This training session is an overview that connects the big-picture policy process to realistic, practical survivor leadership at every step, rooting the work in local and grassroots opportunities. We’ll break down how laws are truly made in Nebraska, going beyond textbooks and into real life. Survivor leaders and allies will learn where their voices matter most, how to take action through testimony, relationship-building, and local advocacy, and how small steps lead to meaningful survivor-led change. 

This is the fifth and final training session in the Building Power Together: A Public Policy Training Series.

Learning Objectives

Describe the real-life path a bill takes in Nebraska and the key places where survivor leadership shapes outcomes, and where allies can support and amplify their influence.

Identify practical ways survivors can build relationships, testify effectively, and mobilize community support, and how allies can center survivors in these processes.

Recognize and create opportunities for local and grassroots action to strengthen survivor-led change beyond the State Capitol, with survivors taking visible leadership roles and allies providing support to reinforce that work.

Eligibility

A Survivor Leader is anyone with lived experience of domestic or sexual violence, trafficking, or related forms of power-based harm who chooses to share their expertise in ways that inform, guide, and strengthen advocacy, policy, and community change. Survivor Leaders may contribute by providing direct services, volunteering, mentoring, supporting prevention efforts, educating others, storytelling, and community organizing.

Allies include individuals committed to supporting and partnering with survivors to uplift their voices and advance survivor leadership across all areas of the anti-violence movement. This could include, but is not limited to, advocates, staff, volunteers, and board members at the Nebraska Coalition’s network organizations, Nebraska's Tribal domestic violence/sexual assault programs, or other community partners.

Presenters

Amber Jurgens, Director of Survivor Leadership at the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence
Rachel Pointer is an author, resilience coach, podcast co-host, and anti-trafficking consultant. Visit her website at www.RachelPointer.com to learn more.

Register: https://nebraskacoalition.coalitionmanager.org/eventmanager/trainingevent/details/122