2025 TFC Readers’ Favorites
- The Friendship Center
- 5 days ago
- 12 min read
Check out the issue-specific deep dives, partner Q&As, essays, and more from The Friendship Center’s blog that our readers visited the most in 2025.
It’s that glorious time of the year where we take a tactical pause from adding new content to the treasure trove that is our blog to shine a light on the material our readers spent the most time with over the past year. For anybody keeping count, this is our second full year of publishing regular updates, partner Q&As, issue-specific deep dives, and occasional essays. In the past year, we’ve also added new educational videos with our Education Coordinator Eric Parsons to our regular rotation and we’ve expanded our recommendations to include not just books, but podcasts and other media highlighting the stories of survivors.
We’re proud of this platform for storytelling and education that we’ve been building since 2023. Our hope is that it’s an accessible and engaging way for anyone to learn about key issues connected to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. If the growth of our readership is any indication, there is a definite appetite for the content we share here, and we take that as a sign that we’re on the right track. In 2025 so far, we’ve already had more than double the blog visitors we had in all of 2024 (nearly 3,300 compared to just over 1,600 in 2024), and one of our blog posts from 2024 is on-pace to be our first to surpass 1,000 visitors all-time, maybe even before the end of this year.
We know these web traffic stats are just numbers and they don’t tell the full story on their own, but they’re not meaningless to us. The fact that we’ve built an audience of curious, engaged readers who like to be inspired, informed, and challenged in their reading about interpersonal violence is especially consequential when we receive the rare honor of being able to amplify the stories of survivors, told in their own voice, on their terms. That’s precisely how we got to kick off 2025, with a guest contribution from Alison Fuller about her experience with stalking. If you read it earlier this year, you already know that Alison’s piece will take your breath away, which is why we’re not surprised that it was among the most-read of the year on our blog. (Fun fact: We have recently had the good fortune of adding Alison to our Board of Directors!)
Like last year’s, this year’s top 10 list is diverse, showcasing many of the partners we work with to meet the needs of our community alongside deep insights about the complex nature of abuse and the many forms it can take. So, without further ado, let’s get into the countdown! We hope you enjoy finding where some of your personal favorites from the past year landed or catching up on some of your fellow readers’ favorites that you might’ve missed.
By Jackie Brennan // October 2025
Is there such a thing as non-violence? In her latest essay exploring the cultural forces that perpetuate abuse, our own Jackie Brennan took on this spicy question, and her opinion might surprise you! Her belief is that anybody who stubbornly proclaims they are non-violent is living with a dangerous delusion. How, then, does that square with The Friendship Center's vision of "communities free from violence?" While Jackie's personal position is a departure from our agency’s stated vision, she argues that it's not entirely conflicting. She also believes it's incumbent on all of us to understand a crucial delineation between violence and abuse—the former being a life-sustaining force, the latter being its unsustainable, harmful misappropriation.
In this sprawling essay, Jackie draws upon what the living world and traditional knowledge have to teach us about the role of violence in our lives, starting with the fire-adapted coniferous forests of our western landscapes and ending with Indigenous perspective on violence from Australia's first peoples in Tyson Yunkaporta's Sand Talk. Jackie brings intrepid readers along for a thought-provoking ride in our 10th most-read blog post of 2025.
By TFC // August 2025
The Friendship Center is just one of MANY nonprofits that have benefited from the Exchange Club of Helena's abiding commitment to service. Above and beyond their grantmaking to nonprofits working in their areas of focus, they have also been instrumental in helping bring Purple Night to the Friday night rodeo of Last Chance Stampede every July. The event raises awareness about domestic violence in our community and—thanks in no small part to donated tips and koozie sale proceeds from the Exchange Club—this year's Stampede raised about $4,000 for our services and prevention efforts.
Our August partner spotlight recognizes both the Exchange Club's deep commitment to helping our community thrive, as well as the fantastic tenure of their most recent past president, Coco Colbert, whose term concluded this summer. Our Q&A with Coco was our ninth most-read blog post of 2025. Check it out to learn more about the Exchange Club, why they support The Friendship Center, what stands out from Coco’s time leading the organization, and her advice to anyone looking for ways to serve their community.
By TFC // September 2025
The award-winning documentary Sugarcane is a chronicle of the Williams Lake First Nation community’s investigation of the former St. Joseph’s Mission school and the reckoning it ignites in the lives of survivors and their descendants, many of whom experienced sexual violence. Viewers learn that this is also a deeply personal story for one of the filmmakers whose father is the only baby born at St. Joseph's known to still be alive—a fact owing to a documented pattern of infanticide at the school that was operated by the Catholic Church from 1886 to 1981. Many of the babies cast off in the school's incinerator were born to students whose pregnancies were a result of rape by clergy members.
