Today we’d like to introduce you to Angel Culler.
Hi Angel , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was a victim of child abuse and sex trafficking until the age of seven. I have witnessed addiction, incarceration, and domestic violence, and I carry the trauma from my parents’ choices. At the age of seven, my parents lost custody of me, and the courts granted my grandparents full custody. That is when the abuse stopped, but at a young age I was told by a family member, “We don’t share our family’s secrets.” After that conversation, I knew that the safety of sharing and voicing my experiences was shut down, and I felt the pressure to bottle them up and never speak of them again. This resulted in trauma and shame living in my body with no way to process. Unable to process what happened to me, I struggled with flashbacks, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and paranoia, which resulted in me being hospitalized at the age of eighteen and finally diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. At twenty-four, I decided that I was done living in shame, and felt like God was guiding me to share my story publicly. The only way I knew I could “go public” with my story was through YouTube. Therefore, I recorded and posted “My Child Abuse Story” in hopes of freeing myself from the dark family secret that plagued my mind. As I was concluding my video, I remember having an epiphany on camera, and I encouraged anyone watching to essentially not let the abusers win and to become “Vocal Survivors.” Those two words, Vocal Survivors, rang in my soul, and I finally felt a freedom and a calling. First, I was finally able to openly discuss my memories and feelings about those memories with the people closest to me. Second, I was able to start a small platform on YouTube and Instagram for people who were also struggling with abuse and mental health (these platforms were really essential to my healing). However, the best thing that came out of sharing my abuse story was starting my nonprofit, Vocal Survivors of North Carolina Corp.!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a newer nonprofit organization, we have had to figure out where we fit in the community. We started as a nonprofit that helped many marginalized groups, or as we called them, Focus Groups. Our Focus groups included unhoused people, women’s shelters, foster children, halfway houses, cancer patients, veterans, and even Hurricane Helen victims. However, throughout four years of serving all of North Carolina (from the coast to the mountains), we discovered our greatest calling: helping women and children affected by abuse, domestic violence, displacement, and trauma. Since starting in 2022, we have learned to ebb and flow to where we feel most called, and we believe we are now called to focus solely on the women and children in need.
In addition to finding our niche, we could always use donations. Currently, we collect donations in batches. For example, if our goal is to create fifty care packages, we will receive enough donations to make exactly fifty, and then we will have to start our donation drives over again. Our future goal is to collect a steady stream of donations to meet our donation goals and get a head start on our next batch of care packages. This will help us support more people each year, which is always our aspiration! Our biggest needs are book bags, water bottles, blankets, feminine hygiene products, diapers, wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lotions, lip balm, journals, and toys. The best way to donate is through the Donate button on our website or through our Amazon Wishlist (listed on our website).
Finally, another future goal that would help our missions run more smoothly is to have a building/warehouse to serve as Vocal Survivors’ home base. Currently, the organization is run out of my house and a local storage unit, but one day it would be nice to have a physical location in the community! Being able to store more donations, set up an assembly line for care packages, and raise more awareness through community events would be amazing.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Vocal Survivors of North Carolina Corp.?
Vocal Survivors is a traveling 501(c)(3) nonprofit passionately committed to transforming lives across North Carolina. Traveling the state to deliver vital support, encouragement, and resources to those affected by abuse and domestic violence, bringing hope and stability to women and children.
Our passion is personal. As Founder of Vocal Survivors, I’ve endured abuse myself and have had an incarcerated parent, so I understand not only the physical needs of the women and children we serve, but the emotional ones as well. The individual testimonies of our team members give this entire organization its deep sense of purpose.
We believe in turning victims into survivors, which is why we don’t just provide care packages, but host awareness events too. One donor favorite event was a women’s conference that Vocal Survivors hosted at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC: “A Not So Silent Night,” where four women, myself included, shared our personal testimonies with a sold-out audience. The event honored CVAN and Safe Alliance women’s shelters in Concord and Charlotte, and afterward our team assembled and delivered 100 care packages to support the women there. We’ve received generous donations from across North Carolina, including one of our most memorable: 100 luxury blankets from Minky Couture for our women’s shelter care packages.
For our children, we spent a summer at Seeds of Hope summer camp, spending time with the foster children we’d later deliver Christmas care packages to. We also hosted “Be a Star- A Walk for Children,” lighting up Emerald Isle Beach with flashlights and glow sticks while collecting toys for those packages. One child’s favorite gift that year was a brand-new pair of roller skates, donated at the event.
Our goal is simple: care packages, but our impact has been anything but small. We’re deeply grateful to everyone who has given their time and resources to Vocal Survivors; we couldn’t do this without your generosity. Finally, we give all glory to God, for we know that without His hand in our organization, we would not have had the success we have today.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
My two favorite books to read are James and Hebrews in the Bible. James is the best book because it clearly explains how we are supposed to act and treat others. Hebrews holds my favorite Bible verse, which I speak to myself whenever I feel anxious. It is Hebrews 13:6 (also written in Psalms 118:6), which says, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” I also like reading Proverbs because King Solomon wrote them, and I love that when God asked Solomon what gift he would like, Solomon asked for wisdom. Some people view Solomon as a little too direct, but that is exactly why I like him. In a career where you are constantly serving the community, you need good books that continually fill your cup, and the Bible refills me, giving me purpose and motivation to keep going each day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vocalsurvivors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vocalsurvivors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vocalsurvivors
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vocal-survivors-of-north-carolina
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYEU5AzXtBrPWm6bVHNRavA
- Other: https://www.bonfire.com/store/vocal-survivors/
