In immediate danger? Call 911. To report child abuse, call the Childhelp National Hotline: 1-800-422-4453.
Learn
Learn how to start the conversation.
Become a Brave Voice. We will only be comfortable speaking about uncomfortable subjects after we have practiced — and the only way to practice is together. This page is where the practice begins.
Why it's on us
It is our responsibility as adults to protect children.
We cannot expect children to broach a subject they do not hear openly discussed. The silence around child sexual abuse is not a failing of the young — it is a failing of the grown-ups who inherited the silence and passed it down.
Breaking that pattern does not require a podium or a platform. It requires one honest conversation, and then another, until the topic stops being the thing nobody can name.
We share these here not to overwhelm but to make plain how widespread CSA is — and how much rests on the willingness of one adult to start a conversation.
1 in 4
girls in the U.S. experience some form of sexual abuse before age 18.
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
1 in 13
boys in the U.S. experience some form of sexual abuse before age 18.
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
~91%
of children who are sexually abused are abused by someone they or their family already know.
Darkness to Light
~30%
of those who harm children are members of the child's own family.
Crimes Against Children Research Center
70%+
of survivors do not disclose for at least a year. Many wait decades. Some never tell.
Smith et al., Child Abuse & Neglect
3–4×
higher risk of depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders in adulthood for survivors.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, CDC–Kaiser
Behind every number is a person who deserved to be heard.
Tools for the conversation
Frameworks that help you speak.
Three approaches that Brave Voices leans on — each one a different angle on the same work. Tap through to see how each can help you start, steady, and keep the conversation going.
Normalize the conversation around natural sexual development.
Children who grow up hearing honest, age-appropriate language about their bodies and sexual development are better equipped to name what happens to them — and better protected from the silence that abuse relies on. Prevention starts long before a crisis does.
Sex Positive Families provides education and resources to help families raise sexually healthy children using a shame-free, comprehensive, and pleasure-positive approach.
A reliable way to say hard things.
Brave Voices grew out of both lived experience and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) — a practice developed by Marshall Rosenberg that gives people a reliable way to say hard things without attack, defense, or collapse. Our founder is a survivor and a trained NVC practitioner, and the two have been inseparable in shaping this work.
NVC asks four small questions. They sound simple. They are not.
Observation. What happened — stated without judgment, interpretation, or blame. "When you changed the subject while I was speaking…"
Feeling. What you felt in response — named as an emotion, not a thought. "…I felt afraid and alone…"
Need. The universal human need underneath the feeling. "…because I need to be heard when I'm telling the truth about my life…"
Request. A specific, doable ask — not a demand. "…would you be willing to sit down with me and try the conversation again?"
Starting a Brave Voices conversation with this shape keeps you rooted in what is true for you, instead of what you fear the other person will think. It is one of the most powerful tools we know for breaking silence without also breaking relationship.
NVC is a practice, not a script. It takes reps. Learn more about NVC from the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
Go deeper
Ready to build the practice? NVC Academy offers online courses and live trainings from world-class NVC practitioners — at every level, from first-timer to long-time student.
The Uncomfortable Conversation, Inc. is dedicated to normalizing conversations about sexual violence, particularly among young men. They believe conversations are accessible, practical, and scalable tools that drive individual, organizational, and cultural change.
The organization has produced 100+ short videos illustrating how people of all genders — but especially men — can support survivors, navigate consent, and address troubling ideas or behaviors among peers.
For a specific audience
Reaching very religious or socially conservative communities often takes a different approach — one that starts from shared values rather than persuasion.
Talks and conversations we keep coming back to — from survivors, advocates, and educators who have turned their voices into tools other people can use.
Giving voice to sibling sexual abuse.
Recent studies show sibling sexual abuse (SSA) is the most common form of child sexual abuse — affecting as many as 1 in 5 families, and at least three times more prevalent than father–child abuse. Yet SSA remains what survivors and researchers have called the "hidden taboo" — hidden in families, hidden in society, and under-researched as a result. Survivors, perpetrators, and the families around them are too often left to navigate it without guidance.