Without downplaying the impact St. Joseph’s still has on and beyond the Williams Lake Reserve (known in the community as Sugarcane, the film’s namesake), the film's most memorable images are not of survivors recounting the atrocities of Canadian residential schools, but of the survival of Interior Salish lifeways that have existed for millennia in the face of forces that sought their eradication. It's a portrait of the strength and endurance of survivors, and there's much to recommend about it, which is the basis of our eighth most-read blog post of 2025! Our review of Sugarcane includes themes to look out for and think about as you watch and suggested resources to learn more about residential/boarding schools in the US and Canada.
If you’re interested in being part of a dialogue about truth and reconciliation in our community after you’ve given Sugarcane a watch at home, save the date for Tuesday, January 20, 2026! We're teaming up with St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Covenant United Methodist Church, and St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral to host a free screening of Sugarcane followed by a panel conversation focused on reconciliation and repair within faith communities. While this is part of a free screening series intended for faith communities, all are welcome to participate. RSVPs are encouraged but not required, and you can reserve your free ticket/s on the event page.
By TFC // January 2025
The convergence of intimate partner/family violence and gun violence can be lethal: Over half of all intimate partner homicides are committed with guns, and a female victim is five times more likely to be murdered when her abuser has access to a gun. These facts are bleak, particularly given Montana’s consistently high rates of household firearm ownership, but federal and state policy can play a meaningful role in disrupting abusers’ access to guns and saving lives as a result.
We’re far from alone in our belief that deaths resulting from gun violence are preventable, and one of the partners we look up to when it comes to advocating for policy reforms that emphasize personal and public safety is the Montana chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense (Montana Moms Demand Action for short). Besides being savvy advocates, members of the Montana Moms Demand Action chapter were instrumental in encouraging us to apply for funding that we were awarded last November through Everytown for Gun Safety's domestic violence grant program.
Our seventh most-read blog post of 2025 and our first partner spotlight of last year recognized Montana Moms Demand Action in a Q&A with one of their co-leaders, Shani Henry. Check it out to learn where they’ve had success, which life-saving policy reforms are most within reach, and what keeps Shani and her fellow volunteers across the state and the nation motivated in this emotional, sometimes personal work, where progress and results can take a long time to see.
By TFC // February 2025
Of the hundreds of individuals The Friendship Center serves each year, about one in seven are clients seeking services following a sexual assault, and some of those may seek out medical attention. While not required to receive services or make a law enforcement report, having a forensic exam following an assault can offer significant peace of mind since signs of injury or complications from an assault may not be obvious or immediate. For those that do seek care, Helena has a dedicated Forensic Nurse Program housed within the Emergency Department at St. Peter’s Health (SPH). This means that emergency room patients seeking evaluation and treatment can also request a forensic exam be performed by a sexual assault nurse examiner (aka, a registered SANE nurse) with specialized training in providing trauma-informed care and collecting evidence that can be safely stored even if the patient doesn't intend to report their assault to law enforcement.
Access to forensic services is not a given in every community, and we’re lucky to have an established forensic nursing program in Helena. A key figure behind the expansion of those forensic services and the overall response to sexual violence in our community is SPH’s Forensic Nurse Coordinator Whitney Brothers, and our Q&A with her from February is our sixth most-read blog post of 2025. Check out what Whitney had to say about the forensic nursing career path that ultimately led her back to her hometown, what she wishes more people understood about sexual assault, and the deep pride she has in her team of forensic nurses.
By TFC // December 2024
It’s impossible to overstate the connection between domestic violence and a lack of safe or stable housing, especially for women. Research has found that over 90% of homeless women have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse at some point in their lives, and 63% have been victims of intimate partner violence as adults. Anywhere between one in four and one in two women cite domestic violence as the immediate cause of their homelessness, and we know that violence is sadly a huge factor in youth homelessness as well.
Lack of housing inventory and affordability is a persistent challenge in our region, and short-term or overnight emergency shelter options are even more sorely limited. Despite the elevated safety risks faced by women and children experiencing homelessness, Helena has been without a dedicated emergency shelter for these groups. That will change when Family Promise of Greater Helena opens the doors of a new 14-room overnight shelter, the culmination of a project that's been years in the making.
Previously conceived as a partnership with Good Samaritan Ministries (GSM) under the banner of Ruth's Place, Family Promise has carried this project forward with hopes of opening their doors to shelter women and children by spring of 2026. Although this project has evolved since we shared this December 2024 Q&A with Family Promise Executive Director Renee Bauer and former GSM Executive Director Theresa Ortega, this partner spotlight was our fifth most-read blog post of 2025, and it's well worth revisiting. Both Renee and Theresa speak to the ups and downs of working to meet the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. They also show the determination, shared by many of our partners, to provide the best support possible in our community and to stay the course in the face of obstacles.
