Speaking on the House Bill 17 - Emory Panel Discussion - Atlanta, Georgia, Angela discusses her organization and its mission of breaking the silence of child sexual abuse through awareness, prevention, healing programs and resources.

Video Transcript:

Angela: I'm very excited to be here this evening and I'm very excited that Emory University School of Public Health has really stepped up to the plate, in a partnership with Voice Today. This is one of what we hope will be many opportunities in the future.

To be able to educate, this kind of public platform is what we need. We need to get this silent epidemic, and really, it's pandemic.

If you think about one in four girls and one in six boys sexually abused before they're age 18, based on CDC statistics, and only one in 10 ever telling, 42 million reported survivors plus, plus, plus. This is a pandemic. So, we're excited about partnership, we're working on many different projects.

This Georgia Hidden Predators act though, is one that's near and dear to my heart. As an advocate, as the founder of Voice Today and the Voice Movement, it is very important that we stand for the survivors who cannot speak.

It's very important that we stand, and we give them a voice, because they do not have, really, the healing that they need to step forward. But with us holding their hands, with us educating them on what their rights are, for us standing for them and fighting these kinds of battles, then survivors slowly by slowly will have the courage to stand up.

There's so much that we can do to really get the kind of inertia and the kind of momentum that representative Spencer is speaking of. Hopefully tonight, we will have some wonderful video that we can use as momentum in social media, questions that maybe people have that will be answered tonight.

So, this public forum is a very important part of the process. So I just feel honored to be the voice of the survivor, having suffered for 14 years, to have my voice now, and to be able to stand up for other survivors.

So that's really my place on the panel. If truth be known, I really hate politics. I just want fairness and I want justice, and this is part of our process. So, praise God, we live in a free country that we can have a voice, and we can speak up and speak out, and we can have an opportunity to make change, to make a difference.

Doesn't it feel great that you will be a part of history, that we'll be able to tell our grandchildren what we did to bring about justice? So, I’m excited for the questions to come, and I thank you so much for being a part of this tonight.