86. Kelly Justus: Embracing Her Own Healing Through Action—Promoting Project Callisto's Mission

Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS

Kelly and I have a few things in common: our admiration and support of the mission of Project Callisto, and our belief that normalizing the converstation around rape and sexual assault will help reduce the prevalence of rape culture. With regard to Callisto: I won’t go into the full explanation of how Callisto works, you can find out that information on their website; but suffice it to say that Callisto is a platform built for victims and survivors of rape and sexual assault to anonymously provide information about their perpetrator into an encrypted vault system to match victims to a common, thus serial, rapist or sex offender. What the common victims of the offender do with that match is up to them. But…it is empowering. And reportedly the system is increasing the arrest and prosecution rate of serial offenders. You can imagine for yourself the impact this is having on both the survivor community, as well as our society as a whole. It’s an effective and powerful tool for addressing the rape culture that exists in this country. But right now, Callisto is only available to people who have a “.edu” email address. What is needed is additional funding to make Project Callisto a platform that anyone can use. Can you imagine the impact on reducing the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in our country alone? It would be massive!

Kelly is a strong survivor of multiple rapes over the span of several years of her life. And she has zealous passion to see Callisto expand to everyone. So, she started her own non-profit organization for that very purpose: helping to raise the money necessary to expand Callisto and help provide the benefits of Callisto to anyone and everyone who wants to utilize the system. But Kelly also realizes that a component of raising awareness about Project Callisto and how empowering that platform is, comes from the strength of individuals having a safe space to gather in order to tell their stories of being raped and sexually assaulted. Kelly and I refer to that process as “normalizing the conversation.” When I found out about The Justus Project and Kelly Justus, it was logical and critical to ask her to be a guest on this podcast. She accepted immediately. And this is her episode. Please listen to Kelly’s story. And then share it. Because she recognizes how important it is for thousands of people to hear her story in order to become inspired to give to Project Callisto. Both she and I would greatly appreciate your donations to Callisto if you are in a financial position to do so. If not, no worries; do your part by sharing this episode with everyone you know. And not just this episode, but all episodes of this show!...share the podcast!

Please take the time to rate and subscribe to this show if you haven’t already done so…every little bit helps in making this podcast grow. This is an important aspect to helping bring justice to victims and survivors of rape or sexual assault, because this podcast is a safe space for them to share their stories, support each other on our healing journeys, and provide education and focus on learning ways to help curb the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in our communities. Thank you for your help in this cause, and for your loyalty in listening to this show!

Here are some links and information that I hope you’ll look at and share:

https://thejustusproject.org/

https://www.startbybelieving.org

https://evawintl.org

https://projectcallisto.org

https://www.safeinharmsway.org

https://www.thejanbrobergfoundation.org

https://www.markel-consulting.com

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