Thread by @ACNAtoo

As part of our ongoing advocacy, #ACNAtoo offers our platform to ACNA survivors who choose to tell their abuse stories publicly.

We have compiled guidelines for stories of sexual abuse (and soon for spiritual abuse as well) to help survivors navigate this process.

What happens when you reach out with a story? Let's walk together through our sexual abuse survivor story guidelines: acnatoo.org/telling-your-s…

When survivors reach out to share their stories with us privately, our first step is to listen to and validate their experiences. Next, as appropriate, we offer peer support (connections with fellow #ACNAtoo survivors) and direct them to qualified professional resources.

Many survivors are simply looking for this connection and support, which can be a significant step in the healing process.

In some cases, survivors who reach out to us are also looking to tell their stories publicly.

Sharing a story of abuse publicly is a big step and one we counsel survivors not to take lightly. Every survivor’s path to healing is different - there's no one-size-fits-all plan. Some find sharing publicly to be part of the healing process; for others, it may do them more harm.

For those who do choose to tell their story, #ACNAtoo has established a set of guidelines in collaboration with survivors, advocates, and trauma-informed professionals, using lessons learned from helping platform survivors over the past several months: acnatoo.org/telling-your-s…

#ACNAtoo’s mission is:

- ADVOCACY for survivors of abuse in @The_ACNA

- EDUCATION & resources for survivors & those who care for them

- ACCOUNTABILITY for key leaders to hold survivor-centered policies.

A published survivor story can serve any or all of these objectives.

ACNAtoo partners with survivors to refine or rework any areas of their story which might violate our guidelines before publishing. (While we may have to make edits for guideline adherence, the survivor always has the right to accept or reject the final version before publishing.)

What needs to be included in a story?

Because survivors have widely ranging levels of comfort re public disclosures of identifying information, ACNAtoo works with each survivor to determine their comfort regarding naming Survivor Identity, Situational Identity, & Story Breadth:

Another question we hear is, "what 'counts' as abuse?" Because sexual abuse comes in many forms & is often multi-faceted, we've assembled examples of sexually abusive behavior in our Guidelines, though these are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. acnatoo.org/telling-your-s…

This list includes, but is not limited to:

- sexual harassment
- sexual grooming
- sexual abuse w/in marriage or a dating relationship
- sexual abuse of an adult by a spiritual authority figure
- sexual abuse between children
- sexual assault

As we continue to tell these stories of abuse, #ACNAtoo has instituted the following story guidelines:

1. ESTABLISHING THE FACTS

#ACNAtoo maintains our commitment to believing survivors; however, we cannot vet every detail ourselves, so we rely on you to double check anything you may be unsure of, or qualify it with appropriate phrases such as “to the best of my memory,” etc.

2. PERPETRATORS & ENABLERS

#ACNAtoo allows for the naming of perpetrators and enablers and describing what they did, within these guidelines:

Avoid assigning conscious intent or otherwise speculating on a person’s internal state or emotions. In other words, stick to their words and actions.

You can also name the perpetrator or enabler’s roles/positions in the church and include any and all details you feel comfortable with that are relevant to your experience of abuse.

3. OTHER SURVIVORS

It's often relevant to a survivor’s story that the abuser has other victims. However, we respect the privacy & autonomy of all survivors to determine how/when they wish to disclose their experience. Don't name other survivors in your story w/o their permission

If it is relevant to note additional survivors, you can include their existence in a general sense but do not name them (even via a pseudonym) or provide any identifying information that would allow those outside the situation to identify who they are.

If you refer to another survivor while telling your own story, do not speak for them. This includes describing their internal experience of the abuse, their process of addressing it, their healing journey, etc., without their explicit approval of the content.

If the other survivors noted in your story do consent to you using their identifying information or describing their experience, we will need them to contact us with approval of the final draft before it is published, to verify this.

4. MINOR CHILDREN

For the safety of everyone involved, #ACNAtoo will not name any children under 18, even if they are not a survivor.

It will be impossible to “shield” the children of perpetrators and enablers from the fallout of their parents’ misdeeds. However, we will not highlight them unnecessarily.

5. ADDITIONAL PARTIES

In general, refrain from naming anyone in your story who isn’t themselves a perpetrator or enabler of the abuse. If any names are used, we ask that you obtain consent from the individual in question to have their name published in this context.

6. THOSE IN DIRECT PHYSICAL DANGER

If telling your story publicly could endanger or further endanger someone’s immediate safety, you should refrain from doing so & seek help from authorities or call a hotline such as the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.

If minors are in danger, you can call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 for advice or directly contact your local child protective services office, who can determine if an investigation is warranted.

If you are not a mandated reporter and do not wish to make that call, please reach out to us or a qualified professional and we/they will make that report on your and the minor’s behalf.

7. USE OF PHOTOS

Our policy at #ACNAtoo is to obscure all faces in a photo except for alleged perpetrators, other guilty parties (such as those who covered up abuse allegations brought to their attention), or anyone who provides explicit permission for their face to be shown.

8. INFORMED CONSENT

To ensure safety for both survivors and the #ACNAtoo advocacy team, we will provide an informed consent and hold harmless waiver to be signed before any story is published.

To read the full Survivor Story Guidelines | Sexual Abuse document, please visit the #ACNAtoo website where you can access it via the Telling Your Story page under Survivor Stories.

We will soon update our site with spiritual abuse guidelines as well. acnatoo.org/telling-your-s…

Until we finalize our Spiritual Abuse Guidelines, if you have experienced spiritual abuse within the ACNA & wish to reach out with your story, you can utilize the same guidelines re disclosure and identifying information & we will work individually with you to refine your story.