Working as a Cuyahoga County Corrections Center officer in 2006, Teresa Stafford was concerned when she heard an inmate yelling and crying while talking on the phone to her mother, who was watching her kids. The inmate discovered her kids had been exposed to the person who sexually assaulted her. Stafford got her help — it was one of many instances that made Stafford realize inmates needed sexual assault survivor resources. Stafford got the inmates pamphlets from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and noticed a job posting. She applied and became a victim advocate there in 2006. It was more than a job — it was a window to her own survivorship.
“By wanting to help others, I was helping myself heal unknowingly,” says the now CEO of Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center, who was recently married and is now Stafford-Wright. “I’ve had the opportunity to start sharing my own journey with hopes of other survivors being able to see … there is life — there is healing — after experiencing something so horrific.”
From ages 8 to 13, Stafford-Wright was sexually abused by her oldest brother. The abuse only came to a stop when she joined a gang and served a little over a year in an Ohio Department of Youth Services facility for aggravated assault at 14. After being released, she became a teen mom and moved in with her daughter’s father, living through a violent relationship until she was 18. After her abusive partner was charged with stalking and harassing her, she was finally free — surviving around a decade of abuse and violence.
Through working as a rape crisis center advocate in her 30s — sitting bedside at hospitals with survivors just hours after their assaults — she was processing her own healing.
“I had [two] young daughters, and I wanted to be different for not only myself, but show up different for them,” says the now 49-year-old Warrensville Heights resident. “How can I move forward?”
Stafford-Wright worked her way up to being an expert in the anti-violence field, helping to create a witness victim unit for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and coordinating Sexual Assault Response Teams in Cuyahoga and Lake counties. In 2022, she became the first minority CEO of Hope and Healing, which provides 135 shelter beds for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking, along with counseling, court advocacy, support groups and more services in Medina and Summit counties. As CEO, she’s added a pet kennel, healing garden, art room and more robust human trafficking services, as well as the Access to Care Program, which makes programs more supportive of immigrants, LGBTQ-plus community members and people of color.
“The first year we had an increase in over 50 percent of Black individuals accessing our services, and not only accessing, but staying engaged in services,” Stafford-Wright says.
Through a trauma-informed lens, the center is also providing more resources in the community and schools to educate about sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking. It’s seeing more disclosures: Hotline calls were up 76 percent, shelter nights up 13 percent and hospital calls up 5 percent in 2024.
As an adolescent, Stafford-Wright didn’t have support. “No one was asking the right questions. Everybody saw me as a juvenile delinquent even though I was an honor roll student,” she says. “If we can change that response, we have a better opportunity of truly identifying trauma and getting people connected to services early.”
Stafford-Wright has helped about 3,000 survivors and co-survivors. Her reach is multiplying. In April, she released her book, “Beyond Surviving: The Courage to Heal and Lead.” In May, her Inspiring Change consulting firm’s Rise & Lead program launches to equip women of color to hold high-level leadership positions within the anti-violence field.
“We have to talk about it to destigmatize it, so people know that they’re not alone. For the longest, I thought I was the only one experiencing this,” she says. “We forget that there’s life after surviving —There’s an opportunity to thrive.”
Mal McCrea
Mal McCrea
Mal McCrea
