When We Tell Our Stories

How survivors of color are most harmed and least helped by the public safety system

This question was the heart of focus groups and one-on-one conversations where community-based, culturally specific organizations and partners in government agencies worked together to better understand the needs of survivors of color.

Participants’ experiences are as diverse as the people themselves, and their voices converged over shared themes of invisibility, strength, distress, resilience, unhealed trauma, and determination.

Survivors' voices

“We need spaces like this to be heard. When somebody hears you, little by little, you begin to heal.”

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The Project Team

When We Tell Our Stories represents two years of work building relationships and engaging in conversations to reflect on the ways survivors of color faced racism and discrimination in the public safety and criminal justice systems, barriers that prevented healing and deepened trauma for survivors and their families.