I Share Hope: Chris Williams

  Survivor, expert and activist Jodee Blanco is one of the country’s pre-eminent voices on the subject of school bullying. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Please Stop Laughing At Me: One Woman’s Inspirational Story. A chronicle of her years as the student outcast, the book inspired a movement inside the nation’s schools and has become an American classic. Referred to by many as “the anti-bullying bible,” it is required reading in hundreds of middle and high schools and many universities throughout the country. Please Stop Laughing at Me . . . has also been recognized as an essential resource by The National Crime Prevention Council, The Department of Health & Human Services, the National Association of Youth Courts, Special Olympics, The FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), The American School Counselor’s Association, Teacher Magazine and hundreds of state and local organizations from the PTA and regional law enforcement coalitions to school safety groups.   Blanco’

  Michele Rosenthal is an award-winning PTSD blogger, bestselling and award-nominated author, founder of HealMyPTSD.com, host of Changing Direction radio, and a former faculty member of the Clinical Development Institute for Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center. She is also a trauma survivor who struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for over twenty-five years before launching a successful “healing rampage.” Her most recent books are Your Life After Trauma: Powerful Practices to Reclaim Your Identity (W. W. Norton) and Heal Your PTSD: Dynamic Strategies that Work (Conari Press).

  Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was motivated to create it while working as a blood technician with the South African Blood Transfusion Service, during which time she met many rape victims. Ehler mentioned that she was inspired to create RAPEX (later renamed to Rape-aXe) when a patient who had been raped stated, "If only I had teeth down there,” suggesting the myth of the vagina dentata. Initially called RapeX, the name was changed in 2006 upon discovering that RAPEX is also an EU warning system against dangerous goods on the market. The Rape-aXe is a latex sheath embedded with shafts of sharp, inward-facing barbs that would be worn by a woman in her vagina like a female condom. If an attacker were to attempt vaginal rape, his penis would enter the latex sheath and be snagged by the barbs, causing the attacker excruciating pain during withdrawal and giving the victim time to escape. The condom would remain attached to the attacker's body when he withdrew and could only be removed surgically,  which would alert hospital s

Jim Mandelin was born in rural Alberta to a violent, alcoholic, Klu Klux Klan father and a teenage runaway, homeless kid who became Jim’s mother. His grandmother insisted on caring for him and he was taken from his parents to be raised on her farm from infancy until fifteen years of age. Jim never saw his mother again until adulthood. Though his grandmother did her best to care for him, she was confined to a wheelchair and his care became the primary responsibility of his father’s younger siblings.  This they did with great resentment and animosity.   Jim endured years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at home and severe bullying at school. At fifteen years old he ran away to the mean streets of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver British Columbia where he continued to be abused, selling drug for the gangs, ending up in prison and being recruited into a motorcycle gang. He became a debt collector for the gang and beat people. Life changed for Jim when at the age of twenty two he entered drug rehab where

  Linh Do is a social change advocate and has been working on environmental issues for the past six years. She has a background in community organising, campaigning, journalism and strategy development. Linh has worked with a wide array of individuals from high school students to UNEP and the Reuters Foundation. She is a co-founder of OurSay, recreationally the editor of The Verb, and sits on the board of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership. Linh is signed with BookedOut Agency and is an occasional writer. Linh is currently the community coordinator at Australian Conservation Foundation and in 2013 was named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year and one of Junior Chamber International Outstanding Young Persons of the World. She is based in Melbourne, Australia with extensive experience overseas.

  Bill Murray, survivor, public safety advocate, founder of National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (NAASCA.org), host of the Internet talk radio show "Stop Child Abuse Now" (BlogTalkRadio.com/Bill-Murray), and founder of ASCAA, a 12 Step recovery program for adult survivors of child abuse (ASCA12step.org), shared his story with RAACE.   He was sexually abused for several years, starting when he was 11. he didn't tell anyone, and internalized his fear, anger and shame. An introvert with a temper, he started doing badly in school and getting into trouble. He hated himself, and began drinking heavily as soon as he could get his hands on alcohol. Bill is convinced that children need and deserve the help of a community.

Julie Mayerson Brown lives on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a rural suburb of Los Angeles, with her husband, two sons (who return from school periodically for laundry service and home-made chicken soup), four (yes FOUR) boxer dogs, and hundreds of wild peacocks. Her work has appeared in the Daily Breeze, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and Parenting Magazine. An “at-home” mom and community volunteer for over twenty years, she is a founding member of Mothers Advocating Prevention, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting children and teens. Her first novel, The Long Dance Home, was published in 2013 by Mischievous Muse Press, a subsidiary of World Nouveau Publishing. Currently working on her next novel, Julie usually can be found in one of the quiet corners of her local library.

Mattias Thambert, the creator of Refurn, rescues furniture from recycling stations in Stockholm to give them a second life. Mattias, his company and countless volunteers collect the discarded furniture, make repairs and sometimes redesigns before selling them again to a new home. His vision is to make the reuse of furniture the default for our culture and in that way halting the vicious cycle of short lived furniture made at a massive scale from virgin materials.

