Our Awareness Pillar and Media Relations Team have done an incredible job working with journalist Kelly-Leigh Cooper and supporting other survivors in sharing their stories. We are so grateful to Ms. Cooper and the BBC for shining a light on a dark industry and providing survivors a central platform to speak their truth and be heard on a global level.
Our Breaking News Team covered topics related to PTSD and queer/trans issues throughout the month of June. We supported a campaign to ban conversion therapy in the UK. Meanwhile, Canadian lawmakers passed a bill this month outlawing LGBT conversion therapy. In America, only 20 states have legislation outlawing conversion therapy. Even then, as many TTI survivors have witnessed, and as an undercover phone call to a facility revealed, there are loopholes. Even without the “conversion” label, programs at times specifically target LGBTQIA+ youth for harassment and abuse. Read more about the dangers and prevalence of conversion therapy here.
Our Social Media team has kept our community informed of new developments, articles, and legislation concerning the TTI. Earlier this month, Oregon introduced two bills aimed at regulating the industry. The team helped lead a campaign inviting our community to send letters of support to Senators and Representatives. We were elated to hear that with the passage of SB 710 and SB 749, Oregon is the first state to regulate transport companies and “education consultants.” They have also banned prone and supine restraint in residential and wilderness programs.
Visit Thought Reform Thursdays to follow along with our recent series on Freedom of Movement and current series on the cult tactic of induced dependency.
The Information Distribution Team has been compiling and sharing team updates and progress with volunteers each week. They also brought on new volunteers to help build our monthly newsletter! These State of Breaking Code Silence update reports are also available on our website, and they are updated monthly!
There needs to be federal regulation of the troubled teen industry and our Legislative Team is up to the task. They have been holding countless meetings with organizations that share our passions and values – and so far we have received unanimous support for our Federal Bill, as well as invaluable advice from allies who have the experience of creating change from the ground up.
Our Reporting Team is calling all Montana Survivors: Report abuse, maltreatment, or witnessing this or other unethical behavior in a program. Montana is investigating now!
As Breaking Code Silence continues to grow, our Program Investigation Team has made themselves available to find answers for people who’ve reached out needing information on current programs. Meanwhile, they are completing an exhaustive and detailed chronological TTI history, which we will be proudly sharing across Breaking Code Silence’s platforms once complete.
Our Administrative & Strategic Planning Division has been hard at work behind the scenes in continuing to build the organizational infrastructure, expand capacity, onboard new volunteers, and connect with outside experts and advocates in this area. The team finished setting up donation processing capabilities on our website, and Breaking Code Silence was officially accepted into the Facebook Donations program so people can donate to us through Facebook and do fundraisers for their birthdays! Breaking Code Silence is an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax deductible. In addition to more traditional fundraising avenues, the team is also working on a new partnership with a Breaking Code Silence volunteer who is a talented artist and creator who wants to start a fundraising partnership with her jewelry and eCommerce business.
We now have comprehensive organizational insurance, due in major part to the incredible expertise of our Safety Policy team. They have also been working to build our Conflict Resolution policies that are being implemented across the organization.
We welcome new volunteers! Please join us and click this link to sign up. So far, we have onboarded over 100 volunteers, with several more scheduled for interviews in the next week. We are intentionally creating a healthy community that honors and holds space for all survivors.
We are becoming a force to be reckoned with. We are here to make this world a safer and more inclusive place for all, and we could not do it without this amazing community of survivors and advocates.
Together, WE are Breaking Code Silence!
