someone wonderful on board in August! Maybe this could be you?)
Your support for this fifth anniversary campaign will allow us to:
Launch the Bridge Dialogues, a new core program bringing together priests and survivors for facilitated, restorative conversations. (We’ve been quietly piloting this program over the past year and have seen amazing fruit already!)
Personally welcome more survivors to our community, add a new monthly Survivor Circle just for men, and expand our retreat program to accommodate more participants. (We never want to turn anyone away just because we don’t have space!)
Explore new opportunities to use what we have learned to bring about deeper transformation throughout the Catholic Church. (We don’t want to keep these insights to ourselves!)
Grow in many more ways we're not ready to share just yet. ☺️
Will you join me to celebrate the progress of the last five years - and support Awake’s next chapter with a donation today?
You can learn more and make a gift here:
Many of Awake’s leaders (Staff, Leadership Team, Board of Directors, and Survivor Advisory Panel) have set up personal pages to share why they support Awake. If you decide to donate, you are welcome to give to my page, but I would love it if you would instead consider giving on the page of one of the survivors who is choosing to participate: Jennifer, Esther, William, Natalie, or Michael. If you click through the names and faces, you’ll get to hear from some of these lovely people about how much Awake means to them. :)
One side note: I’ve decided not to set up paid subscriptions on this blog, a choice that is made possible because I am paid a salary by Awake (after a few years of doing this work as a volunteer). If you value what I’m doing here, the best way to help sustain this work is by financially supporting Awake.
More importantly, if you have been impacted by the stories and reflections you read in the Survivors’ Voices series, know that your donation can make a real difference in the lives of those who have experienced sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Here’s what one survivor said recently: “As a clergy abuse survivor who has felt alone and isolated, it is really powerful to see so many good people involved on behalf of healing wounds caused by abuse.”
I’m proud to say that more and more survivors are now donating to Awake themselves, and I hope many Catholics will continue to stand in solidarity with them.
Thank you for considering this! Your support would mean a lot to me.
With gratitude,
Sara
PS: Not so excited about seeing a request for support on this blog? Don’t worry, this doesn’t happen often. I’ll be back to my regular posts next week. :)