I am the Director of Project Unbreakable AMA!

Participating in Project Unbreakable was a huge part in my healing process. I saw a friend's photo on the site, and I reached out to him. He had such a positive experience that he inspired me to take part. Thank you so much for your work.

I am so happy to hear that. Participating helped me a lot as well. I am glad you and your friend both had positive experiences.

Hello! With the stigma placed on male sexual assault/rape victims being as it is, how do you see strategies/methods of bringing this subject out in the light will develop going forward?

I truly believe that establishing a community that feels respected and believed is one of the most important aspects of removing stigma against male survivors, project unbreakable does that, we provide a place where survivors of any type can say what they need to say and be believed without hesitation. One of the goals of project unbreakable was to show that sexual assault can happen to anyone- that there isn't a "type" of survivor. I feel that by showing our society that men can be just as victimized by sexual assault as women are we are making huge strides in removing stigma.

Hiya! What sorts of information do you provide for male victoms of sexual violence?

I have a friend who was recently sexually assaulted by a female friend, yet he doesn't seem to understand it as being sexually assaulted. I understand that this sort of reaction is quite common in victoms of sexual assault, so I was wondering what I can do to help him out.

feel free to use our resources. http://project-unbreakable.org/resources/

1 in 6 and male survivor are both incredible resources for male survivors. Just be there to listen and remember that each individual has their own personal process.

I don't have a question right now, I just wanted to thank you for your work. It's kept me going through some tough times. :]

We are so happy we can be there for you! Thank you for your kind words!

Just wanted to say that I love what you're doing, I have never been a victim of sexual assault but my heart breaks for everyone who has. I just wanted to say that I really admired the way those men and women who were featured stood up and spoke about a subject that is often ignored, especially male sexual assault which is not talked about often enough. I have shared both buzzfeed articles with my friends and they too think it is an amazing project. Keep it up!

Thank you so much for your kind words! We are so thankful for the support. Having people who aren't survivors support us is so important- it allows our community to grow.

I just want to tell you that I think you're amazing.

Thank you!!! :) We think you're amazing too!

What spurred you to create Project Unbreakable? P.S. Thank you for doing this, while I, have never been assaulted- I feel that there need to be more people like you :D

Glad to clear this up. Project Unbreakable was created by Grace Brown- and you can read about the creation of the project here! I run the "behind the scenes" as well as speaking at colleges and universities about project unbreakable.

And thank you for your kind words. We are so grateful for your support.

No question, just wanting to let you know that what you do is incredible. Male survivor here, and today I finally worked up the courage to take my picture and submit it. An emotional roller coaster ride, but in a cathartic, positive way. You have a good thing going. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your kind words! I am glad we were able to provide some peace and hope that your participation gives you some closure. xx

Have you considered coming to Alaska? I know it would be a bit of an expensive trip. Last I saw the rate of child sexual abuse was almost 6 times the national average.

We would love to come to Alaska- typically we must be invited to a University or local community center to travel to a location so if you know of any who would be interested in having us please send our information along!

I have a friend who was sexually assaulted while she was sleeping. Not a violent assault, but still a molestation. She was at a friend's house sleeping and her friends let a guy who's name she didn't know rub his balls on her face. She only found out when her friends showed her the pictures the next day, laughing. She was humiliated and angry and didn't talk to them for months, but now they're best friends again. They were all in their mid to late 20s at the time and she was 19.

Did she just get over it, or is she a "survivor". I can never figure it out. I can never figure out women who seem to just let it go. I had revenge\justice fantasies about the people who did that to her, but for her sake, I dropped any further discussion about it. For me, a male, sexual assault seems to be black and white, cut and dry, but can women be friends with people who do that to them?

Hi, thank you for your question, and I am very sorry to hear about what happened to your friend. The most important thing to keep in mind is that anyone who has been victimized by sexual assault has their own personal recovery process. I can understand that it must be hard to see someone you care about going through this- the best advice that I can give you is to listen carefully to her and respect her wishes.

I am not in a position to say whether or not anyone can be friends with someone who assaulted them, that is for the survivor to decide for themselves.

If you need any further assistance on this subject I would suggest calling the RAINN hotline at 1800-656-HOPE. They provide guidance for secondary survivors as well.

thank you.

thank you! :)

saw your project in reddit, and I think it amazing and important! so thank you for that... I showed this to a friend that had sexually abused as a kid. we decided to try spread this to our own country, and we wondered, what do you think about your project spreading to another countries?

Thank you! We love the idea of Project Unbreakable spreading to other countries- currently we accept photograph submissions from all over the world! We have also been lucky enough to tour parts of Europe and hope to continue!

If you are interested in participating by submitting in your own image, you may send an email to projectunbreakablesubmissions @gmail.com with your photograph- we simply ask that you do not write names on your poster.

I have sent in a submission to the project but it hasn't been posted yet, I read the submissions take time to put up, but I just wanted to make sure it will be posted, as in do you post all of the submissions eventually?

Yes, we do post them all eventually! You should see it soon :)

When someone in your group goes to a university to a speak, what does the speech consist of?

We discuss the history of the project, its creation, goals, etc... and we also talk about rape culture, victim blaming, awareness and so on. We then do a Q and A with the audience.

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We do tour!! and we will be at penn state this upcoming spring, March 31st :) hopefully we will see you there

As someone who was a victim of sexual assault I think this is absolutely the worst idea ever. Yes, someone who was a victim needs to tell someone to help heal. But putting it out there for the world to see is a terrible idea. Any organization tying to help victims should lend an ear not put on display.

We don't require that anyone partakes, when the idea first came to be survivors wants to participate. I was sexually assaulted and found that participating was one of the most healing things I've ever done. Like I wrote earlier- all survivors have their own personal recovery process. Mine is not like yours- and yours is not like mine. I did not want someone to lend an ear- I needed something different and found it in this organization.

If you are interested in viewing our testimonial page here, please do.

Of course everyone has their own process, but when you're in that fragile state of mine you're not making good decisions, you're making rash ones as your brain tries to comprehend, process, and deal with the events. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not sure if this organization is backed by one. But my personal experience and belief is if this happens, someone needs to say don't tell the world, tell me, because putting yourself out there like that can deliver harm in the future that you can't even believe. Ie you turned down by military, employers, your parents may not except you, your friends may become distant. Bottling up is never the answer, but telling the world isn't either.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. :)

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What is project badass? I haven't heard of it!