Elevate Academy hosts first in-person chapter meeting
Since Elevate Academy’s conception in 2014, Rebecca Bender’s vision has been to create a 100 percent online platform to bring needed services and camaraderie to survivors across the globe.
Whether survivors of trafficking live in a small town or a major city, this model has guaranteed inclusion for all survivors, regardless of their geographical location, financial status, or resource deficit. For several years the Elevate Academy team has also been working to execute and fund a vision to bring survivors together, in person, within their localized areas, as we know how critical community is to the formula of personal and professional success.
CEO & Founder, Rebecca Bender and RBI LA Outreach Coordinator, Tara Madison lead our first in-person Elevate Academy chapter meeting.
We’ve had the vision to create Elevate Chapters in major cities around the world, for students to network in person, have a platform to co-work, and attend live education, taking our growth to the next level. This vision has included connecting with localized businesses and professionals and inviting them to leverage resources to help survivors in their community to thrive.
This month, we hosted a kickoff event to introduce our vision to Southern California! Elevate Academy hosted 21 survivors at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA. Rebecca Bender and her team had the opportunity to tour the museum with 21 local survivor leaders in attendance and share the vision for this exciting new extension of Elevate!
We’ve had such a positive response from the survivor community that Southern California will host monthly in-person chapter meetings in three regions, including downtown Los Angeles, Orange County, and the San Fernando Valley. Each meeting will be hosted by a local survivor leader once a month at designated locations. All survivors in attendance receive a certificate for monthly professional development training hours.
Much of the chapter’s continued success will depend on community inclusiveness. We have been meeting with localized businesses and organizations partnering with us to ensure these events continue to grow through in-kind donations needs such as catered working lunches, meeting spaces, and offering training and employment opportunities to local survivors in the community.
Elevate chapters will continue expansion in 2023 and 2024 to bring these monthly events to Dallas and Miami.
For more information on how you can support these local events in your community, or if you are a survivor interested in attending, please visit rebeccabender.org or email elevate@rebeccabender.org for more information.