Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Astwood and Charisma O’Keefe. Them and their team share their story with us below:
After 15 years of friendship, Anna Astwood and Charisma O’Keefe sat down and had a difficult conversation. Anna told Charisma that she had been going to therapy recently and wanted to let her know that she had experienced sexual assault at the age of 12 and an abusive and physically violent relationship during her high school years.
Charisma immediately let her know that she had a similar experience both with a sexual assault at 12 and an emotionally abusive relationship in high school. Even though they had both been friends for years, they never discussed these traumatic experiences with anyone before. This conversation led to an idea to help others avoid the pain and trauma they experienced in their youth. They decided to start a nonprofit called Love Doesn’t Hurt to empower and educate young people on dating violence in hopes to help avoid it from happening and heal those who have suffered from it.
After scaling the mountain of paperwork that it takes to start a nonprofit, they announced their news to their friends, family, and community. The reception was strong from everyone they knew and even people they didn’t. So many people were willing to help volunteer their time, donate, or connect Charisma and Anna to helpful resources. It’s truly the kindness of friends, family, and strangers that have propelled Love Doesn’t Hurt to where it is today.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In 2004, Anna Astwood graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Psychology while studying at UCF. Anna followed that with a Masters of Arts in Counselor Education in 2007. For eleven years Anna was a school counselor in Central Florida. During that time she saw a lack of information, awareness, and resources for dealing with teenage dating violence.
Charisma studied Psychology at Valencia College and Business at Nova Southeastern University. She spent five years working in schools with at-risk youth and twelve years as an entrepreneur. During her time as an entrepreneur, she often worked with nonprofits and small businesses on their brand development and media representation. Having these unique backgrounds has really helped Charisma and Anna to put practices in place early on to run things smoothly.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Love Doesn’t Hurt is a nonprofit dedicated to ending teenage dating violence and supporting those affected through education, empowerment and community support. The vision of Love Doesn’t Hurt is to reach all adolescents to empower and embolden them with developing healthy dating relationships.
Love Doesn’t Hurt educates adults on adolescent relationship abuse to help create a culture of safety and teach signs of unhealthy relationships that adolescents may be involved in, so that support and care can be given to the adolescents in need.
In our first six months of existence, we worked with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek to facilitate teenage dating violence proclamations for each city. We believe that what sets us apart is the personal ties we have to this mission as well as the focus on teenagers. There are many resources for victims of abuse but not many of them focus on teens.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We are leading the way when it comes to the specifics of what we do. There are not many nonprofits focused on helping teens dealing with dating violence. In the next 5-10 years, we hope to see proclamations from cities all over the nation to raise awareness for the dangers of teenage dating violence. We plan to bring information and resources to schools across Florida and beyond to make sure teens have the support they need for prevention as well as trauma healing. We will be speaking publically across the nation to spread awareness and change the culture around topics like date rape, teen dating violence, and healthy relationships.
Contact Info:
- Email: lovedoesnthurtinc@gmail.com
- Website: www.lovedoesnthurtinc.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovedoesnthurtinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoveDoesntHurtInc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lovedoesnthurt7
