Rise Above Justice Movement Podcast

Perla Moreno currently serves as the Programming and Grant Manager at Restorative Houston, a non-profit organization in Houston, Texas, https://www.restorativehouston.org/about

Perla Moreno is passionate about storytelling and sharing her experiences with religious trauma and what led her to doing Restorative Justice work.

We sat down and talked with Amanda Carrasco, who is a survivor, and a example of being a survivor leader, a published author, and along the way 'Becoming the Brave One' which is the title of Amanda's book which is available for purchase.

Amanda is the example of turning pain and triumph into something that has inspired countless of others.

You can follow Amanda on social media @Amanda_the_Brave_One

Our founder and host of the podcast sat down and talked with Sarah DeArmond, who is a Non-Profit Founder of Voiceless Behind Bars, a Prison Abolitionist, and an Advocate for the Wrongfully Incarcerated.

You can find Sarah on social media @ItsSarahOnly and via her organizations website https://voicelessbehindbars.org/about-us/

Ellen Theresa, a survivor turned advocate and a true catalyst for change, came onto our podcast to talk about religious trauma, being a survivor, and conversion therapy.

You can find Ellen on social media, @AdvocateofSoul, and via her website, https://advocateofsoul.com/

We sat down this week and talked with Meg McDermott, a writer, singer/songwriter & Ancestral Priestess.

Meg is an incredible human who focuses on advocating for Collective Liberation in our communities, and focusing on Individual Liberation, as well.

You can find Meg on social media @Meg.Arcadia

We had the distinct honor of sitting down and chatting with one of our heroes, and one of our inspirations, Ricky Longoria, AKA @TheGayLiberal on social media.

The King of creating viral videos that start with "Stop What You're Doing, You're Gonna Wanna Hear This" shares his experience in advocacy, and how we got here.

Jaycie Hricak, a Survivor turned Community Organizer and speaker. Jaycie shares their story of survival and how they remain positive about change in our communities.

Jaycie is a extended member of the Rise Above Justice Movement organizing team.

We are back this week after taking some time off due to health reasons, and we are back with our friend and collaborator, Ray Epstein!

Ray is a recent graduate from Temple University, where she advocated for survivors of sexual and gender based violence on campus and in her community.

Listen to our Founder, Zachary, and one of our Co-Founders, Gwen, sits down and talks with Ray about her advocacy work, and what inspires her.

Recently, our Founder sat down and talked with Priscilla Maria Gutierrez (@CycleBreakerCoach) on social media. Priscilla is now a published author of "Break The Cycle Before It Breaks You"

Priscilla is a survivor turned cycle breaker, and an incredible badass human being. Priscilla is also a Certified Trauma-Informed Life Coach, and gives us a overview of what it means to be a Cycle Breaker.

We sat down and talked with Cate Russell, who is a Faith-Rooted and Justice Driven Progressive Content Creator. Listen and learn about what keeps Cate going during dark and rough times.

We recently sat down and talked with Julia Sena, @JewlieahOfficial, and talked about what Collective Liberation means and how do we decolonize our communities.

We sat down and talked with Jill Lissner, @SexEdPrincess, and talked about her work in the Comprehensive Sex Education space, and what led her to doing this work. She is a educator, speaker, content creator and a incredible advocate against violence and a advocate for safe, and inclusive sex education... what we didn't learn in school.

In this episode, we speak with Lauren Lehman Carter, a survivor, advocate, and catalyst for change. In this episode, we talk about Lauren overcoming trauma with great triumph and continue pushing forward in a society that oppresses marginalized voices.

Decolonizing self-care can be a daunting conversation, as there's a lot to unveil. What happened to the original roots of self-care, and how do we ensure that our systems work for us?

In this episode, we do a deep dive into self-care with our friend and collaborator Brit Koch, whose mission it is to educate our communities about the deep importance of de-colonizing self care.

Deanna Merryfield was 13 years old when she went missing in 1990. In this episode, we sat down and talked with Melissa Twardowski, who is the younger sister of Deanna Merryfield.

Join us on this episode as we hear from Melissa details about the disappearance of Deanna Merryfield, from Killeen, Texas.

FindingDeanna.com and Finding Deanna on Instagram!