Our story
Our roots
"Opportunities to help others are wasted
by not turning your thoughts and ideas into action."
-Donna Bartos
BLOOM365, formerly Purple Ribbon Council to Cut Out Domestic Abuse is a grassroots movement that began in August 2006 with an idea, written on a napkin, to turn every city in the U.S. PURPLE during Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October to help Break the Silence, Break the Cycle and Save Lives.
Our call to action for community engagement in the work of prevention over the last 16 years has remained steady and our efforts have expanded from hosting awareness and fundraising events in salons and spas into sustainable and scalable youth-driven education, advocacy, intervention and activism in schools and organizations across Arizona and the U.S.
Our growing network of dedicated partners and allies includes teen Peer Advocates in schools and on college campuses, Peer Influencers in military installations, victim advocacy organizations, police departments, elected public servants, celebrities and early adopter partners across the U.S. Please JOIN US!
Donna Bartos
Founder, BLOOM365
Donna Bartos is an author, educator, abuse survivor, and a mom, wife, non-profit executive and thought leader for the prevention of domestic/sexual/teen dating violence among Gen Z youth.
The commitment to fight for a cause sometimes surfaces months, years or even decades after an adverse experience. Other times, it’s born in an instant to find a solution to a problem. In Donna Bartos’ case the path to dedicating her life’s work to preventing the root causes of interpersonal violence in a generation was a little bit of both. For over three decades, Donna tucked away the sexual assault, domestic violence and dating abuse she was exposed to and experienced as a child, teen and young adult. In 2006, after serving in executive, consulting, fundraising, marketing and training capacities for non-profit public health and youth development organizations, Donna founded BLOOM365.
She has turned her personal lived experiences and two decades of self-guided research into a comprehensive and relevant “Are you blooming or wilting?” violence prevention and response strategy implemented in schools, community organizations and now military installations which spans across individual, relationship, community and societal levels. . In 2012, she won the Social Venture Partners Arizona Fast Pitch $100k competition to seed fund and test the efficacy of these innovations. Additionally, Donna trains parents, caregivers, school personnel, military service members, youth service providers, school resource officers, and others on how to provide LEVEL advocacy, a concept she created in 2020 to increase the capacity and confidence of “natural helpers” to Listen, Empathize, Validate,
Encourage and Link young people who have experienced, witnessed or perpetrated violence to help and support. She is currently developing screening tools for school personnel and parents to use to identify risk factors and red flags among students at risk for causing harm to others.
Donna has been recognized locally and nationally for her work which turns theory and research into practice. She received the 2021 National Organization for Victim Assistance Edith Surgan Victim Activist Award, 2021 ATHEA Valley of the Sun “Acts Courageously” HAIL Award and 2010 Hon Kachina Award. She holds a BA in Communication from McDaniel College and a Master’s in Public Administration from Grand Canyon University. Her memoir “From wilting to blooming” about growing up with domestic violence, surviving the trauma childhood sexual assault and thriving after teen dating violence will release in 2023.
Donna is a dynamic and inspirational speaker and is available for on-site and virtual keynote presentations and facilitator trainings for school assemblies, corporate events, military and more. REQUEST A QUOTE
OUR ROOTS & GROWTH
HOPE IS THE BELIEF THAT THINGS CAN CHANGE FOR THE BETTER