M A R I S K A H A R G I T A Y
INTERVIEW & PHOTOGRAPHY BY { JOHN RUSSO
PRODUCED BY { KEN WALLER FOR PHOTOHOUSE PRODUCTIONS
HAIR BY { CHRIS MCMILLAN
MAKEUP BY { GEORGI SANDEV
LOCATION { PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE BACCARAT HOTEL NYC
JR: What inspired you to create your foundation?
MH: When I started on Law & Order: SVU in 1999, I began learning about the statistics of sexual violence. Although those statistics have changed over the years—and any number more than zero is unacceptable to me—they’ve remained devastating. Keeping in mind that these crimes are still woefully underreported, as of today, every 68 seconds someone in this country is sexually assaulted. One in nine girls and one in twenty boys under the age of eighteen experience sexual abuse or assault. I was astonished that more people weren’t talking about those numbers, or more specifically, that people weren’t talking about them all the time.
Sexual assault is a crime of power, one person exercising power to take away someone else’s bodily autonomy. I wanted to create a foundation whose purpose was not only to support survivors in healing from that experience, but to engage our society in that support. The first and most urgent task was of course to encourage conversation about these issues, to bring them out of the darkness where they thrive. It was important to create a discussion that could then be harnessed, shaped and directed to bring lasting change.
As with artists who look at work they created or initiated years ago, the passage of time brings new insights about the origin of their work. In the same way, I will always be on a journey of discovery about the many threads that came together to begin the process of conceiving the foundation in my mind and heart.
JR: Talk about the work the foundation is doing.
MH: Currently, the Joyful Heart Foundation is focused on three main areas of service: Policy & Advocacy, Awareness & Outreach, and Healing.
Under Policy and Advocacy, we spearhead initiatives such as End the Backlog, aimed at eradicating the backlog of rape kits in the United States. We are also engaged in a new initiative to combat Image-Based Abuse, working with other advocates to create policies that address and eradicate this rapidly growing form of abuse.
In our Awareness & Outreach efforts, we foster conversation around these difficult issues by engaging with our community through live events, social media platforms and our virtual book club.
Additionally, we prioritize healing through our Heal the Healers grant-making program, providing crucial support to those on the front lines of addressing trauma, and promoting well-being within our communities. These grants reach people nationwide who work directly with survivors and are at risk of burnout because of the effects of vicarious trauma.
JR: A success story about a person, or several people, who the foundation has helped.
MH: Every rape kit represents a survivor. Testing kits signals to survivors that they matter, that what happened to them matters. It would be easy to say that rape kits—and the lives they represent—“fall between the cracks.” But that makes it sounds like it’s accidental, like some kind of oversight or mishap. It isn’t. Rape kits are not tested because assumptions are made about the victims, foregone conclusions are reached about the possibilities of winning cases, and because of a host of other reasons that embrace primitive, pervasive and damaging attitudes about those who have been harmed. End the Backlog validates and champions survivors every day because the initiative directly counters those attitudes and misconceptions. Through our Six Pillars of Rape Kit Reform, we have worked alongside legislators, advocates, and survivors to pass over 100 laws throughout the country that have a direct effect on survivors and their communities. These laws all work in tandem to bring the rape kit backlog to an end, to ensure that every kit is tracked and tested, and that every survivor can access the information about the status of their kits.
For me, an aspect of this work that is both deeply inspiring and one which requires the most faith, is that we will never hear all the success stories that result from what we do. But what a gift and privilege to be engaged in communicating, directly and indirectly, to those who have been harmed that their healing is our priority.
To learn more about The Joyful Heart Foundation follow them @thejhf and visit https://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/