How FreeFrom and Gifted Are Helping Survivors Soar

Survivor Made Sweathshirts | Gifted

What if the solution to gender-based violence isn’t just safety—but wealth?

That’s the radical—and necessary—premise behind FreeFrom, the national organization founded by Sonya Passi. And through its social enterprise Gifted, FreeFrom is flipping the script: from survivors as recipients of charity to creators of value, owners of businesses, and builders of generational wealth.

FreeFrom isn’t about short-term band-aids. It’s about systemic change—economic, cultural, and structural. And at the heart of its model is a bold question: What if financial security was the long-term focus of survivor support?

Sonya Passi, Founder of FreeFrom

The Origin of FreeFrom: Treating the Root, Not Just the Symptoms

Sonya Passi has been working in the gender-based violence space since she was 16. While in law school, she began noticing a troubling pattern—survivors were still financially destitute years after leaving their abusers. The system was designed to respond with temporary fixes: a few weeks of shelter, a restraining order, maybe some public assistance.

But economic abuse doesn’t end with a court date.

So in 2016, she founded FreeFrom to challenge the status quo. "The number one obstacle to safety for survivors is economic insecurity," Sonya told me. “You can’t be safe on minimum wage. You can’t heal if you’re broke.” FreeFrom exists to design and test real, lasting solutions—from emergency cash grants and savings matching, to policy change and business incubation.

The organization has already changed laws in 21 states—red, blue, and purple—working across political divides to embed economic justice into survivor support systems.

Introducing Gifted: A Marketplace of Healing and Empowerment

Collective Care Box by Gifted

One of FreeFrom’s earliest programs was a pilot entrepreneurship initiative across shelters in LA, San Francisco, and Oakland. Twenty-four survivors participated. All twenty-four launched businesses. All twenty-four made a profit. And nearly a decade later, the experiment has evolved into Gifted—a thriving online store where every product is made by a survivor-entrepreneur.

But this is more than commerce. It’s community. It’s storytelling. It’s healing.

Gifted is intentionally designed to remove barriers for its makers. Products like candles, clothing, and bath salts are beautifully branded under the Gifted label—offering both brand consistency and confidentiality for those who may not be ready to put their faces online. It’s a thoughtful solution that centers survivor needs while delivering premium, purpose-driven products.

Seventy percent of each sale goes directly to the entrepreneur. The remainder supports FreeFrom’s operational engine, allowing the model to sustain and scale.

And the impact is real.

Just ask Cherry, one of Gifted’s early hires. After fleeing abuse, navigating homelessness, and rebuilding her life through shelters and Section 8 housing, she found work at Gifted. Fast forward two years: she’s now Gifted’s Sales and Marketing Manager and has launched her own product line of planetary bath salts, sold through the very platform that gave her a second chance.

"I went from overdrafts and payday loans to living wage, benefits, flexible hours, and dignity," she shared. “And now, I’m off public assistance, off Section 8, and thriving.”

Storytelling that Fills the Hope Gap

Gifted’s success is built on more than business savvy. It’s built on lived experience. The team understands the trauma, the legal hurdles, the financial wreckage—because they’ve been through it.

And it’s not just about selling soaps or candles. It’s about transforming narratives. “We want people to see survivors not as broken,” Sonya said, “but as brilliant. Not as liabilities—but as leaders.”

That’s why storytelling plays such a central role in their work.

Last year, FreeFrom released SURVIVOR MADE, a beautiful, calming documentary that follows six survivor-entrepreneurs through the chaos of the holiday season. Executive produced by the likes of Padma Lakshmi Roxane Gay, Nava Mau, Debbie Millman, Alok Vaid-Menon, and with music by FKA Twigs the film flips the lens. Rather than focusing on trauma, it celebrates joy, creativity, and post-violence possibility.

With nearly 15,000 viewers and a donation-powered streaming model, the film is both a storytelling vehicle and a revenue generator for the movement.

Building Community

And this August, FreeFrom will convene its second  Survivor Wealth Summit in downtown Los Angeles, gathering over 600 survivors alongside advocates, movement builders, and policymakers for a transformative three-day experience. 

Designed as a holistic response to gender-based violence, the Summit merges healing spaces, interactive financial workshops, networking panels, and the vibrant Gifted Community Market—all anchored by a special SURVIVOR MADE film screening. 

The goal isn’t just recovery—it’s reclamation: shaping financial futures, amplifying survivor leadership, and creating community power that outlasts the event. Some tickets are still available here.

From Passive Support to Active Participation

Here’s what I love about FreeFrom and Gifted: they don’t just ask you to care. They show you how to act.

You don’t need to be a survivor to play a role in ending gender-based violence. You just need to be an ally, a citizen, a human.

Whether you’re buying a self-care gift from Gifted, donating to the FreeFrom fund, or attending the Survivor Wealth Summit, you are becoming part of a new ecosystem. One where healing, safety, and prosperity are not luxuries, but rights.

And that’s the brilliance of their inspiring and stylish brand: they remind me of Product (RED)—flipping the narrative from guilt to joy, from pity to empowerment. The language shift from “victim” to “survivor,” from “safety” to “wealth,” isn’t just semantics. It’s strategy that can drive narrative change on the issue.

There’s a quiet revolution happening—led by survivors, powered by community, and fueled by economic justice. FreeFrom and Gifted aren’t just building programs. They’re building a new paradigm.

In a world obsessed with short-term impact, here’s a model rooted in sustainability, storytelling, and systemic change.

And if you’ve ever wondered what “doing good” looks like at its most human, most strategic, and most scalable—look no further.

FreeFrom isn’t just helping survivors survive.

They’re helping them soar.