Angela Williams, Founder; and Tom Scales, Executive Director of VOICE.
The statistics say it all. There are 39 million victims of child sexual abuse in the US alone. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. Only one in ten will tell.
Angela Williams, founder of VOICE Today, a non-profit organization focused on breaking the silence and cycle of child sexual abuse, can relate to the statistics too well. “As a survivor of child sexual abuse, I wanted to keep that from happening to another child,” Williams said.
Williams began VOICE after a 25 year career in real estate. She felt a call to write her story in the book From Sorrows to Sapphires, which honestly portrays her emotional journey through abuse to healing. In her book, she goes through every emotion from childhood to adulthood and how it affected her life and relationships.
“It is such an escape for me to write,” Williams said. “I was able to write everything that burdened me. From there, I felt moved to start VOICE so I could help others who have been through the same thing.” With the support of her husband, Phillip, and two children, Ashley and Jacob, Williams was able to build VOICE to the organization it is today.
The mission of VOICE is not only to provide protection to children but also healing to survivors. “Child sexual abuse is a silent and unspoken epidemic,” Williams said. “A survivor may struggle their entire life to bring peace and to shed the feelings of shame and filth.” VOICE works with survivors to find the peace through community and open and honest workshops.
“The workshops are the heart of VOICE,” Tom Scales Executive Director at VOICE Today said. There are currently four workshops ranging from providing healing for survivors to how to talk to your children about sex and personal boundaries.
“Society has its head buried in the sand when it comes to talking about sexual abuse,” Williams said. “We want to help people un-derstand that this can be prevented.”
Angie also runs a support group for survivors of child abuse every first and third Tuesday of the month at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. The VOICE office is located at 3885 Shallowford Road, Suite110, in East Cobb. For more information visit www.voicetoday.org.
