The event begins at JMU’s Student Success Plaza, in front of the Grace Street parking deck, and the walk will wind through the campus for 1.3 miles before ending at Godwin Gym, where Carter and Casey will address the crowd. Food and activities will be available, including the folding of origami fish as symbols of strength and courage, creating remembrance stones and other arts activities, and a kids’ area.

Participants can also make squares to start a new Symbols of Hope quilt. The first quilt, which was created over the three previous Walk for Hope events, has been completed and will be on display at the event.

‘Know you’re not alone’

“We want to create awareness of hope for any student, to tell them, ‘Know you’re not alone,” says , director of and services at EMU. “People can move through different forms of depression and bad days. We want to show that there are ways to get through those. There’s lots of help on our campuses and in the community.”

The walk began in 2012 following the death of Austin Frazier, a JMU student from Harrisonburg. The Frazier family approached EMU and proposed that all the area campuses come together to host an event, providing an initial starter donation. The Austin Frazier Memorial Fund now covers half of the expenses, and the four schools and Sentara RMH Behavioral Health provide the rest. Participants don’t have to collect sponsors or pay a fee, although donations are collected.

The first Walk for Hope took place in downtown Harrisonburg and drew about 1,000 people. Subsequent events have continued to have strong support, with at least 700 to 800 people walking each year. Comer said EMU—which will host the event in 2017—typically has 200 to 250 participating.

EMU alumna to speak

Carter, , took part in that first Walk for Hope.

“She thought it was so good and so helpful for her, and to have the community gathering,” Comer says. “Now here we are, five years later, and she’s one of our speakers.”

Casey, a JMU graduate student working with mental health issues as founder and president of Where I Stand, will provide the introduction and welcome Carter as the main speaker, and then the two will close together with readings of poetry. The other activities, representing different expressions of hope, will be available following the speakers.

Check-in and T-shirt pickup (gray with color-coordinated footprints for each school) begins at the Student Success Plaza at 11:30 a.m. Each participant will also be given a yellow flower to carry on the walk. The walk begins at noon, and events are scheduled to conclude about 3 p.m.

The event — which includes speakers and interactive arts-based opportunities for reflection, learning and healing — is Saturday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in EMU’s Suter Science Center. It is free and open to the public as well as the campus community.

“Sexual violence doesn’t just impact individuals,” Stauffer says. “It is a breach of relationship. How can we rebuild community in the face of violence? If we can build toward a healthier definition of community, I think we’ll all feel safer and provide an environment for profound healing.”

Stauffer’s project, titled “,” began in 2012 with research among domestic abuse survivors from within communities of homeless women, undocumented Latinas and Mennonite women from Old Order or conservative church communities. Stauffer employed a strengths-based approach, with particular focus on the resilient ways in which women survive in spite of gaps in societal support networks. Her project employed strategies that empowered study participants, integrating storytelling interviews with circle processes and healing arts workshops.

Last spring, MA in biomedicine students were integrated into the project with a about adverse childhood experience. Most of the students are future health care providers, and the experience asked them to reflect on the symptomatic and diagnostic implications of personal narratives as they participated in storytelling, communication activities and playback theater events with co-facilitators, some of whom were domestic abuse survivors.

Stauffer and the planning committee have included some of these same components in the symposium, she says. “This is an interdisciplinary event with planning, support and participation coming from various groups and departments across campus,” she added, the representation of which is important to the idea of both community response and support.

Plenary presenters include , assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and University of Notre Dame doctoral researcher Sheila McCarthy. Turner will speak on “Healing in Community” and McCarthy on “Sexual Violence through the Lens of Moral Injury.” , an EMU graduate whose published writing has explored her identity as a survivor of sexual abuse, will share her poetry. Inside Out, a campus theater group which has also participated in other parts of Stauffer’s multidisciplinary project, will host a session on the innovative and healing art of playback theater.

“To me, this type of witness moves our peace stance from the rubric of a privatized individual journey to a much more collective awareness of the church’s role in embodying the challenge to ‘speak truth’ to abuses of power,” Stauffer says. “It invites us as a community of faith to higher levels of transparency, truth and grace for all parties involved.”

Afternoon breakout sessions in two 90-minute blocks options provide attendees with a variety of options, including:

• “How to Appropriately Respond to Disclosures,” by Mike and Lavonne Yoder of in Milton, Pa.;
• “Body Work and Response Mechanisms of Memory Storage and Release,” by , director of EMU’s (STAR) program;
• “Arts Approaches to Trauma Recovery,” with Janine Aberg;
• “International Perspectives on Sexual Violence,” by Diana Tovar Rojas and Myriam Aziz of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding;
• ”Unpacking Consent, Unhealthy Relationships and Sexual Assault,” by Chris Ehrhardt and Laurel Winsor of James Madison University’s (CARE) program;
• “Safe Church Protocols of Prevention,” by Ross Erb and Jackie Hieber of , which provides sexual assault crisis services and other programs in Harrisonburg;
• “Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA),” by Sarah King and Daniel Foxvog;
• “Restorative Justice Dialogues in Crimes of Severe Violence,” by , restorative justice coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee;
• “LGBTQ Perspectives on Sexual Violence,” by , assistant professor of education at EMU;
• “I Am Your Broken Place: The Grief of Sexual Violence,” by , director of at EMU.

