Volunteer Spotlight: Jenna Whippen
Jenna Whippen, Hospital Response Team Volunteer
The Rape Recovery Center volunteer team consists of nearly 150 incredible individuals who give their time, talents, and passion to furthering our mission of serving survivors and educating the community about sexual violence. This month we are spotlighting our incredible Hospital Response Team volunteer, Jenna Whippen!
Being a advocate in our HRT team, Jenna has brought support to survivors in their time of need. Our staff and volunteers on this team provide resources to survivors when they go into a hospital in the Salt Lake valley. We are so thankful to have Jenna be part of this team and for sharing with us their passion!
What motivated you to become a volunteer at the Rape Recovery Center?
A few years ago, I was stuck in a cycle of frustration and dismay at the world around me and guilt that I couldn’t do more to change it. I needed to feel like I was directing the emotions and confusion into action. I may not be able to change culture on a global scale, but I can be impactful on an individual basis. I started volunteering at a few places that I felt were doing meaningful service for my communities, that played to my strengths, and that would give me direct communication with folks at some of their roughest moments. My therapist was actually the one to suggest that I look into the RRC.
What have you enjoyed most about your time as an RRC volunteer?
Being able to interrupt harmful and traumatizing thought patterns as a first responder of sorts. Many survivors come into the hospital with society-taught harmful beliefs about themselves and rape in general. It’s very rewarding (and also challenging) to be able to both validate that these feelings are real and be able to provide alternative survivor-centered dialogues that clients will hopefully be able to return to during particularly triggering or traumatic times. Sometimes we are the first people to shift blame away from survivors so their healing process can begin.
How do you use your voice to support survivors of sexual assault?
I don’t have a very loud or public voice and I prefer one-on-one interactions. In addition to using my knowledge, experiences, and training to help survivors directly, I interrupt harmful examples of rape culture that I experience in personal interactions. I used to be down on myself because I wasn’t the loud activist I wished I could be, but I've found a much more impactful place for me is one-on-one interaction with friends, at work, and in society. As a PA, I also hope to bring trauma informed care to medical spaces, which can often be re-traumatizing, triggering, or at the very least dismissive.
What is most challenging about your volunteer work at the RRC?
As an HRT volunteer, I hear bits and pieces of experiences from my clients during their stay at the hospital. At times it’s hard to not balloon those fragments into a full-blown story in my mind. After I leave the hospital, it’s often difficult to reign my imaginative brain back in and realize that my part in the survivors experience is over and I don’t need to know anything more about their experience than I already know. If anything, me filling in details is a disservice to the unique and real experience of survivors. Equally challenging are cases where the survivor leaves the hospital without an immediate support network, either has no family or friends with them or has no place to stay. We always work with the survivor to find the best place for them to go to feel safe and heal, but it is always extra challenging not knowing the degree of social support that an individual will have.
Tell us a little more about how you spend your time outside of volunteering for the RRC - hobbies, passions, work, school?
I’m most centered when I’m outside and spend a lot of my time rock climbing, trail running, etc. I also train circus acrobatics and handstands, listen to audiobooks, teach myself new languages, dabble in witchcraft, and enjoy time with my extremely supportive communities, both in Utah and long-distance. I start PA school at the U in May and hope to bring progressive and trauma-informed care to LGBTQI+ and other marginalized communities.
You have immersed yourself in the very difficult work of addressing sexual violence. What gives you hope as you approach this work?
To be honest, sexual violence is still just as discouraging to me as its always been. But I am comforted by knowing that if someone is unfortunate enough to experience sexual assault, they become part of a community with similar experiences, almost as if they gain a new family. That community can’t make the events or trauma disappear but they can provide a network of people who validate the survivors experience.
What is your message to others looking to get involved in this work, or considering volunteer work at the RRC?
The work is everywhere and every moment. You don’t necessarily have to volunteer for the RRC or be on the hospital response team if that feels too edgy or triggering for you. Everyone has the opportunity to be an advocate in the most fundamental and meaningful ways. Interrupt rape culture when it shows up in your social circles. Tell your survivor friends that you believe them. Educate yourself about the effects of trauma and how you can be more trauma-informed in every aspect of your life. Start checking your own behavior for violent language. And realize that this is an ever-evolving process of growth so be gentle with yourself as well.