We recently connected with Donna Bartos and have shared our conversation below.

Donna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

To understand why I’m so dedicated to preventing interpersonal violence before it can begin, you have to understand the silence I lived in for thirty years. I grew up in a world where sexual and domestic violence were “normalized.” I didn’t have the words or support system to identify my trauma, so I just kept moving- hiding behind a facade of overachievement.

Everything changed in August 2006. I was sitting at a conference, listening to a young woman speak about her experience with dating abuse. As she spoke, the “facade” cracked. For the first time, I could finally name my own experiences: Interpersonal Violence. I realized I was one of the many “silent victims” hiding in plain sight.

On the flight home, I felt this overwhelming spark of obligation to break the cycle. I grabbed a cocktail napkin and sketched out a vision. I knew that to save lives, we had to stop waiting for a crisis—we had to start talking about abuse before it starts, in the everyday places where people already gather.

That “napkin sketch” was the birth of the Purple Ribbon Council to Cut Out Domestic Abuse, a grassroots movement to mobilize “natural helpers” in salons and spas. That single moment of clarity in 2006 has since evolved into BLOOM365, a local non-profit based in Phoenix, Arizona providing safety and healing for youth impacted by violence and an international movement to uproot abuse in a generation.

The lesson I carry from that flight? Never underestimate the power of an idea birthed on a napkin.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The BLOOM365 Story: From a Cocktail Napkin to a Movement

My journey into this work wasn’t planned in a boardroom; it was born from a realization that the way we were addressing interpersonal violence across the U.S. was too “downstream.” We were waiting for people to fall into the river instead of heading upstream to see why they were falling in.

In 2006, I founded the Purple Ribbon Council by mobilizing a small, passionate group of survivor volunteers committed to engaging and empowering women where many gather—in salons and spas. We hosted “Girls Night Out” fundraisers and supported safe houses, but there was always a question lingering in the background: Why are we only showing up after the harm has already happened?

By 2009, I began organizing “Study Circles” across Arizona, bringing people together to address the “elephants in the room” and ask the tough questions. This collaborative spirit shifted BLOOM365’s focus toward the “roots” of the issue: prevention education in schools and support for children orphaned by domestic violence homicide.

The real breakthrough came in 2012. I had developed a simple visual concept in 2010—”Are you blooming or wilting?”—to help young people assess the health of their relationships. No strings attached seed funding turned that simple idea into a comprehensive, research-based 7-Dose healthy relationship curriculum.

In 2018, we rebranded to BLOOM365—a name that serves as both our purpose and our daily commitment: Bring Love On Others More, 365 days a year.. Today, we provide a holistic prevention and response model designed specifically for ages 11–24. We solve the problem of “crisis-only” intervention by providing schools, military installations, and community groups with the tools to uproot abuse proactively. Our non-profit run, free and confidential services include:

Advocacy: Counseling, advocacy, case management, peer support services and a Text/Call/Chat 888.606.4673 HelpLine for young people who have witnessed or experienced victimization.

Intervention: Behavioral health interventions and peer accountability groups for young people who are at risk for or who are already using violence.

What makes BLOOM365 unique is our collaborative ecosystem. We treat teens and young adults as equal partners with adult subject matter experts to turn research into real world practice.

Beyond my work with the BLOOM365 nonprofit, I provide specialized consultation and training for organizations ready to activate their own “10% Tipping Point.” I am available for:

Workplace & Organizational Training: Custom workshops for small and large teams on preventing and responding to sexual assault and domestic violence. I work across sectors, including corporate offices, schools, sports teams, and military installations.

Youth Leadership Training: Empowering Gen Z to be the “architects” of safety in their own peer groups as advocates and influencers.

LEVEL™ Response Training: Strategic consultation for new victim advocates and “natural helpers.” I teach participants how to skillfully respond to disclosures of victimization using the LEVEL framework—moving away from judgment, opinion and advice giving to listening, empathizing, validating, encouraging and linking to resources.

Keynote Speaking: Inspirational and data-driven presentations on the “Tipping Point” strategy, the “Napkin Vision,” and the power of youth-led prevention.

Program Implementation: Guidance for schools and organizations looking to integrate the BLOOM365 USA 7-Dose Healthy Relationship curriculum or establish local BLOOM365 chapters.

To further dismantle the “elephants in the room,” I host the Uproot Abuse Podcast. We dive deep into the root causes of interpersonal violence, featuring insights from subject matter experts, peer influencers, and survivors.

I am incredibly proud of establishing collaborations with schools, colleges, military installations, Major League Baseball teams, and a network of youth serving organizations to activate 10% of every community to make safety, respect, and consent the new social norms.

BLOOM365 provides the blueprint to uproot it in this generation.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My journey to founding BLOOM365 wasn’t a straight path; it was a convergence of a deeply personal past and an unexpected moment of obligation. My transition from a “silent victim” hiding behind a facade of overachievement to a thought leader in violence prevention was marked by challenges that tested my resolve at every turn.

If you had seen me on stage at the Social Venture Partners “Fast Pitch” competition in 2012, you would have seen a polished founder delivering a compelling 90-second case for change. You would have seen the “Are You Blooming or Wilting?” visual and a bold strategy to reach a 10% tipping point.

What you wouldn’t have seen was where I had slept the night before.

At that exact moment, my family was in the middle of a housing crisis. The home we were renting had gone into foreclosure, and we were suddenly displaced. While I was refining my pitch and studying white papers on prevention science, my reality was couch surfing and trying to maintain stability for my three young children.

People often ask how I could focus on a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” like uprooting abuse in a generation while I didn’t even have a permanent roof over my head. The truth? The mission was my anchor. I knew that if I could win that pitch, I could move the Purple Ribbon Council out of the corner of my laundry room and into a position to save lives at scale. I refused to let my temporary circumstances dictate the permanent future of the youth I was fighting for.

I delivered the pitch of my life. When I was announced as the winner of the $100,000 seed grant, it was more than a financial win—it was a personal testament that your current “location” does not define your destination.

Resilience is the ability to hold a vision for a better world even when your own world is in chaos. I share this because I want every young person and advocate to know: You don’t need a perfect life to create a perfect vision. You just need the fearless drive to keep pitching, even when you’re couch surfing.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

In my field, the most vital asset—beyond degrees or data—is the unshakable belief in the power of social contagion. To succeed in violence prevention, you have to stop looking at the problem as an immovable mountain and start seeing it as a cultural script that can be rewritten. If you want to move beyond “awareness” and into actual “transformation,” the two things you need most are a strategic tipping point and youth-led architecture.

In prevention science, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by trying to reach “everyone.” But success comes from understanding the 10% Tipping Point. Research from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows that once 10% of a population is fully committed to a new idea, that idea becomes the new social norm. Success in this field requires the focus to identify and activate that critical mass. We aren’t just looking for training program “attendees”; we are looking for the “natural helper” influencer in every classroom, locker room, and military unit who will make safety, empathy, and respect the standard, not the exception.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bloom365usa.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uprootabuse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnabartos/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uprootabuse
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/7sfWFwwfMI5rDWhmqoM6MR?si=214b94f2277848fe

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