The work is too important to get the support wrong.
Gender justice work is led by dedicated, skilled people doing really hard work. What has been harder to find is structured support for the coordination and leadership work that holds community response together — the infrastructure behind the infrastructure.
Brave Path Strategies was built to fill the gap the field has not filled: practitioner-led, leadership-focused support for the people responsible for holding community response systems together.
I bring direct experience doing this work across all levels of systems change: government, non-profit, and coalitions. Every recommendation I make is grounded in what I have seen work and what I have seen fail. I arrive as someone who has been in the room, navigated the politics, built the trust, and understands what this work actually demands.
My approach is survivor-centered, intersectional, and trauma-informed — not as aspirational values, but as the operating principles of every engagement I take on. I hold those principles whether I am coaching a coalition coordinator, facilitating a planning retreat, or supporting a city agency in redesigning how it engages community.
The goal of every engagement is to leave you stronger than I found you. I will help build better structures, clearer processes, and leaders who are more confident and skilled.
Darci Flynn, MSW
Founder & Principal Consultant
I started my career as a social worker with a simple belief: that systems could work for those who need them.
I am a social worker, strategist, and consultant with more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of gender-based violence prevention, human trafficking response, and survivor-centered systems change. I launched Brave Path Strategies to bring leadership-focused support to the organizations and agencies doing this work every day — often without the infrastructure they need to do it well.
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Director of Gender-Based Violence Strategy & Policy City of Chicago I chaired the Mayor's GBV Strategic Plan Task Force where I convened community-based organizations, city officials, and survivor leaders to design and implement a comprehensive municipal response to gender-based violence and human trafficking. I also convened Chicago's first Survivor Leader Working Group, ensuring that people with lived experience were not consulted as an afterthought, but positioned as central architects of the city's response.
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Federal Technical Assistance U.S. Department of Justice (OVC) & HHS (OTIP) Provided technical assistance across a portfolio of projects focused on survivor services, supporting organizations working at the intersection of gender-based violence, human trafficking, and systems change.
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Network Manager — Survivor Services Heartland Human Care Services Managed a network of approximately 60 subcontracted service providers delivering case management to survivors of human trafficking. This work gave me direct field experience with the accountability mechanisms, feedback structures, and interagency dynamics that define coordinated response.
Survivor-centered. Intersectional. Trauma-informed. Honest. Capacity-building, not dependency. These are operating principles of how I engage with every client, every community, and every system I touch.
I hold a Master's in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in nonprofit management and participation in the Violence Prevention Program of Study. I am based in Chicago, Illinois, and work with clients nationally.
| Get started Schedule a Free 30-Minute Discovery Call Just a conversation about where your organization is and whether Brave Path Strategies is the right fit. Every engagement starts here. Let's Talk → darciflynn@bravepathstrategies.com |