survivorsisters

11/12/2021

14/04/2021

For , we are committed to sharing different resources that will help educate people about sexual assault while also supporting survivors and their work. Seeing as it is our mission to uplift the voices of survivors and give all survivors a platform to share their stories, we created a list of some books that share survivor stories. In honor of , we encourage our audience to read at least one book and/or share this list with your circles and call on them to do the same. It is so important that we support survivors sharing their stories in all mediums. Take this opportunity to learn about and to reflect on the many different experiences of sexual assault and what we can do to support survivors and make positive changes in our communities and in our world. Let us know in the comments what book you plan to read!
•••••••••••
TW: all of these books discuss sexual violence in detail. If you are not in a space to commit to reading these stories, that is totally valid. Take care of yourself— we are here for you.

14/04/2021

💙UPCOMING EVENTS TO ATTEND💙 We are so excited and honored to be a part of some incredible events this month!
💙💙💙Tomorrow at 5:30 PM EST, Adrianna will be sharing her story and experience with the Title IX process with Ramapo College— email [email protected] to register.
💙💙💙On Sunday 4/18 at 10 AM EST, we will be going live with to discuss sexual assault on college campuses, barriers to reporting, and steps we can take to make change and support survivors.
— We are continually inspired by all of the amazing survivors, organizations, and activists around us who remain committed to educating others and creating resources and safe spaces for survivors and allies to come together. Now more than ever, we have seen the importance of using social media and technology in activism and advocacy work and we applaud everyone taking the steps to pivot their work to online spaces and ultimately become more inclusive, especially during this past year. We compiled a small list of some events you can check out and show support.
•••••••••
Be sure to message us if you would like us to share other upcoming events happening this month for and we would be happy to!

14/04/2021

In honor of , we encourage our audience to check out and support some of these amazing podcasts that share survivor stories and have important conversations regarding sexual violence and healing from trauma and abuse. We created a podcast because it is an effective medium for educating others and it allows us to reach so many different kinds of people from all over the world. The audio gives us the opportunity to physically hear the vulnerability and pain and strength that comes with sharing your story on such a platform and it allows for meaningful discussions about healing, advocacy work, mental health, policy reform and more. Pick an episode to listen to with some friends and have a discussion about what you learn from it. We know that it will be something meaningful and we believe that is all about having important conversations about sexual violence, even if they may be difficult to have.
••••••••••••
Let us know which podcast you are going to listen to or recommend some others in the comments 🎧

07/04/2021

LINK IN BIO TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE— About 90% of all college sexual assaults are committed by repeat offenders. 90%!!!! Universities repeatedly refuse to acknowledge that sexual assault is huge problem on their campuses and do not put in the work to create sustainable systems of accountability that will invoke positive change and keep their students safe. created a repeat-offender detection tool to help students identify if their assailant is a repeat offender and to provide survivors with valuable resources and information that prioritizes their agency when moving forward on their path to healing. While it’s great that survivors can rely on organizations like Callisto and other sources of support to make effective change off campus, we need universities to start making effective change on campus too.

06/04/2021

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In our ninth episode, we sit down with Dr. Antonia Franco, CEO, and Maia Brockbank, Intern, of Callisto, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create technology that combats sexual assault, supports survivors, and advances justice. At Callisto, they believe that survivors should be recognized as autonomous agents over their action and given a world of options to choose from. Callisto provides survivors with a number of resources, including their Record Form, which is a form available to all survivors that can be used to recount and share the details of their assault while minimizing re-traumatization, and their Matching System, which is a repeat perpetrator detection system that allows survivors to securely create an encrypted entry of their incident into their matching system. They also provide users who enter into the matching system with a trauma-informed attorney who will inform and support survivors as they navigate their options moving forward. We also discuss the changing landscape of sexual assault activism and advocacy as a result of the pandemic and our newfound reliance on technology and social media to educate others and support survivors.
••••••••••••••
SWIPE TO SEE A LIST OF SCHOOLS CURRENTLY USING CALLISTO
••••••••••••••
LINK IN BIO TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE!