By TFC // May 2025
Earlier this year, when many of our readers expressed an interest in learning more about human trafficking, we jumped at the opportunity to highlight a new program dedicated to providing trauma-informed legal assistance to human trafficking survivors in Montana. Led by Alexandra “Alix” House of Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA), the Montana Human Trafficking Rights Project was launched in January. As Alix explains in our Q&A with her, trafficking is an incredibly broad field. While sex trafficking is often what comes to mind for most people at first mention of human trafficking, Montana has much more significant rates of labor trafficking, and it's not uncommon to find trafficking victims around the world in industries like agriculture, construction, landscaping, and domestic work.
Trafficking has much in common with other violent crimes like intimate partner and sexual violence, and it's not unusual for the victimizations to overlap. However, preventing human trafficking and supporting survivors and those at risk poses many unique challenges, which is why this specialized legal assistance for trafficking victims is such an important addition to MLSA's services. Check out what Alix shared in our fourth most-read blog post of 2025 to learn about some of the signs of trafficking, why increased awareness translates to better criminal justice response to trafficking cases, the challenges survivors face, and how MLSA can support victims.
By Alison Fuller // January 2025
As an agency that advocates on behalf of survivors, The Friendship Center believes strongly in the power of listening to their stories, in their own words and voice. We protect the confidentiality of our clients as a rule and only share their information or identities at their request. This is by law and design: Not only are we obligated by state law to hold our clients’ information in strict confidence, but we also know that in many cases, their safety depends on it.
In some instances, we have the singular honor of amplifying a client’s story—always with their permission and never with the expectation that they share identifying details. In recognition of Stalking Awareness Month back in January, we had the privilege of sharing one such story: a guest contribution from Alison Fuller about her experience with stalking, which she compares aptly to living with a shadow. The context and history of a specific relationship is often the only way to fully understand the terror that stalking can cause. But something Alison’s piece captures brilliantly is the terror wrought by stalking—one of the defining qualities of this violent crime.
Alison asked that her name be attached to this stunning first-person piece, the third most-read on our blog in 2025, and easily the most-visited post in a single day this year. Alison reminds us that it’s hard but not impossible to know peace in the shadows. We’re honored to be a place where stories like hers can be told, and we were beyond thrilled to welcome her to our Board this year.
By Jaime Gabrielli // August 2025
Like many forms of intimate partner violence, strangulation is often misunderstood, minimized, underreported, or undetected entirely. But we’d argue that strangulation is not merely another form of physical abuse. It is a severe crime that drastically increases a victim’s risk of serious injury and death. With the same amount of force it takes to open a soda can, an abuser can cut off blood flow to a victim's brain, causing unconsciousness within seconds, and death within minutes.
Many people do not realize how common and hazardous strangulation is in abusive relationships. An estimated 68-80% of women in violent relationships will be strangled by their partner, and fatality studies reveal that almost half of all domestic violence homicide victims were strangled at least once before being murdered.
Research showing the correlation between strangulation and homicide is both ample and sobering, which is why recognizing the seriousness of a strangulation incident is so critical. As TFC Client Services Manager Jaime Gabrielli highlights in our second most-read blog post of 2025, advocates, law enforcement, healthcare providers, and the broader community have an opportunity and a responsibility to take strangulation seriously because an informed response to this brutal form of assault can halt the progression toward homicide, and save lives.
By Jaime Gabrielli // February 2025
Back in February, we shared a throwback from our spring 2023 print newsletter also penned by Jaime about intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV). If you follow any information we’ve put out in the world about sexual assault, we hope you’ve read, heard, or seen us stress the fact that rape is most often perpetrated by somebody known to the victim (research puts the rate over 80%). Despite what the data tells us about the perpetrators of sexual violence, people who've been sexually assaulted by their partners in the context of an active relationship rarely identify as victims.
As Jaime puts it, the tendency to overlook rape as a tactic that abusers use to gain and maintain power and control makes sexual violence "a hidden yet common and complex aspect of domestic violence." Many factors help sustain this, including the overall pattern of coercive control that takes root in abusive relationships and the broader misbelief that consent is implied in the context of an intimate relationship. Check out what Jaime had to say in our most-read blog post of 2025 to learn about these intersecting forms of violence, the risks survivors may face, and how we can all support IPSV survivors in recognizing they have the same rights as every other survivor of rape and sexual assault.
What were your favorite reads from our blog in 2025? Is there a topic or a community partner you’re curious about, and would love to see us highlight in 2026? We’d love to hear what you think, especially if anything we have put out there sparked further reading, research, or conversations with others. You can always get in touch with our editor at jackie.b@thefriendshipcenter.org with any feedback, questions, or topics you’d like us to consider exploring in 2026. From all of us at The Friendship Center, thanks for reading!
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