Grantee Partner Spotlight:
Love Life Now Foundation

Lovern Gordon standing in front of a table covered in a purple table cloth and banner with the Love Life Now logo, purple party favors, and purple balloons with curly ribbon strings attached to each balloon dangling down. Gordon is wearing a white dress with one sleeve, heels, and smiling at the camera
Lovern Gordon at the Love Life Now 10-year anniversary event

Lovern Gordon is the most captivating woman in the ballroom at high-end fundraising events around Greater Boston. Eloquent, wise, and charismatic in a dazzling evening gown, she holds her audience rapt, whether she’s speaking from the podium or among a crowd of friends. Either way, she’s speaking from her heart and the depth of her experience.

And though her audiences span the country and all walks of life, her message is always the same: Violence in a relationship is never okay.

“Domestic violence is a worldwide epidemic that can affect anybody,” Lovern explains. “One in every three teens, one in every seven men, one in every four women. It happens everywhere, but there is help everywhere. People need to know they’re never alone.”

Spreading that message far and wide is Lovern’s mission through the nonprofit she founded in 2011, Love Life Now Foundation (LLN), which focuses on global awareness and education, and through her work as an author and international speaker. On the startling cover of her award-winning book, The Legacy He Left Me, we see a familiar Lovern in a brilliant ball gown, but she is nearly unrecognizable under the bruises on one side of her face.

“As a child witness, I never thought I would become a victim, knowing what I knew,” she explains, “but children from abusive homes often end up as victims again or as abusers themselves.”

Lovern grew up on the Caribbean island of Trinidad with a father who concealed his abusive nature behind a well-educated and charming demeanor and a mother who was powerless to protect herself and her five children. After attending high school in the U.S. then moving to Boston permanently during her college years, Lovern felt fully in control of her future, but found herself at the age of 21 in a relationship with a controlling, abusive older man. “I know everyone thinks, Why didn’t you just leave?” she says, “But with emotional, physical, and financial entanglements, it’s never quite that simple. And when you don’t know how to get help, sometimes the devil you know actually seems the safer option.”

image of poster with the words 'The Legacy He Left Me' at the top in yellow, and 'Lovern J. Gordon' at the bottom in white. The photo is of Lovern in a yellow party dress against a dark background. Her right side is bruised badly with a bruised around her eye and on her nose, a cut lip, a bruised neck, and bruises in the shape of fingers on her right arm (left side in the photo)
By sharing her story, Lovern encourages others to use their voices to end domestic violence.

It took two years, but Lovern managed to escape her abuser and forge a new life. A couple of years later, the seed for LLN was planted when a group of friends dared her to enter a Boston-based beauty pageant. Much to everyone’s surprise, she won, then proceeded to win nationals as well. After back-to-back wins, she needed a platform, and domestic violence (DV) was the obvious choice. Once she started speaking out about it, she couldn’t stop.

Now, 13 years later, LLN provides resources to roughly 800 people a year. Although LLN is not a shelter or a domestic violence agency, they do offer immediate assistance when sent referrals from those organizations. “Our Get Safe Fund serves over 100 people a year,” Lovern explains. “We’ve become known in part for helping cover the cost of emergency hotel stays when there are no shelter beds available, but the fund assists with any one-time, DV-related expense, whether it’s paying a bill or purchasing a bus or plane ticket to safety.”

The many initiatives and events Lovern and her team organize for LLN serve the dual purpose of raising funds for the cause and helping broadcast the message. From assembling brown bag lunches and care packages for homeless DV survivors to walking a mile in survivor’s shoes (often literally in high heels) at their annual 3K Heel-A-Thon Walk, LLN seeks to make the conversation accessible to people in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most anticipated event of the year sends survivors “strutting their truth” down the runway at the annual Empowerment Fashion Show, inspiring others to begin finding their voices and to know that DV does not define their futures.

“It doesn’t take a heavy lift to be part of the solution,” Lovern comments. “Mid-September to mid-October is our annual Bedding Drive, and something as simple as donating a twin sheet set and pillow, means the world to a survivor who may have left everything when escaping an abusive situation. Those personal items let them know they can rest easier as they transition to the next leg of their journey.”

For those who haven’t lived through the experience themselves, Lovern shares unvarnished details of her own story through her book to illustrate the impossible choices made by “sur-THRIVERS.”

“I thought LLN was enough,” she recalls, “but then the pandemic gave me the opportunity to write, after being approached by a publisher.” She finished the memoir in three months and has been promoting the book, along with LLN, via a nationwide book tour since its release in the summer of 2021. This year, Lovern has received help navigating her busy life as a wife, mother, keynote speaker, workshop leader, and the only full-time employee of LLN, thanks to the executive coach and colleagues she’s working with as part of The Lenny Zakim Fund 2024 Transformational Leadership Cohort.

image of man wearing a suit with his back to the camera and his hand raised in the hair standing in front of larger group of at least 15 men in suits that are facing the camera with their hands raised as if taking a pledge.
Male guests at the White Ribbon Night Gala take the White Ribbon Day Pledge.

“It’s all about using my voice to get other people to use their voices,” she says. In one of the most powerful moments of the year, the men in attendance at LLN’s annual White Ribbon Night Gala are asked to use their voices to become allies around the issue. The intensity is palpable as the women in the room witness their partners and other men become up-STANDERS by raising their right hands as they pledge “to never commit, excuse, or stay silent about sexual harassment, sexual assault, or domestic violence against others.”

“This issue breeds in silence,” Lovern says. “From the moment you begin to use your voice, things begin to shift.”

Current needs at Love Life Now Foundation include event volunteers, social media ambassadors, and donation drive hosts. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so please help spread the word and if you would like to get involved, or know anyone who needs assistance, please get in touch at 888-LLN-9876 (call or text) or info@lovelifenow.org.