Programs
While nearly 1 in 3 women in the U.S. experience some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime, survivors are rarely supported beyond immediate safety and healing. Leadership development and empowerment programs tailored to survivors remain critically underfunded and inaccessible.
The Serenity Project fills this urgent gap by providing trauma-informed leadership training led by experts, 1-1 mentorship, and public platforms—like our annual charitable fashion show—that equips women to transform survival into strength and drive systemic change.
The Soaring Curriculum
After violence, survivors often face a void. Services may address immediate safety, but few offer structured ways to rebuild confidence, leadership skills, and purpose. The Soaring Curriculum bridges that gap with a 6-month, 12-chapter, trauma-informed program that combines weekly exercises, challenges, inspiring speakers, and curated readings. Each chapter focuses on a key pillar of thriving, such as self-image, independent exploration, professional growth, and impactful storytelling. The program ends with a personalized passion project that turns lived experience into community impact.
Technology support is provided to ensure full participation.
1-1 Mentorship
Recovery is not a straight path, and without guidance, many survivors get stuck in cycles of self-doubt and isolation. Our mentorship program pairs each participant with a dedicated mentor (someone with lived or professional experience) who acts as a guide, motivator, and advocate throughout the curriculum. Together, they co-develop a passion project focused on a cause meaningful to the participant. This approach ensures survivors not only heal but also step into leadership roles that generate ripple effects in their communities.
Fashion Show
Each year, our fashion show partners with a different nonprofit to highlight urgent issues impacting women and girls. More than just a runway event, our annual show serves as a platform to raise awareness, gather funds, and build community around a shared cause. Every participant—models, designers, volunteers, and audience members—participates because they are truly committed to the mission. The show challenges conventional beauty standards while celebrating resilience, self-expression, and the strength of collective action. In 2026, we will collaborate with Art and Abolition in Kenya to amplify their efforts supporting survivors through creative healing and advocacy.
The Soaring Curriculum
“The Soaring Curriculum was single-handedly THE best gift I could have asked for. People don’t ever talk about how lonely the path is when you are healing from violence. A year ago, I found myself without a family to lean on and without a lot of knowledge on what to do next. I just wanted a community to lean on and to grow with. This curriculum gave me the essential framework to understand how I have the tools, resources, and skills necessary to take charge of my life. I learned public speaking in the safest setting i could have ever imagined - with my fellow participants! - and even created my own art gallery as my passion project which I am really proud of. The Soaring Curriculum is really quite special but doing it alongside TSP staff and other participants was quite literally life-changing. I’m so grateful.”
- Alexa, TSP Participant
Mentorship
“TSP has been one of the best things in my life, It has uplifted me from the lessons in the chapters, the self-reflection, and the guest speaker events, this program is so unique and special and I am so grateful to be a part of it. My favorite experience with TSP is the AMAZING PEOPLE here! Shoutout to my remarkable mentor, Jamie, for giving me so much love, and the outstanding TSP team for guiding me throughout my journey here!”
- Christine, TSP Participant
“Connecting with my mentee, and witnessing our talented and insightful speakers, has been thought-provoking, inspiring, and a call to action. We've had discussions about how to make more inclusive spaces, and ways of taking better care of ourselves and others. It's empowering to know that my internal growth is taking place alongside so many people who are growing too.”
- Jamie, TSP Mentor
Fashion Show
“Beauty. Joy. Free. Those are the words which spring to mind when spinning in a dress which reflected me for who I am. The walk, the walk I felt so free, to shake off the chains of when I felt alone, isolated and rejected by those who grew up around me. Fashion shows can be known to be places of exclusion and rejection, enforcing only one form of true beauty, the one idolized by western European chauvinistic society, expecting women to be able bodied, thin, tall, white and who have not got lumps, bumps, and acne. However, there is one fashion show which challenged that and revealed true beauty, the one of love, passion, solidarity, and friendship. That was The Serenity Project. The fashion show brought models together, united through our individualized struggles, despite having never met before we were made to into an inseparable family who care and support one another now both through good times and bad. I had never felt so much part of a community which was filled with love and care. Everyone who took part was guided and encouraged by the best leader, Serene, who uplifted our confidence and gave us a chance to show how strong were all were to overcome and continue to overcome the traumas enforced upon us. She saw through our personalities and flaws, which others would judge us negatively for and saw our true beauty, giving us a platform to show all. The Serenity Project inspires hope within society and showed we all deserve to be loved, cherished, and cared for, which made me feel happy, confident and valued as an individual and I hope every woman out there - especially those who have experienced violence and harm - have the chance to experience this. Being a part of The Serenity Project’s incredible mission this year has been so transformational and beautiful to me. I have found how this organization and Serene as a leader can make any space more inclusive but also show that we as individuals are strong and no historical trauma regardless of how painful and brutal can stop us from being who we are and live the lives that we deserve. Each and every single one of us who walked were so proud to do so, to represent and support all who had been affected by trauma.”
- Rhiannon, TSP Participant
Testimonial From Fashion Show Designer
“As a designer who was part of the ‘I Am’ Solidarity Fashion Show, my experience with The Serenity Project at the Oxford Union was truly special. I run Swara, a brand that creates income opportunities for women in rural India through handmade fashion and tourism. Our Rani dress, made by women artisans in rural India, walked the ramp that evening. To see that piece carry the stories of our artisans into such a historic space felt powerful and personal. It wasn’t just about fashion, it was about showing that women from small villages in India belong on global stages too.
For Swara, this event was a milestone. It gave our artisans a kind of recognition that goes beyond sales or social media numbers. When their work is seen and celebrated in a place like the Oxford Union, it sends a message back home – that what they do matters, that their skills are relevant anywhere in the world. I could feel the pride ripple through our team and the women we work with when we shared those images. We still talk about the event, even three years later, because it was such a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come and how much is possible.
The Serenity Project made that moment possible. Their work—building leadership, confidence, and solidarity among survivors—is both urgent and inspiring. What I admire most is how they take something as painful as trauma and turn it into strength and community. That vision aligns so closely with what we believe at Swara: that dignity and opportunity can change lives. I feel proud to have stood alongside them, and I can’t wait to see how much more they will go on to achieve.”
— Asha Scaria Vettoor,Designer & Social Entrepreneur, Founder of Swara