Gentle Touch of Comfort is a local nonprofit that donates blankets to sexual assault survivors who are in the hospital undergoing a forensic exam. Once an arrest has been made, they also donate blankets to children who’ve been removed from their homes due to domestic violence and sexual assault.
Founder/CEO Alexia Fisher had the first board meeting for the nonprofit in July 2022 and in February she partnered with Banner Health. During that month they donated 20 blankets to patients in the hospital. The goal is to donate enough blankets every month to cover their caseload of sexual assault victims.
Enlisting in the military in 2015, Fisher is a reservist on active orders. At the age of 6 she was a victim of sexual assault.
“I became very angry and disconnected,” she said. “I never really dealt with it because at such a young age, I don’t know how anyone really deals with it.”
As a reservist, Fisher wanted to get more into active service so she volunteered for deployment. It was during that deployment where she experienced something that in her mind she had normalized.
“I don’t want to say that I brushed it under the rug,” she explained. “It was something I was conditioned to believe would happen and something I just needed to move forward from on my own.”
It was brought to her attention at a later date that what had happened to her may or may not have happened to others.
“That thought alone tore me apart and essentially I fell into this depression. One of my friends noticed and recommended that I read Chanel Miller’s memoir, “Know my Name,” Fisher said. “I’m listening to this book and the author is telling the story of how when she was in the hospital, laying in this room, and a nurse walked by and demanded, ‘Where’s her blanket?’ The nurse had asked multiple times why she didn't have a blanket, and to me that’s when it clicked… something so simple could make such a big difference in a situation like this.”
Crocheting was something Fisher started when she was 11 as a hobby and stress reliever. At this point, she had an Etsy site called Gentle Touch of Comfort where she was selling blankets, but hearing Miller’s story flipped a switch in her. She contacted her friends with the idea of donating blankets.
“If I could bring in a little bit of compassion, support and comfort into a moment that is already so vulnerable and hard, why not?” Fisher said.
Fast forward, and now a lot of those friends are on her board with Gentle Touch of Comfort’s nonprofit today.
Whatever type of trauma you’re healing from, there are likely long-term effects that can fester into anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, depression, etc.
“When you go through sexual assault you can find yourself down a rabbit hole of ‘why me?’ You can feel very alone, you can start shaming yourself or blaming others… and I think that having not only the comfort of the actual blanket, but knowing that it has come from somebody else who has been in the same shoes makes it feel a little bit more relatable,” Fisher said. “It made me who I am today. It didn’t break me, and for that reason I am grateful. I’m even more grateful that I can be of service to other people who inevitably are going through the same thing.”
In addition to donating blankets, she also plans on providing classes to survivors to teach them how to crochet.
“For me, crocheting is a way that I can process what happened to me. I can deal with my emotions while keeping my mind occupied and my hands moving so I don’t get too overwhelmed in the feelings, but I’m also giving myself the space to work through some of the things that I’m going through,” Fisher said. “If it can help me, I can help others. I don’t know if it will impact everybody in the same way, but if I can just get to one person, I think that would be a win for me.”
Currently working on doing a parent coach course, Fisher hopes to help parents who have experienced trauma. As a parent of two daughters herself, she knows that there are things you may be doing unintentionally that are related to your trauma. Her goal is to help parents raise their kids from a place of love and compassion instead of trauma.
It’s about creating a community of support. Fisher wants to incorporate anything that can provide support to sexual assault survivors. Not therapy, but anything that could be a tool to help with stress relief. Whether that’s a volleyball league, cooking classes, etc. she’s open to any and all ideas.
“I am not an individual person crocheting blankets, bringing them to a hospital, donating them and then just washing my hands of the impact that the survivors may feel after. I truly want to create a space where we don't have to walk around and talk about our experiences. We don't have to walk around broadcasting that we were at one time victims and we don't have to walk around and put a big old sticker on our forehead that says ‘sexual assault victim.’ I think that we can just find peace in knowing we're not alone,” Fisher said.
In being more open and vulnerable about what she’s been through Fisher’s created a space for others to share their story.
“I actually had a friend tell me that me being open and honest about what happened to me allowed her to realize what happened to her wasn’t okay,” Fisher shared. “Me coming forward allowed her to process what was happening in her mind with what she went through and she was able to speak about it and acknowledge that it wasn’t her fault… Those are the moments that have really stuck with me. That sharing my side of what happened to me is actually helping people… I have found my survivorness within myself.”
The original Gentle Touch of Comfort’s mission statement has edited the word “victim” out to “survivor.” It was others that told her that the change should be made.
“I don’t think I actually got the sense of the word survivor until announcing the fact that I was a victim,” Fisher explained. “Now, I am taking control of what happened to me and I’m using it for something better. It can no longer affect me… it has helped me switch roles. I’ve stopped living as a victim and started living and being a survivor.”
There are so many ways that you can get involved in the nonprofit and support its mission. You can donate money, yarn, blankets, your time crocheting, etc. She’d also love it if anyone is interested in helping teach crochet classes.
Fisher wants her reach to go beyond the individuals that receive blankets. She wants to provide this space of community that can help bring people together and provide ways to cope. By providing different activities and stress relievers, it allows individuals to get out of their head and just have fun in the moment.
She wants everyone to know that it’s okay to ask for help. It took Fisher a while to get to that point, but if she didn’t, she doesn’t think Gentle Touch of Comfort would have ever been started.
“I want to let everybody know that my strength came from my weakness. It originated from my weakest point and I hope that other people can realize and learn that faster than I did,” Fisher said.
She wants to be an inspiration for her two daughters by not only telling them, but by showing them.
“Having them actually witness that your story doesn’t end at what happened to you. It ends at what you make of what happened to you,” Fisher said. “I could have sat in my victimness, but I decided to make a stand and make a difference and I just really hope and pray that other people can do the same thing… there’s nothing wrong with sitting with it, but I think there’s so much more power once you find the survivor within you.”
For more information on Gentle Touch of Comfort, visit their website at gentletouchofcomfort.org.
