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Help Us Make Waves!

5WAVES, launched in 2022, is the first 501(c)(3) nonprofit specifically dedicated to representing and serving those affected by sibling sexual trauma and abuse. We are committed to offering our online information and peer support services free of charge to individuals and families facing sibling sexual trauma or abuse. Here is what some have had to say:

"Thank you for existing."

"For so many years, I thought I was the only one this had ever happened to."

"The isolation and emptiness is absolutely debilitating."

"This group literally saved my life."

The Difference You Can Make!

$25 hosts our websites for one month
$50 prints 500 cards, with QR code links to our websites and online support groups
$125 sends one year's e-newsletters to 500 subscribers

$500 hires an SEO consult that assures those searching for help online will find our services
$2500 allows 5WAVES to bring the voice of lived experience and share our collaborative research results with professionals who respond after SST

$10,000 pays for a hybrid book contract, to publish an annotated anthology that bears witness to the lived experience of those affected personally by sibling sexual trauma
$20,000 would allow 5WAVES to hire its first part-time staff

To learn more about opportunities to support 5WAVES, please email info@5waves.org

If PayPal asks you to confirm the address the donation is being sent to, please input info@5waves.org.

If you would like to speak with a member of our team about making a donation by other means than PayPal, please email info@5waves.org.

5WAVES, Inc. is organized and operated as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. IRS recognition of 501(c)(3) status is pending and expected.

5WAVES Future Goals

Awareness, Education, Prevention

Share 5WAVES' compelling stories and call to action via speaking engagements, media appearances, publications, and interviews
Inform the public and reach out to survivors and families via social media
Create webinars and quick reference guides for professional development and training in fields that respond to sibling sexual trauma
Reach parents, schools and communities with awareness, strategies for prevention and early detection, and guidance on how to respond.

"Sibling sexual trauma is thought to be one of the most common forms of sexual harm to children. It devastates families and individuals like little else. Yet it is the least understood, least reported, least talked about of any kind of sexual violation."

~Brandy Black, siblingsexualtrauma.com

"Five years ago, I Googled Sibling Sexual Abuse, and what popped up was three outdated articles from ten years ago. Even today the third search result is, ‘Is Sibling Sexual Abuse a thing?’ "

~Jane Epstein, TEDx Talk: Giving Voice to Sibling Sexual Abuse, January 2022

Support

Provide families with a series of initial consultations with local licensed professionals to assess their unique situation and point them toward appropriate resources
Sponsor healing through writing workshops for adult survivors
Create a framework for a peer mentoring program, so that parents who have faced sibling sexual trauma in their families can help guide and support others going through the process

Research

"Interventions with families who have experienced sibling sexual abuse are under-evaluated, and there are no evidence-based approaches to date."

~Peter Yates and Stuart Allardyce, Sibling Sexual Abuse: A Knowledge and Practice Overview, Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, January 2021

Fund research for publication to answer basic questions such as:
- How common is sibling sexual trauma?
- What puts children at risk for sibling sexual abuse?
- What works to prevent it?
- What types of treatment are effective–at healing trauma, at preventing future abusive behavior, at restoring family functioning?
Present at virtual and in-person conferences to share information with practitioners from all over the world.
Develop tools to guide professionals in responding effectively