The most successful awareness campaign in history wasn't a billboard. It was a survivor looking at another survivor and saying, "Me too."

For the last decade, I have sat in circles—both literal and virtual—listening to survivors. I have heard the whispered confessions in parking lots, the shaky voices on helplines, and the triumphant, tearful laughter of someone realizing they survived another anniversary of their trauma.

When we build awareness campaigns without you, we build museums of pain. When we build them with you, we build ladders.