08/13/2026
I want to take a moment to ask you to remember community member Mandy Fackler with love.
She was a friend to so many of us, and her passing is devastating.
She and her girls did not deserve the violence and loss thrust upon them this week. Please pray for or send love to her family and friends.
I do not want to emphasize her passing as the memorable thing about this beautiful person, but it is important that we talk about it.
We know it was an act of domestic violence. This could have been any of us. Her quick thinking may have saved her girls, but we lost Mandy.
Things to consider that are not okay:
More than 1 in 3 women in the U.S. will experience contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in her lifetime.
On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines nationwide field more than 20,000 calls (NCADV).
The presence of a firearm in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by approximately 500%.
If you or someone you know is in danger, here are some resources:
Local / grassroots resources (Tampa Bay area):
IgniteHer founded by Girl Boss Tiffiny Newton — Check out Warrior Workshops combining awareness and practical safety skills; she also offers a legal fund and Bright Bags for kids in the immediate throes of a crisis.
Julie Weintraub's Hands Across the Bay — Founded by Julie Johnson Weintraub, Executive Director Melissa Hill is a survivor and public speaker (and badass)… they help women rebuild after crisis.
Weapon Brand Self-Defense and More — Co-funded by OG Jamie Anderson, They offer self-defense and fi****ms training if that is of interest.
CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse) — Pinellas County's official DV center since 1977; operates the area's 24-hour hotline and emergency shelter, plus support groups, economic empowerment, and legal advocacy. 24hr hotline: (727) 895-4912. Office: 1011 First Ave N, St. Petersburg.
The Haven of RCS — Clearwater-based shelter, provides emergency shelter, transitional living, and outreach services to victims of domestic violence and their children. Hotline: (727) 442-4128.
211 Tampa Bay Cares — dial 211 for local crisis referrals
EmpowHERment is also Boss-founded by Ambee Stephens (who is becoming a momma!) — They are not not DV-specific, but maintain a comprenesive resource list.
Finally, Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence — statewide hotline (800) 500-1119, useful if someone needs a referral outside our county.
A member of our community left a comment on my original post that I think reframes this in an important way, and I want to credit Robin Sola and share it with you. She’s a domestic violence survivor, and she pushed back (gently but firmly, which I appreciate) on lumping self-defense and fi****ms training in with domestic violence prevention.
Her point: DV is not a personal-safety or self-defense problem. It’s about coercive control, stalking, escalation, and lethality risk — a fundamentally different thing than defending yourself from a stranger. And she reminded us that women experiencing domestic violence are often already intelligent, resourceful, and strong — they leave, they call 911, they get injunctions, they have safety plans — and they can still be killed.
The fix isn’t making women better fighters but helping us recognize danger earlier and trusting our gut instinct without needing more proof first.
I’d like to bring our community together for Mandy and women like her (or maybe you) who have experienced domestic violence.
I’m thinking a workshop led by DV advocates and clinicians: recognizing coercive control and early warning signs, understanding stalking and escalation, why separation can be the most dangerous period, and how friends and family can respond when someone they love is being targeted.
In the meantime, here is her GoFundMe started by Emily Hite who is a dear human and very much a part of our community. Please give or share:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/mandys-girls-need-our-village
If you would like to help shape something, please reach out to me (Sandy Bean) directly. I need hands to assist, but would love to strategize.
In addition, if I left out any important resources, please link them below.
Women who are impacted by act such as these are often incredibly savvy, strong women. But being intelligent and successful doesn’t matter— we need skills or resources. And most importantly, we need everyone to raise sons who would never lay a finger on someone.
This is hard.
We need each other.
