{"id":216413,"date":"2026-03-12T13:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216413\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T13:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:26:27","slug":"beth-hassett-leads-weaves-mission-to-support-survivors-across-the-sacramento-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216413\/","title":{"rendered":"Beth Hassett Leads WEAVE\u2019s Mission to Support Survivors Across the Sacramento Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

This story is part of our March 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

Beth Hassett<\/p>\n

\n CEO, WEAVE\n<\/p>\n

\n Beth Hassett initially intended a career in arts fundraising. A
\n need to push herself took her in another direction entirely. It
\n wasn\u2019t always an easy or straightforward change, however.\n<\/p>\n

\n Hassett, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in finance from the
\n University of Utah and a graduate degree in communications from
\n Indiana State University, planned to work in theater. The Utah
\n native had moved to Sacramento and was working for Capital Public
\n Radio when she realized she needed to pursue something more
\n complex.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was drawn to work that would make me uncomfortable,\u201d Hassett
\n says.\n<\/p>\n

\n In college, one of Hassett\u2019s sorority sisters was sexually
\n assaulted. Guided by painful memories of that experience, she
\n shifted focus.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI wanted to be part of that solution, righting that imbalance
\n and power between men and women,\u201d says Hassett, chief executive
\n officer for WEAVE, a nonprofit devoted to domestic violence and
\n sexual assault in the Sacramento region.\n<\/p>\n

\n By 1995, Hassett was working at Disabled Sports USA as a special
\n events coordinator when she left to join WEAVE as its director of
\n development. There, she says, she discovered her purpose. For the
\n next six years, she worked on fundraising and community
\n relations; she also undertook more client-facing roles as a
\n sexual assault response team advocate and crisis line operator.\n<\/p>\n

\n Burnout, unsurprisingly perhaps, eventually followed. Her mother
\n had just died when Hassett found herself on a plane unable to
\n talk with the woman in an adjoining seat about what she did for a
\n living. \u201cI\u2019d hit a wall with sharing people\u2019s trauma,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n

\n Hassett returned to Capital Public Radio before moving on again
\n to work as a national public radio consultant. By 2006, she was
\n back in the world of nonprofit caregiving as director of the
\n Mercy San Juan Community Council for the Mercy Foundation. She
\n also rejoined WEAVE as a board member when the nonprofit\u2019s
\n then-executive director stepped down.\n<\/p>\n

\n Once again, Hassett felt a calling. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to go back
\n to WEAVE and finish my business there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s going to take the entire community seeing
\n their role in supporting survivors, recognizing when violence
\n is happening in somebody\u2019s life and knowing what to do about
\n it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the 20 years since, guided by Hassett\u2019s leadership, WEAVE has
\n evolved from primarily serving women to expanding its services to
\n anyone in need. In recent years, for example, the organization\u2019s
\n male clients have increased from 1 percent of its caseloads to 15
\n percent. The uptick in men seeking out WEAVE underscores the
\n organization\u2019s need to be more inclusive, Hassett says.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s all genders, it\u2019s all ages, it\u2019s all people all the time,\u201d
\n Hassett says. \u201cAre these crimes primarily perpetrated against
\n women? Absolutely. However, we miss a whole chunk of the
\n population if we don\u2019t talk about the fact that it happens to men
\n too, and certain communities are extremely vulnerable to such
\n violence, like the trans community.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The COVID-19 pandemic also played a significant role in shaping
\n WEAVE\u2019s current focus. During lockdown, WEAVE was forced to scale
\n back, laying off 28 employees. The impact, she says, was intense.
\n As courts shut down, fewer restraining orders and child custody
\n cases were heard. There was also a sharp decrease in reported
\n child abuse cases because mandated reporters, such as teachers,
\n no longer had first-hand observations of children.\n<\/p>\n

\n Still, Hassett says, there were some positive takeaways,
\n including a deeper community sense of shared empathy.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur whole community and society have a visceral feel for what it
\n would be like to be trapped in a home with somebody who\u2019s abusing
\n you,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n

\n Annually, WEAVE serves approximately 15,000 people through direct
\n services, including crisis support, counseling, legal assistance
\n and safe housing. In recent years, WEAVE underwent a rebranding
\n in 2019, which included changing the meaning of its acronym from
\n \u201cWomen Escaping a Violent Environment\u201d to reflect its more
\n inclusive mission: \u201cWhen Everyone Acts, Violence Ends.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s our vision now as an agency, and it\u2019s what\u2019s going to make
\n a difference,\u201d Hassett says. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s going to take the
\n entire community seeing their role in supporting survivors,
\n recognizing when violence is happening in somebody\u2019s life and
\n knowing what to do about it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n As CEO, Hassett\u2019s day-to-day work is centered on supporting her
\n executive team and program managers, as well encouraging a
\n culture where \u201cevery voice is heard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI encourage my staff to speak up because we all are coming to
\n the table with different perspectives and a different skillset,\u201d
\n she says.\n<\/p>\n

\n While the threat of burnout is still very real, Hassett and her
\n husband, Kevin, have two adult daughters, Leah and Eden, and
\n several grandchildren, she says she finds motivation and support
\n through her outside work on various arts and culture boards,
\n including Capital Stage and the Midtown Association. She is also
\n a commissioner for First Five Sacramento, a nonprofit agency that
\n works to support and improve the healthy development of children
\n up to age 5.\n<\/p>\n

\n All of this, Hassett says, helps her stay focused \u2014 and thrive.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy superpower is activating people and looking for connections
\n in the community,\u201d Hassett says. \u201cThat\u2019s the fun: Bringing people
\n together to see what we can do together.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

\n View the\u00a0list of
\n honorees<\/a>\u00a0from 2015 through 2026.\n<\/p>\n

\n Get all the stories in our annual salute to women in
\n leadership delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to the Comstock\u2019s newsletter
\n today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of our March 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here. …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-216413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}