01/04/2021

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month . While this month is about bringing awareness to the prevalence of sexual assault in our society, it is also about prevention, education, and, most importantly, supporting ALL survivors of sexual violence. Our mission at Survivor Sisters is to lift up survivor voices and give survivors a safe space to share their stories. Throughout the month, we will be sharing different resources and information regarding sexual assault awareness and prevention. We encourage our audience to do the same with the resources you have available to you. It is so important for all of us— survivors and allies— to come together and try to make an impact and incite change within our own communities.

01/04/2021

Some exciting news!!! Adrianna will be sharing her story along with another survivor at an event with Ramapo College in New Jersey! The event will be online through WebEx and anyone can join. For those who are Ramapo students— you can register through your Archway account. For those who are not— you can email [email protected] to register and you will be sent the link. Mark it in your calendars people, it’s going to be an amazing event to shed light on survivors stories and the process they went through with Title IX as well as how their trauma affected their personal lives. There will be a representative from Ramapo’s counseling services if anyone needs support during this event. We hope to see you there!! 🤍🦋

18/11/2020

Oftentimes, survivors struggle with feeling like an imposter or feeling like their experiences weren’t “bad” enough to be labeled as r**e or sexual assault. This is because our society has trivialized and normalized questionable, non-consensual sexual experiences through hookup culture, sexism, and r**e culture. Society has a very narrow definition of what is acceptable as r**e and sexual assault. We often equate the level of violence of the assault with the possible trauma experienced from it. There is this idea that if your life was not threatened or you were not seriously harmed or even that if you didn’t fight back hard enough, then “you were not really r**ed” or “other people have had it worse, so you’re fine.” These violent accounts happen and they are horrific, but these experiences do not take away from other, more common experiences. No other experience should ever take away from your own experience. It is easier for us to ignore the negative effects of hookup culture because it is uncomfortable and scary to label what is so normalized in our culture as r**e or sexual assault. And this opens the door for survivors to try to convince themselves that what they experienced is normal, when it’s not!
•••••••••••••
We commend Kate for sharing her own feelings about this and opening up this conversation. LINK IN BIO TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE 🎧

16/11/2020

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!! In our latest episode, we sit down with , who is a sexual assault survivor from Northeastern University. Kate’s story and experiences with hook-up culture and r**e culture on college campuses inspired her to write and direct Rules of Play: College Edition— a comedic and non-realistic play which aims to highlight the harms of Greek life, hook-up culture and sexual assault on college campuses. Thank you Kate for being so open and vulnerable and for laying the groundwork to ignite conversations about these patriarchal systems that define and transcend the college experience.
••••••••••
LINK IN BIO to listen to Kate’s story and stream

05/10/2020

One reason why many survivors choose not to report is because they fear they will be blamed, ridiculed, and re-traumatized. And unfortunately, they usually are not wrong. This is the reality— the norm, even— for most survivors who do report, whether to the police or on campus. They are not taken seriously and made to feel like they are somehow at fault for the indefensible acts that were done to them by their perpetrators. Check out our latest episode with to hear more about her unfortunate experience with reporting and how the whole legal process affected her— LINK IN BIO TO LISTEN 📿

30/09/2020

We LOVE the metaphor for healing behind the title Beads! Listen to explain it further in our latest episode! LINK IN BIO 📿
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Imagine you are wearing a necklace and someone pulls it off your neck, causing the necklace to fall apart. Beads scatter everywhere and one by one, you try to re-strand your necklace with the beads you have left. Some beads may be lost forever, some may become broken, and some new beads may come along the way, but eventually you will have a new necklace. It won’t be the same necklace as before and that’s okay. This is what it’s like when we heal from trauma🙏🏻

29/09/2020

WE’RE BACK!!! EPISODE #6 OUT NOW- LINK IN BIO TO LISTEN! In our latest episode, we sit down with Rachael Brooks, a sexual assault survivor from North Carolina and first-time author of Beads: A Memoir about Falling Apart and Putting Yourself Back Together Again. Beads details Rachael’s journey after suffering a brutal attack, confronting the devastating justice system, and ultimately discovering the other side of trauma: forgiveness and peace. Beads reveals the realities and challenges survivors face, as well as the roller coaster of emotions throughout their journey. While Rachael recounts the harrowing details of her assault, she also shares how this experience affected her in its aftermath and how she managed to put herself back together again one bead at a time. Beads is an incredible book, written by an inspiring and strong woman, that tells a powerful story. We cannot thank Rachael enough for being so open, vulnerable, and unfiltered in sharing her story and helping so many survivors feel like they are not alone. LINK IN BIO TO ORDER BEADS!

