Welcome to The Burn Down
A Newsletter on Decolonizing Gender-Based Violence Work
The Burn Down is a written newsletter launched in December 2025 as a space to name what continues to go wrong in the field of gender-based violence prevention and response especially for survivors of color.
Written by Leah M. Forney, The Culture Doctor & a Black woman survivor of sexual violence with over 12 years of experience in the field, The Burn Down examines how systems and institutions repeatedly fail survivors despite policies, training, and stated commitments to equity and care. This newsletter exists as both critique and invitation: calling out harmful practices while also calling in those who are willing to do this work differently.
Grounded in lived experience and systems-level analysis, The Burn Down challenges dominant, white-centered, colonial frameworks that continue to shape sexual violence response and retraumatize survivors under the guise of “best practice.” It asks institutions, leaders, and practitioners to reckon honestly with culture, power, and accountability and to stop mistaking intention for impact.
The Six Pillars of The Burn Down
Each issue of The Burn Down is anchored in six core pillars that reflect where harm persists in the field and where change is possible:
Cultural Critique
Decolonizing
Gender-Based Violence Work
Organizational Transformation
Examining cultural norms, narratives, and organizational practices that continue to shape and often limit survivor experiences.
Interrogating the colonial roots of dominant GBV frameworks and exploring how systems can be reimagined to honor the lived realities of survivors of color.
Naming the shifts leaders and institutions must make to build culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive systems in practice not just on paper.
Advocate
Self-Determination
Story & Reflection
Actionable Frameworks
Centering advocates, particularly advocates of color, who are navigating burnout, leadership barriers, and the desire to build sustainable futures beyond survival mode.
Sharing lived experience, lessons, and truth as both a survivor of sexual violence and a long-time practitioner in the field.
Offering practical tools, models, and strategies institutions and practitioners can apply immediately to strengthen survivor support and reduce harm.
Each issue weaves together lived experience, cultural analysis, research-informed insight, and real-world application. Every newsletter closes with a Burn It Down Tip: one concrete shift readers can make right now to dismantle harm and build something better.
