Danielle Pitkoff Looks to Make a Difference
Danielle Sara Pitkoff is passionate
about her work, her studies, her Judaism and in “making a difference” in
the world. Pitkoff who is 24 years old, is the program coordinator at
Sacred Spaces, a non-profit that builds healthy Jewish communities by
partnering with Jewish institutions to prevent and respond to sexual
abuse and other abuses of power. A core member of the organization’s
consulting team, she is coordinating “Aleinu: Safeguarding Our
Children,” an initiative funded by UJA Federation of New York, which
will give youth-serving organizations the tools to implement child
protection policies and best practices. She also works on policy
development and program assessment.
Pitkoff, who lives in Manhattan, grew up
in Pound Ridge, New York, attended the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in
Stamford, Connecticut, and SAR High School in Riverdale. Before
matriculating at Johns Hopkins University, she attended Midreshet Ein
Hanatziv in Israel.
After arriving at Johns Hopkins
University in 2014, Pitkoff started to volunteer at the university’s
crisis intervention hotline for victims of sexual assault. She was soon
working shifts on the hotline on her own and by her senior year, she was
the co-director of Johns Hopkin’s Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU),
where she was on call for all of her peers. In her role as co-director ,
she trained staff and student organizations, led campaigns for policy
reform, developed workshops for survivor healing and support and
partnered with government agencies to improve access to and quality of
resources for victims.
Pitkoff explained, “Sexual assault,
harassment and abuse affect so, so many individuals and, upon realizing
the high prevalence of these issues on college campuses in particular, I
felt deeply compelled to help address them.”
The Hopkins’ hotline is a peer-to-peer
crisis intervention resource which requires careful training. Pitkoff
explained the importance of training volunteers in empathetic listening,
crisis response, and resource referral. By her senior year, Pitkoff was
accompanying survivors to the hospital and remaining with them
throughout the university investigations.
Pitkoff shared her thoughts,“I try to
honor the voices and experiences of survivors in all of my work, because
I firmly believe that doing so is the only way to create lasting
culture change and effectively prevent continued abuse.”
Pitkoff noted, “Both of my parents have
given so much of their time, both professionally and voluntarily, to
their Jewish communities, modeling for my siblings and me real
leadership and dedication. I am grateful to them for framing my
upbringing in Jewish values that emphasize treating others with kindness
and sensitivity. I was fortunate to have teachers, counselors and
mentors who inspired in me a strong foundation in Judaism and community.
Just as they impacted me, I feel a responsibility to give back to my
community, to create spaces for others to safely question and challenge
norms and to offer and receive support.”
Pitkoff was a women, gender and
sexuality research fellow while at Hopkins, and her work with survivors
became her calling. She explained, “My work with Sacred Spaces is an
opportunity to take the training and experience that I gained in college
and apply it to the communities that I am most intimately familiar
with. Our work is guided by the unique needs of Jewish institutions, and
we view the building of safe and sacred community spaces as a moral
Jewish imperative. It is at the core of what it means to really live our
Jewish values.”
Pitkoff cites Dr. Shira Berkovits,
founder and CEO of Sacred Spaces, as a significant mentor. Pitkoff
elaborated on the importance of Sacred Spaces working within
organizations in developing a proper organizational policy on prevention
and responsible protocols. “Often, organizations and their leadership
want to do the right thing but do not have the tools, knowledge, or
resources necessary to properly protect their constituents from abuse or
respond appropriately when abuse occurs. It can be hard for
organizational leaders and constituents to recognize that their
community faces the same unique risks as all faith-based institutions.
It is also difficult to reconcile that someone they know and love, and
who may have otherwise made great contributions to their community,
could also be able to perpetrate harm.”
Sacred Spaces offers “Case Consults”
where individual organizations are guided in responding, in a holistic
manner, to the cases that they are dealing with. Consults include
explaining the relevant legal and mandated reporting requirements,
demonstrating how to support survivors and their families, how to
communicate about the processes with the wider community, how to
establish policies for preventing future incidents, and how to create
opportunities for institutional healing.
“Aleinu: Safeguarding Our Children,” is a
groundbreaking educational campaign that provides Jewish youth-serving
organizations with the much-needed tools and resources to guide them in
implementing 10 best practices in child protection. Explained Pitkoff,
“Aleinu means ‘it’s on us’ or, ‘it is our duty.’ We believe that it is
our collective responsibility, as a Jewish community, to protect the
children in our care from abuse or harm.”
The campaign is meant to standardize
child protection in our Jewish organizations by asking each
participating institution to commit to implementing at least two best
practices each year for five years. Upon committing to incorporate a
best practice step, institutions will receive tools in the form of
how-to guides, worksheets, video tutorials and sample policy language to
assist them in their implementation.
Through all the efforts to reform policy
and advocate for survivors, Pitkoff emphasized that it is critical to
show compassion to ourselves and each other. We have to have ways of
showing publicly, “I am here with you, I see you. You are not alone.”
For information or support, please call the National Sexual Assault hotline operated by RAINN at 800.656.HOPE.