Jane Epstein, an SSA survivor and advocate, spent 40 years in a continual state of dissociation — in and out of therapy, depressed, and at times suicidal — believing she was the only one. Sobriety and self-reflection eventually led her to write her story, and she discovered that almost no one on the entire internet was speaking about SSA. So she started speaking, and #SiblingsToo was born.
In her TEDx Talk above, Jane explains why helping survivors share their stories is how we build the community that inspires new research, solutions, awareness, prevention, and support — and how one voice gives the next survivor permission to find theirs.
The first national conference on sibling sexual abuse.
Held in February 2022 and organised by the RCEW National Project on Sibling Sexual Abuse (2020–2022), the National Sibling Sexual Abuse Conference for Frontline Sectors was the first national conference of its kind in the U.K.
Sibling sexual abuse is the most common form of child sexual abuse in our homes — estimated to be three times more likely than abuse by a parent — and it remains a pressing social and public health problem. The conference brought together professionals across criminal justice, education, health, local government, policing, social care, support centres for victim-survivors, and the third sector.
The recorded sessions and films are designed to help practitioners build professional confidence and knowledge, and to better support affected children, young people, families, and adult survivors.
Rena Romano — author, mindset coach, and survivor-advocate who once shared her story on The Oprah Winfrey Show — argues that healing from child sexual abuse begins with the decision to tell. Whether a survivor keeps telling, or goes silent again, depends almost entirely on how the first listener responds.
"If healing begins by telling," Romano says, "then we must make telling safe." Her TEDxOcala talk above is a practical invitation to be the listener a survivor can safely speak to — and a reminder that any one of us can be that person.
Inner maps for deeper connection.
Dr. Yvette Erasmus teaches processes and inner maps designed to help people transform self-sabotaging habits and disconnected relationships into deeper connection, meaning, and purpose. Her work speaks to the questions many of us carry quietly:
Can I understand myself — and the people around me — more deeply?
Can blame and shame become compassion and healing?
Can I live into my deepest values with confidence and clarity?
Through educational programs, group coaching, and personal sessions, she offers a welcoming, non-judgmental space where inner strength and the authentic self can be practiced out loud. Two interviews — Part One and Part Two — are featured at right.
Go deeper — affiliate link
The link below unlocks a discount on Dr. Yvette's course. Clicking through supports Brave Voices at no extra cost to you.
Making communities "off limits" to child sexual assault.
Feather Berkower, founder of Parenting Safe Children, is a licensed clinical social worker and one of the nation's leading experts in child sexual assault prevention. Across more than three decades, she has dedicated her career to teaching parents and youth professionals how to make their communities "off limits" to child sexual assault.
Using her community-based approach, Feather has trained more than 150,000 schoolchildren, parents, and youth professionals across the United States — and she now shares that knowledge with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and youth professionals through her live workshops worldwide and her pre-recorded online workshop.
Sarri Gillman, LMFT has been a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1986. Alongside her clinical work, she spent two decades as an executive director of several nonprofits and seven years teaching leadership to managers and executives. She is an author, TEDx speaker, presenter, community leader, and SoulCollage® facilitator.
She is also the creator and founder of the Transform Your Boundaries® and Naming and Taming Overwhelm® workshops, and a member of the Compassionate Mind Foundation.
Beyond the cognitive — working with the whole person.
LaDonna Silva, LMFT holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology and Holistic Studies from John F. Kennedy University — a program that combined Transpersonal Psychology and Somatic Psychology. That blend of spirituality and the body gives her a foundation to meet clients far beyond the cognitive realm alone.
In this interview, LaDonna speaks about finding voice, a lifetime of advocacy, and breaking dysfunctional family systems with curiosity, compassion, and care — plus an introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS).
Learning to sit in discomfort.
Rachael Herron's episode is technically about writing — but it's really about learning to manage, cope with, and even enjoy the uncomfortable aspects of life. People don't sit in discomfort unless they care enough.
Brave Voices is asking you to care enough to sit in the discomfort of a difficult, uncomfortable subject — and Rachael's framing is one of the gentlest invitations to do exactly that.
Learn anywhere, anytime, at your own pace.
