I’ve been a listener since 2020, when a friend got me hooked and I needed something to distract me from the craziness of working in healthcare during COVID.
Long story short, the more I listened, the more I saw cracks in our social justice and welfare systems. I decided to pursue a degree in social work in an effort to advocate for all of those whose lives could have been saved in so many ways if the system and those who operate within it had the resources and collaboration they needed. Now I’m almost in my last semester to earn my BSW and I’m about to start an internship with the Office of the ME. Fun fact, Utah has one ME for the entire state, giving the unique opportunity to provide outreach and education to the community. Because of your podcast, I also applied for and was accepted into a Justice Advocacy Fellowship where interns are placed in local non-profits in an effort to learn more about the needs of our communities and how to best support each other. I’m the first social work student to be in the program and I’m hoping to not be the last. I want to spread the work on the importance of community and looking out for one another. While this has always been something I’ve been passionate about, Crime Junkie showed me what an amazing community it has fostered and pushed me to do my part.
I am also pushing for a national DCFS database so that abusers cannot simply move around unnoticed. I’m trying to push for policy change that requires more collaborative work between law enforcement and other agencies working to prevent people from becoming another Crime Junkie case. It takes a village, right? I hope to make you guys proud by expanding your village.