Stauffer says the project has involved “many hands coming together.” Members of the faculty and staff planning committee include Mansfield, the STAR director; Comer, director of counseling services; Roger Foster, co-founder of playback theater troupe; , history professor and department chair; Teresa Haase, director of the graduate program in counseling; and , professor of social work. The student-led has also helped to advise and support the symposium, and students are being encouraged to attend.

“Having students as an integral part of what we’re doing is key,” Stauffer says. “The investment and energy that students bring adds huge value to the whole process.”

A final educative component, designed for EMU faculty and staff and focusing on institutional dynamics, is being planned for this coming fall.

The “Silent Violence” project has been funded by a JustPax Fund grant since 2014. focuses on individuals and organizations working for effective change through innovative approaches to societal challenges relating to gender, environmental and/or economic justice. The fund is administered by through the Everence affiliate, Mennonite Foundation. Due to that support, the event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required.

But Carter, a talented, emerging poet, has also been shaped by many achievements and strengths. She traces some of these accomplishments back to the supportive environment of Cohort 52 in ��ݮ����’s (ADCP).

“What I thought I was paying for was a degree,” she says, “but I left with much more. I believed that I could make a difference. Sometimes it takes others believing in us in order for us to move forward on our own behalf.”

As she continues to strengthen her voice and work to heal others, Carter wants to be known equally for her hardships and accomplishments, for they both shape her identity and contribute to that empowered voice – one that defies the victimhood and stigmatization she wants to help fellow survivors escape.

“I’m here,” she says, “and I’m a happy person who just happens to have a mental illness.”

Across the pond and back

Like many ADCP students who return to school to complete their degrees, Carter arrived on campus with a variety of responsibilities, obstacles and education experience. After growing up in a small Virginia town, she enrolled at a community college, but experienced crippling social anxiety, fearing people might think her crazy because of her depression. She “fled,” as she says, to England, but found that her fears followed her across the Atlantic. Realizing that her inner narrative was more caustic than anything others said was “very liberating.”

In England, Carter capitalized on several years of experience with computer installation and repair, becoming an IT consultant and working in web and graphic design. For five years, she also co-founded and ran “Parentbaby,” an e-commerce site.

She met and married her husband in England, and while visiting the Shenandoah Valley, they decided to move and raise their two daughters – now ages 10 and seven – in Harrisonburg. Carter sought stability: “a place to belong, a place to be.” But moving to a strange city without friends or career connections prompted her to seek further education. She found EMU, and “everything aligned” with and enrollment.

“There was never a moment when I thought, ‘This isn’t right,’” she says.

Her classmates understood that “it was not easy, whatsoever,” to be both parent and student.

Though deeply depressed throughout some periods of the program, she never missed a class. Her classmates were a diverse collection of people, but through meeting weekly, they developed a camaraderie. “I haven’t encountered that kind of friendliness outside the program,” says Carter.

Terry L. Whitmore ’70, one of the more experienced professors in the ADCP program, particularly noticed her psychological battle. After one class, he called to ask how she was doing. Carter says that just hearing the phone ring was heartening. To someone who is depressed, says Carter, a simple call, or card “might be their saving grace.”

Through such moments of connection, Carter began to gain confidence in herself, and a sense of personal identity and worth. “I became ‘me’ while I was there,” she says.

Finding a voice through poetry

Two and a half years ago, Carter began to publish the poetry she’d written in secret throughout her life.

Growing up, Carter was told that depression did not exist, and that to spare others discomfort, she should not talk about the abuse she’d endured. That silence was much worse than the abuse itself, she says. “It’s a heavy burden to carry.”

Her first book, “” was published in 2014. The poetic memoir focuses on the abuse she survived as a child, and the effects of the silence that survivors endure, while offering hope in the end. “There’s a desperation in it,” says Carter, “and I’m proud of that.”

Reviews have said that her poetry is “hard to read” because of the subject matter, but Carter counters that “the truth is beautiful, even when it’s not fun and games.” Nominators of the Pushcart Prize and Virginia Literacy Award agree. She also works as a visual artist, often combining art shows with poetry.

Carter’s family has rallied around her work. Her mother, with whom Carter did not have a positive relationship for most of her life, was originally “dead against this book coming out.” But after reading the manuscript, she told Carter that “she now understands why the caged bird sings.” Her mother is now one of her largest supporters.

“My husband supports me and my children look up to me,” says Carter. “If the whole world treated these topics the way my chosen family does, I doubt there would be a need to me to do all that I am.”

Sharing poetry to empower

A full calendar of engagements, including a at Ruby’s Lounge on June 5 in Harrisonburg, speaks to the significance of Carter’s work. “It’s a dream come true,” she says. If anyone had told her four years ago where she would be today, “I could have never, ever believed you.”

“What I’m most proud of is how the confidence I gained in the ADCP program helped during my journey of becoming a successful author,” says Carter. Through the program, she gained “belief that I have the power to make a difference in any situation, and that my instructors truly cared about my well-being.”

After each poetry reading, Carter has received an outpouring of emotional feedback. Often, people approach her in tears, unable to speak. She recalls young adults who have “a gleam in their eyes” after a performance, saying they would start writing because of her.

The message she hopes to impart to her listeners is that “there’s a lot of solace in knowing that you’re not alone.” Carter encourages anyone who is dealing with depression and trauma to read about mental illness, and learn about the societal prevalence of their struggle. Breaking the stigma and loneliness surrounding mental illness is paramount to healing, she explains.

For Carter, some of that healing is rooted in her experience at EMU.