Issue No. 4 — Why I Talk About the $104,000

The Number Nobody Talks About

$104,000.

That’s the average financial cost of intimate partner violence in the United States.

Not emotional.
Financial.

Medical bills. Lost wages. Legal fees. Housing instability. Credit destruction.

Survival is expensive.

And even that number is conservative.

Because it doesn’t account for what compounds—missed promotions, disrupted careers, starting over again and again. For many survivors, it’s not one moment. It’s a pattern.

A lifetime of resets.

So yes—$104,000 is the number we have for now. 

and I know the real number is probably higher.

And that’s exactly why this brand exists.

Jewelry One of a KIND is not a charity.
It’s a business model built on economic recovery.

We don’t do charity. We do payroll.

Because safety often begins with a paycheck.

On Grief and Making

This month, Women's History Month, I spoke on the GRIEF AND LIGHT™️ podcast.

It clarified something I’ve always known:

What I build with Jewelry One of a KIND is, in many ways, a grief practice.

Every piece is named after a real woman.
Some survived. Some did not.

Every name belongs to a life.

Jewelry has been how I process grief my entire life.

The Culebra Claw

After five members of my family died in a plane crash in Puerto Rico, I was at a memorial gathering on the island of Culebra.

At some point, I found myself pulling langoustine shells out of a garbage can.

It didn’t make sense to anyone else.

But I could already see the bracelet.

Years later, I carved it in wax. Cast it in recycled metal. Polished until it holds light.

That’s the process.

You take what shattered you.
You work it by hand.
You make something worth keeping.
Beautiful enough to wear.

What Most People Get Wrong

There’s a question survivors hear all the time:

“Why didn’t you just leave?”

Here’s a better question:

Why don’t you just leave your job?

Your income is tied to your housing. Your healthcare. Your routine.

Now imagine the place harming you is also the thing keeping you alive.

That’s financial abuse.

Not emotional.
Structural.

What We’re Building

When I created Jewelry One of a KIND, I didn’t know there was language for this yet.

Later, I found organizations like FreeFrom working at the intersection of economic justice and survivor support.

The insight is simple:

Survivors don’t need saving.
They need income.

At Jewelry One of a KIND, artisans earn $27–$30 an hour.

Real money. In their pocket.

Made from  fairmined metals and materials with a past.

Because this isn’t about awareness.
It’s about ownership—and what comes after survival.

This isn’t a story we tell.
It’s a system we built.

Every clasp is also a paycheck.

What This Means

Jewelry has always carried memory.

Now it carries something else:

Economic power.

Design worth keeping.
Integrity worth collecting.

— Amanda