In my years as a sexual assault nurse examiner and trauma healing specialist, I’ve held space for survivors as they learned that their cases wouldn’t go to trial, that charges were dropped, that juries didn’t believe them.
I’ve watched strong, resilient people be weathered by the disorientation of institutional disillusionment.
Wednesday’s verdict in Sean Combs’ federal trial, acquitting the music mogul of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking while convicting him on lesser charges, represents another devastating setback to survivors everywhere.
Research that could save our lives was silenced. My study on trauma recovery for LGBTQ+ survivors of violence was abruptly terminated. Not because it lacked scientific merit but because of who it aimed to help. This wasn't an isolated incident but part of a coordinated assault that resulted in at least 68 grants being terminated to 46 institutions, eliminating nearly $40 million in funding primarily focused on our community's health.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. 'Our Wave' Co-founder and CTO Brendan Michaelsen joined ABC11 to talk building support spaces for survivors and other resources.
March 11, 2025
Temple Student Government has partnered with Our Wave, a virtual community for survivors of sexual violence, to launch a collaborative communication forum on TSG’s website to extend Our Wave’s community to Temple.
Seven years ago, the world was forever changed when the #MeToo hashtag went viral, revealing, among other things, the massive number of people who are survivors of sexual violence. Nearly a decade later, the discussion continues to focus on sensational media rather than solutions to protect survivors and prevent sexual violence. This session will dive into the innovative ways technology is being used to support and progress the movement to end sexual violence.
August 23, 2024
If you have experienced child abuse or neglect, you are not alone. Unfortunately, this reality is shared by too many Alaskans. Yet, for survivors, the silence and stigma surrounding childhood trauma can be incredibly isolating.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. For many years, the Alaska Children’s Trust has heard from Alaskans that they are ready for a change. Many survivors are ready to share their stories and have their voices heard. Our new storytelling website, www.storiesact.org, provides a safe space for Alaskans impacted by child abuse and neglect to share their experiences and for others to hear directly from individuals with lived experience about how we can all promote healing and prevent future harm for the next generation.
August 14, 2024
Through an end card running in the film’s credits, and a dedicated page on their website, No More aims to offer survivors of domestic and sexual violence (and their loved ones) easy access to help. Most notably, the No More Global Directory connects people to support services in the U.S. and 200 countries and territories around the world.
As a sexual assault nurse examiner in Philadelphia, the Thursday decision by the New York Court of Appeals to overturn Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction strikes a deeply personal chord. This ruling will not only send shock waves through the survivor community, it will also serve as a wake-up call for our city — and the entire nation — to examine the way our justice system treats survivors of sexual violence.
February 13, 2024
The tech-based nonprofit started in Raleigh, and the 501(c)(3) organization is designed to provide survivors with support and resources. Users who access the website can submit a story through the anonymous forum, where Linton (who is Co-Founder and Executive Director) and his team process and post the submissions within 24 hours. Then, Our Wave will send the survivors custom resources to help them process and heal.
In the fall of 2018, I sat down with my friend and colleague Kyle Linton to chat. We had been working together for several years on an AI-powered smoking cessation startup, and so spent the first part of the meeting discussing the next steps in our launch plan. Soon, though, our conversation turned to a radically different topic altogether: sexual violence. A close mutual friend of ours had had a traumatic experience a few weeks before, and we were still desperate to find ways to support them.
The recent allegations against Lizzo, a beloved entertainer and advocate for inclusivity, have shaken the music industry to its core, forcing us to confront a grim reality: The very stars we idolize can wield their influence to perpetuate harm.
The lawsuit, filed by three of Lizzo’s former dancers, alleges that the pop star and her production company created an overly sexualized workplace culture and a hostile work environment. The lawsuit claims, among other things, that while at a nightclub in Amsterdam during her tour, Lizzo invited her employees to touch nude performers and engage in other inappropriate acts. Lizzo has forcefully denied these accusations.
June 13, 2023
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) has launched We-Speak, the first-ever anonymous online platform in Ireland, that aims to empower survivors of sexual violence to safely tell their own stories, in their own time, in their own words. The platform seeks to amplify the voice of survivors, offering a space for them to reclaim their narrative to themselves honestly and share valuable advice and encouragement with others.
June 13, 2023
The platform is also to be used for survivors to share advice or words of encouragement. On Breakfast Briefing this morning, DRCC Chief Noeline Blackwell said the platform is anonymous and safe for survivors.
“Until now the main way we have heard people's accounts of sexual violence has been where they've been able to speak after being in court, which is a very traumatic way of telling your story. We think we have now found a good way to allow people to talk about it.”
June 13, 2023
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has launched an online platform to give survivors of sexual violence the opportunity to tell their story in their own words. DRCC said the 'We-Speak' platform will give survivors a space to reclaim their narrative and to offer advice and encouragement to others.
June 13, 2023
A new anonymous online platform where survivors of sexual violence can share their stories without fear of being trolled or sued is being launched on Tuesday by Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. The We-Speak initiative, the first of its kind in Ireland, will minimise the risk faced by victims of sex attacks when they share their stories on social media.
Brendan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea?
The idea for Our Wave was born in late 2018, when my friend and colleague Kyle Linton approached me about building a scalable way to empower survivors of sexual violence. We both had loved ones that had been impacted by traumatic events and were determined to make an impact with technology. We sat down with a notebook and a laptop and hashed out a rough plan at that first meeting – we would need a dedicated group of specialists in design, advocacy, and outreach to build a scalable platform and community.
After graduating from Poole College of Management in 2014, Linton had the idea for the platform in 2018 after someone in his life had their own experience with sexual assault. Following a collaboration with Brendan Michaelsen, co-founder and chief technology officer of Our Wave, the online platform for survivors launched September 2020.
In 2019, Our Wave launched our first online platform for survivors to share stories, receive customized support, and join a community of understanding. While collecting stories and tagged data, we hope to highlight the prevalence of sexual assault and determine patterns for future prevention. As CTO, I develop and manage our platform, security infrastructure, and data initiatives, and work to ensure our technology is as welcoming as possible for our users.
As thousands of students head back to college this month it seemed like a good time to revisit our conversation with Kyle Linton and Laura Sinko on the topic of sexual assault. While never a comfortable topic, it is an important one. There are more than 433,638 sexual assaults in the United States each year. Join us today for an insightful conversation from two incredible perspectives about the new and exciting ways Our Wave is bringing healing to tens of thousands through their work.
April 2, 2021
In an effort to reach more of our student survivors and create an anonymous virtual space for them to share their stories and receive communal support, It’s On Us and End Rape On Campus have teamed up with our friends at Our Wave to create “Survivor Spaces”: a virtual platform for survivors to share stories and foster a community of hope and healing.
On this week's episode, I teamed up with Dr. Laura Sinko from Our Wave, a non - profit organization designed as a place of support and self healing for loved ones impacted by a traumatic event. This week's episode is an open dialogue about surviving, healing , and trauma. We dive into the work of healing and share our own personal stories.
Statistics show that every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. An NC State grad has seen the pain sexual assault can cause firsthand and he wanted to do something to help survivors heal.
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