Feb 26, 2020

Cults and Coercive Control ~ Raising Awareness, Seeking Justice

You are invited by The Family Survival Trust to attend a panel presentation.

A panel of speakers will be followed by Questions & Answers. The speakers will each present on their lived experiences of coercively controlling groups in modern Britain as well as their activities and concerns in raising awareness and seeking justice.

  • There will be opportunity for networking among attendees and to meet the speakers.
  • The University Women's Club, 2 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HF
  • March 10, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM GMT
  • Doors open at 6.00 PM for refreshments and networking. Talk starts at 7:00 PM.

Ste Richardson
Ste is an ex-Jehovah's Witness living in London. He follows a long line of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, his father and grandfather were elders, as was his great grandfather who helped spread the faith to Jamaica in the late nineteenth century. After leaving the religion in 2007 Ste was shunned and disowned by his family. For a time he was homeless.

Today, Ste is vice-chair of Faith to Faithless and hosts regular museum tours and apostate meet-ups in central London. He is also vice-chair of LGBT Humanists and an organiser of XJWFriends, a group which supports ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Ste holds Masters’ degrees in medical translation and secondary education teaches languages and is a French and Japanese translator.

Jacky Hart
Jacky Hart was born into and raised in the Exclusive Brethren. At the age of 18 she was faced with the decision of leaving her parents and living with a brethren family, or leaving the brethren and staying with her parents. She chose the latter.

In the last 5 years, Jacky has been involved in helping members who want to leave this group, by supporting them emotionally and practically in the difficult journey of adjusting to life outside the brethren environment. In 2015 Jacky featured in the documentary, “Britain’s Secret Sect” which followed the story of one leaver.

Jacky has given various factual presentations on the Exclusive Brethren. She also works to raise awareness of this group with the public. This is with the aim of helping people who have never heard of the Exclusive Brethren, understand their beliefs systems, and how this impacts on the practical and emotional difficulties of leaving the group.

Emily Green
Emily grew up in Stamford Hill, London in the ultra-orthodox, Belz, Chasidic community. Despite expressing the desire to go to college and study, following two years in ‘sem’ (a religious, usually residential, study school for 16 - 18 year old girls) in Gateshead, she was persuaded into an arranged marriage at the age of 20. She studied for her bachelor degree through correspondence courses, whilst raising her young children. This she did at night when the children were asleep and subsequently managed to gain a postgraduate Masters in education using a hidden internet router. Her day job was teaching. She worked to become Head of English in a local Chasidic Girls School.

In 2012 she finally left the Chasidic community. She now lives in Harrow with her six children and works at Crest Academy (London Borough of Brent) where she teaches full time, English to ‘A’ level.

Emily fought through the English court system for the right to send her children to a mainstream Jewish school where they would get a good secular education that would give them choices in later life. Her case was taken to the Court Of Appeal where the Law Lords supported her in a landmark judgment.

Emily founded GesherEU, now a registered UK charity, to support others who have left ultra-orthodox communities in the UK and Europe. Her aim was to use her experience of the process, to help others who also make the choice of leaving and need assistance and support in integrating into mainstream society.

The Family Survival Trust
The Family Survival Trust is a registered charity whose mission is to prevent, and to provide information on, coercive control, cultic behaviour and psychological manipulation. We support those affected by groups that use these techniques. We educate regarding the risks these groups pose to individuals and society and seek appropriate controls on these groups’ activities.

www.thefamilysurvivaltrust.org

A donation of £5 pounds would help towards costs of the event; greater or lesser amounts are also welcome. Please do not feel obligated to contribute financially if your circumstances do not allow it.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cults-coercive-control-raising-awareness-seeking-justice-tickets-90470739417

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