Beautiful Justice: Transforming Trauma into Hope After Human Trafficking

RSVPs have outpaced capacity for this event. Seating and food are first-come, first-served.

In an effort to help those who have experienced the trauma of exploitation, narratives often center on the details of victimization without acknowledging the resilience, agency and strengths of those who have faced these human rights violations. The anti-trafficking movement often claims to be a "voice for the voiceless." The truth is we have our own voices and our own truth to share with those who are willing to listen.

In this talk, Brooke Axtell will share stories, strategies and insights on how to help survivors of human trafficking become leaders, how to effectively integrate survivor voices into policy making and equip those who have experienced human rights violations to co-create their own liberation from both external violence and internalized oppression.

Brooke Axtell is the Founder and Director of She is Rising, a healing community for women and girls overcoming gender violence and sex trafficking. Her work as a human rights activist led her to speak at The 2015 Grammy Awards, The United Nations and the U.S. Institute for Peace. She is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for Rape, Abuse, Incest, National Network (R.A.I.N.N.), the largest anti-sexual assault organization in the U.S., and an advisor for Freedom United, a global initiative to end human trafficking.

She is the author of the new memoir Beautiful Justice: Reclaiming My Worth After Human Trafficking and Sexual Abuse.