One survivor's name shines through the darkness in her remarkable resilience journey—Courageous Fire. After enduring years of emotional, financial, spiritual, sexual abuse, and manipulation, Courageous was determined to shield her daughters from their abuser, her then-husband. Courageous spent 13 years thinking, “Maybe I’m crazy, maybe we keep misunderstanding each other, or maybe we are right at the brink of a breakthrough.” But as time went on, she said, “My kids and I were determined to keep making space to be with each other even though he tried to put so much conflict between us.”

Tracy Green is a survivor of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse (rape). Today Tracy serves as the state representative of Texas for the Peer Leadership Council of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and is a member of RAINN’s Speakers Bureau. She has a Bachelor's degree in psychology and a Master’s degree in human services. She is happily married to her husband of 38+ years and they have two adult children and four grandchildren.

No one believed her story of child sexual abuse, but she refused to be silenced by doubt. “I offer myself compassion and grace.”

Katherine Gilyard is a journalist, writer, activist, and a survivor of sexual violence. “Being a survivor feeds everything I do.”

Jerome Whitehead is an author, husband, and survivor of multiple childhood sexual assaults. “When you’re groomed, you’re taught to keep secrets. You don’t even realize that you’re being groomed to keep secrets.”

3% of American men have experienced an attempted or completed rape. A survivor speaks out: “I want young Black men to know that they are not alone.”