Reunion Online

If the audience for Super Bowl XLIX is anything like 2014, among those watching the "big game" could be as many as nine and a half million men who had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood.

This year, please join us in resolving to help the millions of men around the world who had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood to live healthier, happier lives.

After a day of giving thanks, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday calls on us to channel the spirit of joy, gratitude and generosity this holiday season into giving back.

ENDTHEBACKLOG.org, Joyful Heart's website devoted to shining a light on and ending this injustice, has been nominated for a Webby Award for Best Activism website, one of the most prestigious honors a website can achieve.

As you know, Joyful Heart is dedicated to ending the rape kit backlog nationwide. Currently, Detroit is working to test more than 11,000 kits that were transferred to a warehouse by the police and left behind, despite significantly limited resources.

What would it be like if we, collectively, really saw surviving abuse or assault without blame, stigma or shame? Unafraid to listen to someone's story and unafraid to say "NO MORE?"

Our friends at the Verizon Foundation recently launched a new campaign called Your Voice Counts. The campaign is helping to break the silence around the issue of domestic violence by equipping bystanders?especially men?with tools to begin speaking up to prevent and end domestic violence.

One of the challenges organizations working with men who have been sexually abused in childhood face, is to find helpful ways to enhance public awareness, discussion and support around this issue. 1in6 and Living Well hope that the "Let’s Talk..." Poster/Visual Media Competition will help broaden the public conversation on this issue in new and interesting ways.

 I often find myself in awe, but somehow not totally surprised, that turning towards the issues sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse is often so hopeful, so joyful. Maybe you sometimes find yourself thinking the same. It's often inexplicable, or at the very least, difficult to put into words as to why this is. And it can certainly be a strange thing to feel—and to write at this very moment—but it's true. And last Wednesday evening was no exception.

As some of you may know, Joyful Heart is part of an exciting and transformative initiative called NO MORE, a movement to unite all of us around one universal symbol and the simple message that together we can end domestic violence and sexual assault.