Sandy Hardie 2023 Green Dot SHEro

The Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund’s next Green Dot SHEro Sandy Hardie, the founder and executive director of Mahala’s Hope, was nominated by Lisa Kidd, who serves as a board member for both our Women’s Fund and Mahala’s Hope. Certainly, when you look at the work being done with women in treatment, Sandy’s an intervener in helping them end the cycles of trauma that brought them to her doorstep, but for her, it’s not just about her work. Her “why” related to bystander intervention is personal, as she explains here in her own words:

“Where to begin?

“Where we stand might not always be the end, or the beginning, or even the middle.

“Where we are within any process is defined by ourself and influenced by others within our environment. And yet, there’s always a beginning of when or where or how it started.

“Take a moment, close your eyes and remember back to that moment.

“This start – this beginning – is where we all have commonality, for each of us has a start at one time in our lives.

“The beginning. It’s the time in which bystander intervention and training can have the most impact on the middle and the end.

“Green Dot Bystander Training begins here, taking time to educate thinking, reactions and actions to interrupt potentially violent situations through strategies that increase self-efficacy and build upon the skills, knowledge and experience you already have.

“Green Dot is facilitated by trained individuals who take into consideration the environment you are in: from corporate to education to nonprofit. But go beyond those labels and understand each person’s beginning, how they reacted, acted and what they might still carry.

“This is very personal for me, as I grew up in a home with domestic violence and went on to marry my first husband who was violent.

“It continues to be a lifelong passion of mine in working with women in substance abuse and trauma, to provide them with hope and the necessary skills to be able to end those relationships that are abusive in any way.

“To have a voice for those who cannot yet speak….

“I want to show them they can go on to live their lives free of violence and be who they were meant to be and to know what a healthy relationship is.

“In raising our young men today, we can teach about equal and respectful relationships.

“Green Dot training goes beyond the individual to influencing and affecting a culture change that encourages individuals to write alternate beginnings, thus, impacting the middle and the end.

“If you or your organization don’t know where to start, begin with Green Dot training, available to you from the Fond du Lac Women’s Fund.

“My gratitude to the Fond du Lac Area Women’s Fund for all the passion and training they provide in raising girls and women up in our community.”