HER Resiliency Center

05/19/2026

Memorial service for Natasha Guynes will be held at Charles Zannino Funeral Services, 263 South Conklin Street, on Thursday May 21st, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Please join us in celebrating Natasha's life.

05/19/2026

Natasha Guynes Memorial Fund

Natasha dedicated her life to helping others overcome addiction and trauma, and her unwavering commitment to women in need created a lasting impact that will continue for generations. Any funds raised beyond the amount needed will be donated to the Dupont Circle Club, the place where Natasha began her own recovery more than 25 years ago. Supporting the club would honor her legacy by helping others find the same hope and second chance that she was given.

My Name is John Barber, Natasha Guynes boyfriend, and i am raising funds to help c… John Barber needs your support for Honoring Natasha Guynes' Legacy of Hope

05/19/2026

Natasha Guynes As Seen Through Tears

Natasha is Dead - the honest version

05/19/2026

05/19/2026

In December, the survivor-led nonprofit opened a brick-and-mortar in Fells Point.

05/18/2026

We are grieving the sudden loss of our dear friend and leader, Natasha Guynes, who passed away on Saturday evening. May she rest in peace. Details regarding memorial services and remembrance gatherings will be shared soon.

It is hard to imagine life without HER.

03/06/2026

The Only Way Out Is Through.

This short documentary tells part of the story behind why HER Resiliency Center exists.

In the film, our founder Natasha Guynes shares publicly for the first time that she came to understand she had been s*x trafficked at 20 years old. She speaks openly about trauma, addiction, recovery, and what it looks like to rebuild a life.

HER was created because survivors deserve more than survival.

They deserve stability, independence, and real opportunities to rebuild their futures.

HER Resiliency Center works with young women rebuilding their lives after exploitation and abuse through programs designed to support long-term healing and independence.

We are incredibly grateful to filmmaker Jodi Sakol and her team for telling this story with care.

If you watch the film, we hope you take away one message:

Your story does not end with what happened to you.

The Only Way Out is Through will air tomorrow, March 7, during the Women in Film & Video telethon, sometime between 12PM-1PM.

Links to the telethon and film directly are in comments.

02/26/2026

“Some nonprofit leaders are hesitant to talk about it out of fear of retaliation.”
— WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore reporting on funding challenges impacting multiple organizations funded by Maryland's Governor's Office of Crime Prevention and Policy.

HER Resiliency Center exists to uplift young women overcoming complex trauma - multiple victimizations - including domestic violence, human trafficking, and systemic barriers that hold them back. We do this through a trauma-informed, holistic, peer-driven approach that meets each woman where she is and walks with her toward purpose, stability, and empowerment.

Yesterday, WBAL aired its story on our lawsuit involving VOCA funding issues. We recorded the interview in December 2025, and at that time another GOCPP-funded organization was scheduled to participate — but chose not to, out of fear of retaliation.

WBAL followed up with other grantees and confirmed that fear of speaking up is real — and that funding reductions are affecting many survivor-serving organizations.

While the news coverage focuses on the 2025 funding challenges, the lawsuit covers broader violations, including mishandling of federal victim support funds and retaliation.
Links to the WBAL story and the lawsuit are in the comments.

HER exists because every woman — no matter her background — deserves dignity, support, and a path forward. Our programs like the Roadmap to Success, Street Outreach, and Triple Crown Academy are built to empower women with life skills, stable housing pathways, workforce opportunities, and community.

This is not about one nonprofit.
It’s about ensuring that survivor-serving organizations can keep their doors open, help women rise, and build safe, thriving communities.

01/16/2026

This week, HER Resiliency Center held a press conference to address the ongoing lawsuit regarding unpaid state reimbursements for critical services to survivors of violence.

According to HER Founder and CEO Natasha Guynes, the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services (GOCPP) withheld nearly $218,000 in 2025 and $74,000 in 2024. Invoices were denied with the explanation that the trauma-informed services HER provided were deemed “not what the victim needed.”

As HER’s attorneys Nguyen Roche Sutton shared during Monday’s news conference, the prolonged lack of payment has made continued operations impossible, forcing the organization to temporarily cease services despite ongoing demand from women in crisis.

This moment is about more than funding. It raises urgent questions about how survivor-centered care is defined, valued, and supported, and what happens when organizations doing frontline, trauma-informed work are left without reimbursement for services already delivered.

We are grateful to the media for covering this issue and helping bring visibility to the systemic barriers that put survivors and the organizations serving them at risk.

Read the full article on The Baltimore Sun:

A lawyer representing a nonprofit said a “pattern of harassment” from Gov. Wes Moore’s public safety office led to the group losing funding.

01/13/2026

We are deeply grateful to WMAR-2 News Baltimore for their coverage of the challenges the HER Resiliency Center has faced in providing critical support to women impacted by domestic violence and trauma. Their reporting helped make a crucial systemic issue that affects not only our organization but women in crisis across Maryland visible.

HER’s lawsuit highlights how unpaid reimbursements for domestic violence services have forced us to halt essential programming, even as the need for trauma-informed care continues to grow.

Thank you to everyone who showed up at the press conference yesterday and continues supporting HER Resiliency Center and women who need it most.

Her Resiliency Center sues Governor Moore's office, claiming $218,000 in unpaid reimbursements for domestic violence services were wrongfully denied.