19/09/2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a personal hero of mine. I will always admire her unwavering strength and resiliency in not only fighting for what is right, but never giving up that fight. For a long time, it was my ultimate dream to become a Supreme Court Justice and fight for equality like her and I know that I am not the only woman she has inspired to do the same. This is a devastating loss for her family and for democracy. She was a legend. An icon. And my idol. At Barnard, I wrote a research paper on RBG’s path towards the Supreme Court. Here is an excerpt that I think sums up her insurmountable impact on the world and why she was such a champion for equality. May her memory be a blessing🙏🏻:
••••
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s journey to The Supreme Court was one marked by immense hardships. Justice Ginsburg faced increasing discrimination throughout her career due to her gender, her identity as a mother, and her religion. Grounded in the historical and social contexts of the 1940s - 1960s, and beyond, Justice Ginsburg overcame many barriers on her path towards the United States Supreme Court. She was continuously denied employment from law firms in NYC because she was a woman, even though she graduated first in her class from Columbia Law School. Columbia Law School even refused to hire Ruth, despite her academic success at their own institution, because she was a woman. Ruth’s career succumbed to barriers out of her control and she had to navigate these barriers with strength and resilience.
Persecuted throughout her life, in both her education and her career, Ruth continued to work hard and push through the obstacles in her way, emerging as an intelligent and powerful leader. It is this perseverance, shaped by her unique perspective at the intersection of Judaism, gender, and motherhood, that inspired her life’s work and commitment to women’s rights and equality for all. And as a transformational leader, she was able to inspire many other women, like myself, to do the same. Justice Ginsburg continues to fight for what is right with grace, passion, and unwaverable strength. I can only hope to do the same.”

07/07/2020

Survivor Sisters Masks now for sale😷- link in bio to shop ••••
Teespring is donating $1 to for every mask sold on their site and, as always, proceeds from our merch sales will be donated to non-profit organizations fighting sexual assault👊🏻

03/07/2020

We cannot ignore the role that sexual violence plays in the military. Vanessa Guillen is just one of many women and men in the military who are sexually assaulted, harassed, and even murdered for speaking up and reporting their mistreatment in our armed forces. At least 25% of women serving in the U.S. military have been sexually assaulted, and up to 80% have been sexually harassed. A 2011 report found that women in the U.S. military were more likely to be r**ed by fellow soldiers than they were to be killed in combat. 64% of women who report sexual violence in the military face retaliation by their perpetrator and chain of command and 1/3 are discharged within 7 months after reporting. The U.S. military preys on low income individuals, who are primarily people of color, luring them in with the promise of a better life with greater opportunities and then take advantage of them. Corruption exists in spades in the military. Vanessa Guillen was MURDERED and her murder was covered up by her fellow soldiers. We must demand and demand change in the culture of our military.

27/06/2020

HAPPY 🌈 We stand with ALL survivors and allies, regardless of sexuality, gender, race, or religion. Everyone deserves to be treated equally and we will always fight for a world free from discrimination, bigotry, and hate! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤍🤎

05/06/2020

Today would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday. As an EMT and essential worker, Breonna was working on the frontlines helping to fight COVID-19 at the time of her death. She was unjustly murdered by police while she was sleeping in her home, after the police entered the wrong home unannounced, looking for someone who was ALREADY in police custody earlier that day. They shot her 8 times. THIS IS NOT AN ACCIDENT! So far, all three of Breonna Taylor’s murderers walk free and no one has been held accountable for her death— the death of an INNOCENT Black woman. AND CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR ! We cannot forget about the many Black women who are also killed at the hands of the police.