On Saturday Sept. 14, creators of Our Wave, an anonymous story sharing platform for sexual assault survivors, celebrated the launch of their website at a party in east Raleigh.
Our Wave is a nonprofit developed by several NC State alumni. They were joined by friends, family, mentors and members of the community at the launch party.
At the event, members of the Our Wave team discussed the importance of the platform, reflected on their progress over the development period and illuminated some of their future aspirations within the nonprofit. Marissa Kern, director of development, said working on this project and being able to provide community space for survivors to heal through Our Wave has been incredibly meaningful for her.
“I myself am a survivor, so after my event, I found myself without a support system and feeling a lot of shame and resentment and all of those feelings that come along with it, and I didn’t know what to do with them,” Kern said. “I was looking for a place where I could help, and I had a passion for this because of my personal experience. To have that place where you can be like other people are going through this too,’ is amazing. Not amazing that it’s happening, because it’s the worst, but amazing that there is something out there where you can see that you are not alone.”
Kyle Linton, executive director and NC State alum, spoke to those who attended the launch and explained Our Wave’s goal as a nonprofit organization.
“Our goal is to build a community where survivors of sexual assault can be heard, believed and supported, because sexual assault and sexual violence affects so many subsets of people,” Linton said. “I think we have a massive opportunity to support survivors that have not otherwise been reached.”
Linton also recounted and celebrated how much progress he and his team have made since the conception of Our Wave.
“There are so many big opportunities for us,” Linton said. “We got 501(c)(3) status, we’ve received some incredible donations just this last week and I actually just found out last night that we are in the running for a $150,000 Twilio grant, I think there are incredible things to come.”
Brendan Michaelsen, chief technology officer and NC State alum, shares Linton’s excitement for what is to come for Our Wave now that the website is finally live. Michaelsen said Our Wave has plans to build its platform to better serve and empower survivors.
“We want to be in the position of supporting survivors to build educational materials and really be able disseminate that at scale through educational programs,” Michaelsen said. “We want to deal with what is currently happening in our world, we want to get to the core root of how we can make a better world, and we want to help put that into place.”
Excited about the launch, Rachel Curran, director of advocacy, reminded guests that Our Wave came from a place of genuine concern for the world with the goal of being able to provide even a small method to assist with the healing process of survivors. Curran urges survivors to use Our Wave in whatever way best assists their healing.
“Our Wave is exactly what you choose for it to be,” Curran said. “If you are in the stage of your healing process where you just got the courage to type in the website and look at our mission, damn good for you. If you are in the stage where you may want to read someone else’s story, or maybe you want a grounding exercise or you just want resources, good for you. There are so many levels of what you can do with this site, and there’s no right or wrong way to use it.”
Further information can be found at Our Wave’s website.
