It's Jan's birthday weekend. Come celebrate in Survivor Circle.

The Jan Broberg Foundation Newsletter, July 2026, Issue 06

The Monthly · July 2026 · Issue 06

A Note From Jan

Name It

Jan Broberg, Founder

A note before you read. Jan writes directly about childhood sexual abuse in this piece. If today is not the day, that is allowed. The rest of the issue is waiting further down.

My birthday is July 31, 1962. I turn 64 today. I did this exercise recently. You could do it too, and don't hold back. Be truthful. Love, Jan

Name It

I was twelve years old the first time my world was taken out from under me.

Twelve. An age that should mean bike rides and summer musicals and being annoyed at your little sisters. I had a charmed childhood from zero to eleven. Safe, with great friends, roller-skating to the neighborhood park, eating dinner with my almost perfect parents and sisters every night when dad got home from the flower shop.

That life turned on a dime. Twelve became the age. I learned that the people you trust most can be the ones who do you the most harm, and that a predator is usually not a stranger in a van. He can be your neighbor. Your family's best friend. A man who practically had his own chair at the table.

I was kidnapped. Twice. I was manipulated so thoroughly, over so many years, by someone so skilled at it, that I no longer knew which thoughts in my head were mine. I was told fantastical stories about aliens and destiny, stories built specifically to make a trusting, religious, prepubescent girl believe that what was happening to her was not abuse but a kind of magic she couldn't tell anyone about. I was made to believe, for years, that I loved him. That I had been chosen for this.

For a long time I was defined by the worst thing that was ever done to me, because that is what happens when something this size lands on a twelve-year-old. It doesn't stay in one corner of your life. It moves in. It redecorates. It answers the phone when people ask who you are.

I am naming it plainly, without euphemism. It was kidnapping. It was brainwashing. It was rape. I am the one who gets to say so now.

Name the Cost

Time. I lost the ordinary adolescence every kid deserves, the years where you are supposed to be figuring out who you are without a manipulator narrating it for you.

My voice. I was silenced before I was ever old enough to know I had something worth saying. I learned to defer, to please.

My worth. When someone convinces a child that her value lies in being chosen, special, secretly loved by someone dangerous, it warps how she measures herself. I spent years looking for my worth in other people's approval.

My relationships. Four marriages. That number is not a punchline. It is a receipt. It is what happens when something precious is stolen from you before you understand what it is even meant to be.

Somewhere there is a Jan who was never violated at twelve. An actress, a singer, a dancer, a daughter, a sister, who got to become herself on her own timeline, driven by curiosity instead of survival. I will never meet her. That is its own kind of grief, and I am done pretending it isn't one.

Name Who You Are Today

I am a survivor who turned the exact skills my abuser used to break me, storytelling, performance, the ability to hold a room, to read people, to build trust, into tools I now use to protect other people's children. That is not irony. That is reclamation.

I am the founder of the Jan Broberg Foundation, built with my son and co-founder Austen Tanner, who took the worst thing that happened to our family and, instead of running from it, chose to build alongside me.

I am, today, in the room. Not as the girl this happened to, but as the woman who decided what it would mean. I believe, and I have said publicly, that a happy childhood is possible at any age. Healing is not a deadline you missed. It is a door that is still open.

The first thirty-two years of my life were shaped by what someone else decided to do to me. Everything in the last thirty-two has been what I decided to do about it.

That is the part I am still writing.

Happy birthday to me, and to every survivor who rises from the dust.

You Are Invited

Come celebrate with us Saturday

Saturday August first at noon MST, Jan is hosting a birthday celebration inside the Survivor Circle. We are celebrating Jan, Teresa, and Edit, three birthdays in one month, and every new face who has found this community.

Come say happy birthday, meet some wonderful people, and celebrate what we are building together.

Create your free Survivor Circle account and you can RSVP for the celebration once you are inside.

Join the Celebration

Now Streaming · Trauma Interrupted

Jan sat down with Kris Collins, and the internet is better for it

This coming week Jan joins Kris Collins for a conversation that goes places most interviews never do. Jan tells her story the way only she can, and Kris makes room for every bit of it. Get ready to watch, it is worth your time.

And if you found us because of this episode: welcome. This community exists for exactly this reason. Look around, stay as long as you like, and know that there is a seat here for you too.

Watch on Kris's channel

Now Open · Survivor Circle

Survivor Circle is live, and there is a seat here for you.

Healing was never meant to happen alone. Survivor Circle is our community for survivors who are ready to be seen, to be believed, and to walk alongside people who understand exactly what that road feels like, because they have walked it too.

Enrollment is open right now. Whether you are just beginning to name what happened to you, or you have been on this path for years and are looking for people who get it without a long explanation, there is a place for you here.

You do not have to carry this by yourself. Come as you are.

Join Survivor Circle

Your healing journey can start today.

SPOT6's Bay Area Debut

SPOT6 Makes Its Bay Area Debut

On March 24, 2026, SPOT6 officially launched its first public presentation at the Sunnyvale Rotary Club, introducing the San Francisco Bay Area to a survivor informed approach to child abuse prevention.

Presented alongside Jan Broberg, the program introduced the Six Stages of Child Grooming and equipped community leaders with practical tools to recognize grooming behaviors before abuse occurs.

SPOT6 presentation at Sunnyvale Rotary Club

Jan Broberg and Teresa Agustin at the SPOT6 debut

Since its debut, the SPOT6 team has spent the summer refining the curriculum, expanding educational resources, and scheduling pilot presentations for schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, while also offering virtual presentations to schools and organizations across the country.

We're excited to keep building safer communities, one presentation at a time.

Public debut,
Sunnyvale Rotary Club

Stages of grooming
taught

2026

Pilot presentations
scheduled

Interested in bringing SPOT6 to your school or organization? Contact us to schedule an in person or virtual presentation.

New Release · By Edit B Kiss

Stop Panic Now

A Holistic Guide to Healing Panic Attacks, Anxiety, and Emotional Trauma

Edit B Kiss is our online survivor community Director, a best selling Author, and has just released her powerful new book to help people better understand what is going on with them.

In Stop Panic Now, trauma healer and transformation coach Edit B Kiss shares the principles, tools, and healing practices that helped her move through years of panic attacks, anxiety, and emotional suffering, the same practices that have since helped clients around the world reclaim their peace and confidence.

Inside, you'll find a blend of trauma healing, mindset work, meditation, and practical daily habits, along with the full framework behind her PTSD to Peace 30 Day Intensive Program and real client stories of transformation.

If you're ready to stop surviving and start living, this book is for you.

Get the Book

Celebrating This Month

Three Birthdays, One Big Month

This month we get to celebrate three people who shape everything this foundation does: our founder Jan Broberg, our board chairperson and SPOT6 creator Teresa Agustin, and our own community director Edit B Kiss. Join us in wishing them a happy birthday and thanking them for everything they give to this community.

Join The Movement

There is a place for you here.

Bring SPOT6 to your community

For more information, please reach out to Teresa at teresa@janbrobergfoundation.org

Join our volunteer team

If you are interested in joining our volunteer team, please fill out this form.

Reach us anytime

info@janbrobergfoundation.org

That's everything for this issue. Thank you for being part of this with us.

With gratitude,
The JBF Team