The NVC Academy Library brings together a rich, ever-growing collection of Nonviolent Communication teaching from experienced trainers around the world. Whether you're new to NVC or deepening an existing practice, you'll find courses, workshops, and practical tools that support real change in how you communicate, connect, and lead.
Develop your capacity for empathy, navigate conflict with more clarity, and strengthen relationships — at a pace that fits your life. Start when you're ready, revisit teachings anytime, and integrate NVC into your everyday conversations.
NVC asks four small questions. They sound simple — and the questions only become natural with reps. The communities and resources below offer free or donation-based ways to practice Compassionate Communication, with people who are practicing too.
A practical field guide for anyone navigating the NVC journey — from first encounter to daily practice. Maps for the parts Marshall Rosenberg left blank.
Resources Brave Voices returns to — some written for our participants, some drawn from the wider NVC and survivor-support communities. Open, read, and come back when you need them.
Laura Davis — Writing WorkshopsFrom the co-author of The Courage to Heal — write your lived experience alongside other survivors.
The Voices and Faces ProjectWrite your lived experience as memoir or poetry, with the support of a survivor-led writing community.
Rachael HerronNeed help getting it on the page? One of the most generous writing coaches and teachers we've worked with — pure joy, encouragement, and follow-through.
Understanding trauma & CSA
Child Sexual Abuse — DefinitionA plain-language overview of what CSA is, how it presents, and the language used to talk about it.
Trauma and Complex Trauma — An OverviewA primer from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation on what trauma is, how complex trauma differs, and why it matters for survivors and those who support them.
PACEs Science 101 — FAQsAn accessible introduction to Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences — what shapes lifelong health, and what helps kids thrive.
The Wisdom of Trauma — ResourcesA curated hub from the Gabor Maté documentary — books, talks, and tools for understanding trauma and the path toward healing.
Organizations
Where to turn, where to give, where to learn more.
A curated set of organizations doing the work — preventing harm before it happens, and walking with survivors after it has.
Dedicated to the prevention of CSA
Darkness to LightTrains adults to prevent, recognize, and respond to child sexual abuse — home of the Stewards of Children® program.
Stop It Now!A confidential helpline and education hub for adults who want to prevent CSA before it happens.
Enough AbuseState-by-state advocacy, prevention training, and policy work to end child sexual abuse.
Brave MovementA survivor-led global movement organizing to end childhood sexual violence through policy change.
End Sexual Abuse and ExploitationNational advocacy and policy work to dismantle the systems that fuel sexual abuse and exploitation.
The Mama Bear EffectTools and language to help parents and caregivers protect kids in everyday family and community life.
The Blue BenchDenver-based prevention and treatment for sexual assault, with a strong focus on community education.
AmazeAge-appropriate, animated sex-ed videos for kids, parents, and educators — built around safety and consent.
Buddy SpeaksChild-friendly tools and storytelling that help kids recognize unsafe situations and find their voice early.
Committed to help & healing after CSA trauma
1in6Helping men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences live healthier, happier lives — peer support, online groups, and resources.
Louder Than SilenceA survivor-led community offering connection, advocacy, and resources for those impacted by CSA.
Mirror MemoirsStorytelling and movement-building led by LGBTQ+ BIPOC survivors of CSA — healing through narrative and collective action.
RAINNThe largest anti-sexual-violence organization in the U.S. — runs the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-HOPE).
SNAPSurvivors Network of those Abused by Priests — peer support and advocacy for survivors of clergy and institutional abuse.
MOSACMothers of Sexually Abused Children — peer support, education, and advocacy for non-offending caregivers.
World Childhood FoundationGlobal support for survivors and prevention work, including the "Share Your Hope" storytelling initiative.
Just AlternativesRestorative, survivor-centered alternatives to traditional responses to sexual harm.
5WavesA survivor-led nonprofit dedicated to healing, education, and prevention around sibling sexual abuse.
SANE-SARTSexual Assault Nurse Examiner and Sexual Assault Response Team — coordinated medical, forensic, and support care after assault.
WingsEducation, support, and healing resources for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Join the Brave Voices Movement.
Use your voice to protect children from sexual harm. Start the conversation this week — with one person, in your own words. That is how the silence ends.
