\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAly Raisman is a champion. And a survivor. And she knows it takes a village to help heal.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Olympic gold medalist gymnast was used to performing at the absolute highest level, both physical and mental. She retired from the sport with six Olympic and five World Championship medals in 2020, but then she faced challenges beyond the mat. She was among the brave women who testified before the Senate about failures in the case against USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexual abuse of athletes. She opened up about her mental health challenges and abuse at the hands of Nassar, and became an activist and advocate for mental health. She wrote a children\u2019s book in 2024 called \u201cFrom My Head to My Toes,\u201d which aims to teach children about bodily consent.<\/p>\n
\n\tClearly, her drive to be a champion hasn\u2019t dimmed. She will be honored by the Purina Purple Leash Project for her advocacy efforts at Variety<\/em>\u2019s Power of Women event Oct. 29.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Purina Purple Leash Project helps create pet-friendly shelters for survivors of domestic abuse, making sure that they can keep their beloved pets with them and receive care in pet-friendly environments.<\/p>\n \n\tRaisman knows how much a furry friend can help abuse survivors as well as people struggling with mental health challenges.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words how much my dog Milo means to me and how much love he\u2019s brought into my life,\u201d she says about her canine companion, who is almost always at her side. She praises the unconditional love she gets from Milo, and how he\u2019s changed her perspective on the world. \u201cNo matter how many times I throw a ball to him, he could do it all day, every day, and it\u2019s every time he sees it, it\u2019s like the first time he\u2019s seeing it, or the first time he\u2019s experiencing it. And that has really helped me in my own personal healing journey of remembering to find moments of magic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne of my favorite quotes is \u2018Those who don\u2019t believe in magic will never find it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe\u2019s been a fan of the Purple Leash Project for a while. \u201cI really appreciate and admire the work and their mission. I didn\u2019t realize before Purple Leash had told me that less than 20% of domestic abuse violence shelters in the U.S. accept pets, and Purina is working hard to change that,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n \n\tRaisman says what\u2019s also so devastating is that 48% of survivors actually delay leaving abusive situations because they can\u2019t bring their pets with them. \u201cAnd over 70% of women in domestic violence shelters report their abuser threatened, injured or killed a pet as a means of control,\u201d she adds. \u201cI can\u2019t stress enough how important the work that Purple Leash and Purina are doing, because it\u2019s truly saving lives. It\u2019s also saving the pets\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRaisman makes the point that many people suffer in silence, but there is help and hope out there for them.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe journey to healing is definitely not \u2018one size fits all,\u2019 and unfortunately, it can be really difficult to find a support system. And what I\u2019ve learned from speaking at colleges across the country and meeting people, whether it\u2019s at the grocery store or the airport, is there are a lot more people than we realize, that have been abused.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRaisman also realizes that finding support \u2014 whether confiding in a friend or finding a therapist \u2014 can be daunting and hamper trying to get help.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf there\u2019s a survivor reading this, I want them to know that there is hope out there, there is help,\u201d she says. \u201cI think what has really helped me is remembering that I\u2019m not going to feel like this forever. So on the days where I\u2019m struggling the most, I remind myself that this is the bad day. It\u2019s going to pass, and I\u2019m not going to feel like this forever. But there is help out there, and there are really wonderful people out there who do really care.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRaisman truly nailed the landing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aly Raisman is a champion. And a survivor. And she knows it takes a village to help heal. The Olympic gold medalist gymnast was used to performing at the absolute highest level, both physical and mental. She retired from the sport with six Olympic and five World Championship medals in 2020, but then she faced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[682,5472,18257,1552,18258,354],"class_list":{"0":"post-31316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-advocates","10":"tag-aly","11":"tag-pets","12":"tag-raisman","13":"tag-survivors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}