SHINING A LIGHT: Creating Pathways to Equity, Safety, Healing, and Justice With People with Disabilities

SHINING A LIGHT: Creating Pathways to Equity, Safety, Healing, and Justice With People with Disabilities

Shining A Light is a powerful personal and professional memoir of one woman’s journey in partnership with other people with disabilities to find equity, safety, healing, and justice. Shining A Light confronts the oft-hidden issue of sexual assault against people with disabilities, including its alarming prevalence and insightful stories of resilience and hope. Chapters on education, trauma and recovery, criminal justice, and systems change Illuminate how service professionals can create authentic and healing relationships with survivors with disabilities and transform systems of service, healing, and justice. Shining A Light clearly demonstrates the fact that sexual assault occurs within a context of power differences, and the reader gets to learn from the experts - people with disabilities. The lives of people with disabilities are illuminated through poignant stories of inequality and violence as well as stories of profound connections, speaking truth to power, and the capacity of dreams to change lives. The reader discovers that as the author partners with others to heal from their trauma, she is on a parallel path to heal from her own. This epic book contains lessons learned and critical tips along with resources for survivors, family members, disability services, victim services, criminal justice personnel, counselors, sexual assault nurses, and others.