Joyful Heart Foundation

Founded by Actor, Director, and Advocate Mariska Hargitay in 2004, Joyful Heart Foundation works to transform society's response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse by building a word that prioritizes survivors' healing.

OUR STORY
When Mariska Hargitay started playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, she learned the staggering statistics of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse in the United States. While the numbers opened her eyes to the scale and urgency of these issues, she also received thousands of letters and emails from survivors disclosing their stories of abuse, many for the first time.

Mariska recognized that society?s response to this violence was failing survivors, and she set out to change the way they were received and supported. She created the Joyful Heart Foundation to address the need for connection, hope, and healing that so many survivors expressed, and to offer a path from the shame and isolation so many described.

Since 2004, Joyful Heart has been a leading national organization with a mission to transform society?s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse by building a world that prioritizes survivors? healing.