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Kadasha Williams, a graduate of our writing workshop and co-editor of LEAP. |
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What does change look like? That's a question that we at The Voices and Faces Project ask every day. In a world where one in three women will be the victim of some form of gender-based violence — and far too many people still blame, shame, or punish those who speak out about sexual violence or harassment — the status quo isn't just unsustainable. It's unjust.
Never has that been clearer than it is today, as survivors come forward in more ways and places than ever before. They're not just asking to be heard. They're demanding that society finally, fundamentally change.
Creating change through the power of survivor stories is what The Voices and Faces Project is all about. And in 2017, eleven years after our non-profit was founded, we're creating more change than ever before:
» We graduated our 540th writer from "The Stories We Tell," North America's first two-day testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence and other human rights violations. Created for those who want to use their testimonies to change minds, hearts and public policies, "The Stories We Tell" will next travel to refugee girls in Nairobi, through our partnership with Heshima Kenya.
» We entered our third year of offering "The Stories We Tell" to court-involved and at-risk girls in Chicago. This was made possible through partnerships with Emerson Collective, Young Women's Leadership Charter School, and Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
» We brought our award-winning "Ugly Truth," anti-trafficking campaign to its sixth US city. Developed by listening to the stories of human trafficking survivors — and praised by the European Union as one of the best gender-justice campaigns running worldwide —"The Ugly Truth" has made over 400 million audience impressions.
» We partnered with Brew Communications and NoVo Foundation to expand "Marketing a Movement," a half-day advocacy training program for those seeking to use communications in service to social justice. "Marketing a Movement" has traveled to 12 US cities and will be a featured program at the 2018 End Violence Against Women International conference.
» We continue to serve in a leadership capacity at World Without Exploitation. As part of that effort, our in-house Voices and Faces Project storytelling team is building the first-ever large-scale archive of trafficking survivor testimony.
» LEAP — a literary journal for teens whose lives have been impacted by violence — entered its second year. Girl-focused and girl-created, LEAP isn't just a magazine. It's a Voices and Faces Project youth-engagement initiative. |
The Voices and Faces Project has ambitious goals for 2017 — perhaps most notably, the expansion of our "Stories We Tell" program to reach refugee girls — but we can't meet those goals without you.
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$100 or more before 1/15/2018, and
receive a free copy of our next issue of LEAP.
And thank you, as always, for your support. | |
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voicesandfaces.org
info@voicesandfaces.org
