Chris
Christine Vargo began her career working with survivors of sexual and domestic violence at the DC Rape Crisis Center where she co-founded and participated in a cross country bicycle ride to raise money and awareness for sexual violence programs. Upon moving to NYC in 2000, Christine continued her work with survivors with the Safe Horizon Rape Crisis Program and obtained her Masters of Social Work from the Hunter College School of Social Work in 2007. Prior to joining the Joyful Heart Foundation, Chris served as the Director of Operations for the Safe Horizon Hotlines.
Posts by Chris
A Well-Deserved Day of Awareness and Expression
Mar 15th
One of Endhtebacklog.org’s policy focuses is on ensuring healing and justice for survivors of sexual assault. There’s a lot of people behind this effort and we have tremendous respect for the work of those who help others cope with trauma. This work is not always easy. Today Chris Vargo, Joyful Heart’s New York Manager of Programs shares a bit about vicarious trauma and Joyful Heart’s Heal the Healers program.
Last month, the Joyful Heart Foundation brought individuals from two important worlds together to highlight a commonality between them: their shared risk for developing symptoms of what is known as vicarious trauma (VT).
The JHF Heal the Healers program views the community of individuals who have committed their lives to provide services to and seek justice for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse as healers, and we believe our healers must take care of mind, body and spirit. For this particular workshop, we brought together criminalists from the largest Medical Examiner’s Office in the United States, the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s (OCME) Forensic Biology Department and the New York County Assistant District’s Attorneys (ADAs).
Both of these teams are integral to the efforts to achieve justice for victims of crime and More >
Endthebacklog.org Awareness Campaign Featured During Roller Derby Championship Bout
Nov 5th
Photo courtesy of Asa Frye
I am Christine Vargo, Manager of Programs for the Joyful Heart Foundation’s New York office and I am also a skater for the Gotham Girls Roller Derby’s Bronx Gridlock.
The season championship game on October 30th, between the Bronx Gridlock and the Queens of Pain began with an awareness effort for www.endthebacklog.org. Joyful Heart’s communications and advocacy teams worked in collaboration with the members of the league’s community outreach committee by providing the two competing teams with t-shirts, which displayed the website address for www.endthebacklog.org, to wear during warm-ups before the final match. Tip cards, which provide detailed information about what the rape kit backlog is and offers resources to survivors, were also included in the bout program for the 2000 fans arriving to support their favorite team.
GGRD was 100% behind the idea of wearing the shirts and promoting the website when I first introduced it to them. As a member of this group of 60+ women, I bear witness to the tremendous strength and confidence each skater possesses, both on and off the track on a regular basis. The unfortunate reality, however, is that there are survivors of sexual violence among us, which is cause enough for us More >
