Reflection, Renewal, and Resilience

A New Year’s Chat with BARCC’s Executive Director

Happy New Year! For some inspiration and hope to kick off 2024, here’s an exciting interview with Executive Director Isa Woldeguiorguis. 

Hi Isa! Tell us about your first few months at BARCC.
On my first day at BARCC this October, there was a sign on my door that read “Welcome to BARCC, Isa!” There were flowers and greeting cards filling my office, and even a wedding gift. I felt surrounded by warmth, kindness, and deep welcoming. I’ve continued getting to know our team, a passionate, highly-skilled, extremely dedicated group of professionals, many of whom have been with BARCC for a long time. 

"BARCC is a place that so many have come to call home in the last 50 years and I am grateful and excited to grow our legacy." 

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in 2023 that you’ll take into 2024?
I continued learning this year about the importance of building a resilient and caring organizational community where we model support for healing and wellbeing. These are ongoing lessons from both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that keep resonating with me. Whether we are at work, at home, online, or in our physical neighborhood communities, we can’t do life alone. We are social beings that need each other. 

What are you looking forward to in the new year? 
That actually ties in well with the last question. I’m most excited about deepening BARCC’s relationships with our communities in greater Boston—for example, being able to connect with more survivors in their own neighborhoods through our partnership with Casa Myrna. We’re also continuing to provide in-person services for groups and individuals, which is a wonderful thing. 

What do you think are the biggest challenges BARCC will face in the new year? 
There are some significant challenges on the road ahead, from supporting survivors during a significant homelessness and housing crisis, to the shrinking of public funding available for survivor services, to navigating the urgent needs of immigrant survivors. 

These challenges are daunting. Along with that, in the past few years, we’ve seen some of the worst aspects of humanity—in high-profile individuals found guilty of sexual violence, in our government, in active genocides and wars across the world, and in a global pandemic.
 
As a survivor, seeing so much sexual violence happening in the media, seeing rape and sexual violence used repeatedly as weapons of warfare and tools of oppression, is incredibly painful and traumatic. But for me, ultimately, it makes me recommitted to the work we’re doing at BARCC. It makes me even more dedicated to the work we need to do to create a world free from sexual violence. Our organization has devoted 50 years of work toward that mission. And it’s more important than ever for us to stay the course. 

"It can be overwhelming when we think we are facing these challenges alone—but we’re in this together, and we can, and do make a difference every day." 

Thank you for sharing that, those are powerful words. 
Yes, and you’ll hear me say often, “Go big, or go home. We’re not giving up.” We’re going to double down and work in community, in broad coalitions and in local relationships, across Boston, across the country, across the globe, to ensure that everyone has their bodily autonomy and the right to feel safe. It’s totally understandable to sometimes feel like giving up. But you don’t have to take on the biggest challenges by yourself.

"You just have to tap into that unstoppable hope that together, we can make change. We each may play different roles, but it’s going to take all of us to make progress and move forward."

Let’s take that energy right into 2024! Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you set your intentions for the new year? 
Yes! Each year, my family and I try to make time and space to reflect on the year behind us, and think about where we want to go in the year ahead. We spend time writing out things we’re holding on to, things we might be disappointed about or struggling with, and when it’s not too cold, we sit around a fire and drop in the pieces of paper. I see it as a real resilience-building moment, where we can physically let go of things that are no longer serving us so we can make room for the good in our lives for the upcoming year. 

Thank you for sharing that practice! Any last words of advice or inspiration for our BARCC community? 
I want to thank everyone for the role they play every day in helping to make our communities safer, more inclusive, more compassionate, and more just. Whether your passion is volunteering on the hotline, fundraising for the Walk for Change, accompanying survivors in the hospital, working as a member of our team, counseling, advocating for legislative solutions, or spreading our messages on social media, you are making a difference.

"You are an important part of this movement, and we are deeply grateful for you. To all in the BARCC community and beyond, I wish you a healthy, peaceful year ahead."