Elizabeth Smart, who survived a home abduction in 2001 followed by nine grueling months in captivity, was selected by the Community Foundation of Southwest Colorado to headline its 2024 Making a Difference speaker series in Durango on Tuesday.

She hopes to deliver a key message to other survivors, who she said are statistically certain to be in the audience at Fort Lewis College: “They are not alone.”

Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 when she was just 14 years old. She was held captive for nine months. Her captors raped her and threatened to kill her family if she tried to escape. In March 2003, police found her on a street and she was reunited with her family.

If you go

Tickets to the “Making a Difference Speaker Series” featuring Elizabeth Smart remained available as of Friday. Tickets can be purchased for $30 to $50 by visiting https://www.swcommunityfoundation.org/.

“There’s usually three things that I feel are really important for anyone who’s going through anything remotely similar to what I went through,” she said, noting that in her case, she was abducted by strangers, but it’s more common for abuse to come from people known by a survivor.

She said people subjected to kidnapping or abuse need to know that it’s not their fault, that labels don’t define them and that it’s important to spend time on activities and people who make one happy.

She said the pursuit of happiness is a guiding light in the dark.

“I don’t think you can be human without experiencing hardship, loss, pain, frustration, anger. I think we all experience that,” she said. “All of the difficult moments we have in life and in the world, it’s important to take time to be happy. … Maybe we sacrifice our happiness along the way, but I feel like it’s that happiness that can be what helps guide us through the darkness.”

Smart was an advocate for the Amber Alert system and the Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act of 2006, which strengthened laws concerning the national sex offender registry, and along with her father she founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation in 2011 to “champion prevention education.”

The foundation offers several programs, one of which is “Smart Defense,” which is a “trauma-informed, holistic approach to self-defense” and teaches the martial arts of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and Krav Maga.

The program is aimed at giving people tools to be safe and tools to make choices, she said.

“The most dangerous situation any person can find themselves in is a situation where they don’t have any options, where they don’t have any choices,” she said. “’Smart Defense’ is (giving them) options and choices where otherwise there may not be.”

She said self-defense is incredible, but it’s a discipline. Like a language or a musical instrument, it has to be exercised or it won’t be there when one needs it.

Most people freeze when they are attacked, which is natural, she said. The following self-deprecation and internal beratement for not responding is natural, too. But Smart Defense explores that and helps people train for worst-case scenarios.

“We Believe You” is another program offered by the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. Smart said it’s geared toward educating communities about how to respond to survivors, when they come forward with their stories.

The response a survivor receives for disclosing their experience can change the trajectory of his or her life, for better or for worse, she said.

“Whether they go on to reporting it, to getting help, to really start on a healthier plane of life, versus whether they keep it inside them, bottled up, and it begins to destroy them from the inside out,” she said.

The “We Believe You” program emphasizes belief. Smart said the instances of false reporting are as low as 2% of cases, and it’s always safer to believe someone than to doubt them.

Smart said she is looking forward to her Making a Difference speaking event on Tuesday. She will speak at 7 p.m. at the Community Concert Hall at FLC. The Making a Difference speaking event will include a 20-minute panel discussion about child advocacy, sexual assault and recovery services featuring La Plata County nonprofits and organizations.

cburney@durangoherald.com