How to be an Ally 

Healing Survivors of Childhood Abuse

Fire Brown discusses healing as an adult from childhood sexual abuse. Describes 5 things that you can do or say to support survivors of childhood abuse and create a more healing environment. 

The 5 things start at minute mark 10:00. 

Healing vs. Retaliation: Surviving Trauma and Sexual Abuse is a TedTalk by Peter and Adenike Harris that explains how to be a dad and not an avenger. It helps explain the feelings and actions that happen in a child-father relationship reconciling with sexual abuse. 

Dating and Loving a Sexual Assault Survivor

"If you’re dating or married to someone who has confided in you about their assault, your relationship will be different. Trust and patience are paramount, and not every partner can manage the emotions of the survivor. Psychotherapist Mary Jo Rapini discusses 5 ways that you can help support your partner."

Partners of Trauma Survivors: How to Help

This video is a short summary of what you can do as a partner to be supportive of your partner's healing process and trauma responses. 

This person explains some triggers they experience as a survivor, how they communicate it with their partner, and how their partner responds helpfully.

Trauma and the Brain

Skip to the first minute mark (1:00).  This video teaches about what a survivor's brain undergoes through traumatic events and what the lasting effects are. 

Fact: It is not within the survivor's control to remember or forget certain events. 

The 5 Types of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a trauma- and stressor- related disorder that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, or learning that a traumatic event has happened to a loved one. Depending on the severity of the event, the trauma can range from mild to intense. In this video, we are covering the five different types of post-traumatic disorders to help raise awareness on this topic."

Understanding Trauma: Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain

This video goes over the difference between the brain of a survivor of abuse or a stressed/traumatized brain, the "survival brain" and a healthy and present brain or "learning brain" - helpful to understand about yourself or others who are struggling to participate in life situations or academia. 

Boys Won't Be Boys

"Boys will be boys, right? Ben Hurst rejects this commonly-used phrase as a ‘get-out-of-jail free’ card for boys, men and toxic masculinities. Instead, he states, boys will be what we teach them to be. Citing Tony’s Porter’s TED talk, ‘A Call to Men’, Ben references the workshops he conducts with boys and young men to illustrate the pressure the patriarchy places on men to repress their feelings and embrace hyper-sexualisation and violence. Ben believes that we need to challenge our assumptions around toxic forms of masculinity by encouraging conversation, providing space for men to express emotion, refusing to accept minimum standards of behaviour and building positive masculinities. Ben’s work focuses on challenging traditionally toxic forms of masculinity, and exploring ideas of minimum standards and positive masculinities. "

It was Just Banter

"Following the collapse of her belief and trust systems, and after dealing with the horror of being the subject of abuse on the notorious rape group chat in 2018, Nicole is using her experience to speak out against problematic lad culture at elite institutions and its implications within wider society. We hope that Nicole's talk will cause us all to reflect upon the systemic flaws in our communities and what we can do to address them. Nicole Wilson is a 4th Year student at the University of Warwick, whose life was irrevocably altered when she discovered she was named and ridiculed within the notorious rape group chat in 2018, created by boys she thought were her friends"

Darkness To Light

"Our work is guided by the vision of a world free from child sexual abuse. We envision a world in which adults form prevention-oriented communities that protect the child’s right to a healthy childhood.

We believe that protecting children is an adult’s responsibility, and that through education and training adults will be empowered to act. Our trainings are the only evidence-informed, adult-focused child sexual abuse prevention trainings proven to increase knowledge and change behavior. Our work empowers adults and organizations to bring in child safety to their own communities." 

"Men Can Stop Rape’s mission is to use mobilize men to use their strength for creating cultures free from violence, especially men’s violence against women.." 

Their Vision: "To institutionalize primary prevention of men’s violence against women through sustained initiatives that generate positive, measurable outcomes in populations throughout the world."