Dear Survivor,

I am so glad you’re here. You are likely reading this because you have experienced the great pain of sexual harm, or you care for someone who has. I want you to know I see you, I believe you, and my heart is with you. 

My name is Emma (class of ‘23) and I founded Survivors Of Sexual Harm & Allies (SOSHA). 

At 18 years old in fall 2019, I told my best friend and roommate that I was thinking of leaving Oberlin because of the immense pain I was experiencing following a classmate assaulting me. I will never forget the gift of her response: “I think this place has more to offer you than this experience.” She, the Nord Advocate, and a few trusted friends, family members, and professors supported me through this aftermath. Because of this support, I survived my first semester at Oberlin and I look back on that time as one not of total pain and despair, but as a time of compassion, community, and gratitude. 

I met many other students who had similar experiences of violence, many of whom did not have the privilege of receiving the same blanket of support as me. These conversations almost always took place in the form of a late night, one-on-one conversation in a dorm room. There was no place where people could go to openly speak about their experiences of sexual violence. In fact, based on the general messaging on campus, if you had not experienced it yourself or were the close friend of someone who had, you might believe that sexual assault wasn’t happening at all on Oberlin’s campus,

In essence, there was a status quo of silence, of overlooking the experiences of sexual violence that I knew were happening behind closed doors. I felt called to create a space beyond this silence, where survivors and those close to them could experience the support and sense of belonging my roommate gave me in that fall 2019 conversation. I envisioned a space where people who had experienced sexual violence could speak openly about their experiences and find community and healing with one another. Additionally, my anguish, hurt, and grief turned to feelings of injustice and anger. In this fire, I felt an unshakable necessity to provide visibility to sexual harm and ensure that abusers knew that they could no longer assume that their harmful actions would be kept silent. 

In the mess of this rage, pain, and grief, existing right alongside the gifts of gratitude, connection, and hope, SOSHA was born.

I began conversations with Melissa Counts (former Confidential Advocate from the Nord Center) at the beginning of spring 2020. Melissa and I began meeting with Rebecca Mosely (Oberlin’s Title IX director) to see how such an organization could exist in accordance with College policy. These meetings with the Title IX office continued until fall 2020.

During this time, Riley Hall became the new Confidential Advocate, and served as SOSHA’s advisor for two years, contributing significantly to the organization’s formation and the mentoring of its leaders. Other leaders, including Jenna Frizzel (‘23), Lauren Fitts (‘22), and Ella Newcomb (‘23), were crucial members to the team that built SOSHA.

Due to initial College concerns around legal liability and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the College was unable to sponsor SOSHA by fall 2020. It was requested that SOSHA not recruit or advertise until given specific permission. This led SOSHA to the decision to become a community organization, not sponsored by the College, so that it could meet the immediate need of survivor support in the community. SOSHA began officially functioning and holding listening sessions in October 2020. The organization was created with the mission to create spaces for support, advocacy, and education for survivors and allies. We soon after began hosting social events, Take Back the Night, open forums, providing one-on-one peer support and advocacy, and much more. It was a great gift to serve as founder and leader during my time at Oberlin, and I am eternally grateful for the healing that this organization brought me and for those who allowed me to walk alongside them in their own healing journeys.

For me, it would be enough if SOSHA could help one survivor feel less alone. I hope that it has. 

My roommate was right about Oberlin having more to offer me than that one painful night. It gave me the opportunity to undertake the honor of giving life to this healing space. And to you, dear survivor, I offer SOSHA and the bright souls, past, present, and future that carry it forward.

Take care of yourself.

Sending love and gratitude,

Emma Hart 

[emma.hart095@gmail.com]