Musician Barbara Ochoa aka Petra Luna was an abuse victim her whole young life; sexually, emotionally, physically and by school bullying. Later, she like many others took the normal course of ending up in abusive relationships with her male partners. Fortunately, through extensive therapy, artistic expression and advocacy she overcame the crippling effects of her past and began her journey to help others who had been abused. After a few years of working with other nonprofits, Petra founded her own organization in 2008 she named the P. Luna Foundation. She has gained over 100,000 followers worldwide through social networking and her music and charity websites receive over one million hits per year. “In 2006 when I was working for Domestic Violence in Los Angeles, I met Ken Austin, a retired basketball player for the Detroit Pistons who was also working in the cause. He told me in a meeting once that if I really wanted to help abuse victims, I had to deal with the male perpetrators of Domestic Violence. This ma

  James Costello has been trained in Improvisational Theatre in New York City, as well as traditional theatre at Lee Strasberg NY. He is also a Director, Producer, Choreographer, Social Media guru, Publicist, Set and Lighting Designer and fluent in French, Afrikaans and, naturally, English! James provides a LIVE, uncensored, thoroughly transparent "reality show"-like window into my everyday adventures and experiences living in Cape Town...not an " edited highlights" life, but the truth, especially as a survivor of childhood maternal sexual abuse and a struggler with depression and PTSD and the concomitant extreme loneliness.

KiloMarie Granda from St. Cloud, Minnesota, a child abuse and rape survivor who's now a Violence Prevention and Response Coordinator and a Wellness Center Coordinator at University of Minnesota. She's also the founder of Unspoken Voices, where the motto is "One voice changes everything." KiloMarie has worked with both offenders and victim/survivors and has seen the damage caused in lives of many due to interpersonal violence. As a result of this and her own experience as a survivor of childhood abuse and rape, she realized that far too many individuals' voices, including her own, often remain unspoken. KiloMarie believes that if the work that Unspoken Voices does affects even one life in a positive manner, than it gives meaning to her experiences. "For far too long, victim/survivors, bystanders, and our society has remained silent on the issues of personal power-based violence. The silence must be shattered," she says. "We must be willing to raise our own voices and declare that violence is not okay, not tole

Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode is an Ashoka Fellow, Criminal Justice Psychologist, Sexuality Minister, Victim Advocate, Forensic Interviewer, Survivor, Sex /Marriage Counselor, Social entrepreneur, Woman & Child Rights Activist, IVLP Alumni, Wife,  Mother & Grandmother. In addition, she started her career in journalism, a national columnist and international speaker. She is a lover of children and contributing to restoring the experience of childhood that is so fast becoming extinct.

  Alan Emtage oversees programming and content management at Mediapolis. Before joining the company Emtage co-founded Bunyip Information Systems, Inc., where he created the Archie system, the Internet's first search engine. Alan has chaired the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working groups on Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (IAFA) and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URLs, URNs and URCs), as well as sitting on advisory boards for the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Emtage lectures and speaks at conferences around the world on such topics as Internet information systems and the impact of the Internet on society. He is often called upon by the press for his technological expertise including interviews in the Wall Street Journal and the highly praised PBS series Life on the Internet. Emtage, a native of Barbados, holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science from McGill University.

  Kriya Gangiah is the ultimate mix of beauty, intelligence and enthusiasm. This stylish twenty-something DJ, MC, businesswoman, actress and model attracts a lot of media attention and is currently a presenter on Jacaranda FM’s show The Lounge. Kriya hosts this show every weeknight between 7 and 10 pm alongside co-host Cassy Clarke. Kriya has an insatiable hunger for knowledge, as is proven by her impressive academic record. Her passion for business is also evident as she is currently a Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche in Vulnerability Management, having made the move from her former position as an IT Auditor at one of South Africa’s leading firms. Kriya has also lent her promotional skills to various brands over the years in the role as Brand Ambassador for brands like Zoya, Lipsy, MINI and S.W.E.A.T. 1000. Her enthusiasm and gratitude about her career are infectious, as she remains grateful to get paid to talk. A well-balanced individual with a social conscience, Kriya manages to strike the balanc

  Author Trevor Kleinhans is an experienced public speaker and has been featured at the world-renowned Pecha Kucha event, Aegus Student Accommodation, SABC’s Morning Live show and universities and colleges around South Africa. Trevor’s refreshingly honest approach to his real life experience allows him to dive deep in to areas of  Emotional & Childhood Sexual Abuse, Crack Cocaine Addiction, HIV, Same Sex Prejudice and much more.

Changing the world from Milan, Italy, Cristina Gabetti, is supporting evolution from the era of information to the era of knowledge. As a journalist, author, environmentalist, mother and grandmother Cristina has proven to be an intergenerational leader in sustainable global health initiatives.    

Bobbi Parish is a therapist, author, entrepreneur and Trauma Recovery Coach. A survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse. She’s a founder of The #NoMoreShame Project and Trauma Recovery University. Every week she’s a podcaster, videocaster, Twitter chat host and Facebook support group leader in an effort to help Trauma Survivors reach a place of peace and recovery.

Petri Luukkainen is a filmmaker who recently released a full feature documentary about his very personal and brave experimental journey. Petri decided he would take every single possession out of his apartment, put it in storage, and then bring one item back per day for a period of a year. This way, he could discover the balance of things and personal identity.

Germany Kent is a social media expert, best-selling author, business consultant and successful commercial actress in Hollywood. She is a former award-winning university administrator and corporate executive, and is ranked as a top social media influencer. You Are What You Tweet will be her 10th social media self-help book, she is also the author of The Hope Handbook Series: The Search for Personal Growth.  

Born in Bururi, Burundi, Mr. Pasikari fled for his life as a child to Congo when his home was overrun with the horrors of Civil War. 25 years later as an adult he was forced to become a refuge once again in Tanzania when Congo became engulfed in its own Civil War. Mr. Pasikari’s two daughters, skillfully translate the words of their father as he recounts his story of tragedy, survival and new hope.