Wow! A very dear friend and colleague has just written and published “Screaming Through the Silence: Memories, Truths and a Hope Towards Understanding.” Can’t tell you how proud I am that she had the courage, fortitude, and passion to find her voice so powerfully and eloquently. I had the extreme pleasure of finding an opportunity to read it while on an out-of-town excursion to attend advocacy training. I was nearly bursting with such pride when I finally put it down, and restrained myself until the following evening to call her and offer my deepest respect and admiration.

Kudos Mary Ann for your eloquence! Your voice is loud and strong. I am so proud of your insight, and your gentle graceful strength in articulating against the rape culture we currently inhabit. It is to work alongside you, and to bear witness to your spiritual growing and absoluteness. Life blessings to you and many thanks for allowing me to share this path with you!

About the Book:

“It happens quickly. I’m not in that house ten minutes before my world stops making sense.” From victim to survivor, Mary Ann Ricciardi pens from a most honest and heartfelt point of view, sharing what she knows to be true about the emotional ruin that trails behind the silence and myths surrounding intimate violence. In Screaming Through the Silence: Memories, Truths and a Hope Toward Understanding, Ricciardi writes with a purpose and desire to end the harmful silence of generations past and present. Presenting the issues simply and logically, Ricciardi’s “gentle rant” comes from years of social observations, her own personal struggle as victim turned survivor and her ongoing work with victims of intimate assault. Included are the voices of intimate assault and abuse survivors who so willingly share their truths in hopes of encouraging better understanding and awareness. “Society cannot understand because victims don’t tell; victims don’t tell because society does not understand.”

About the Author:

Mary Ann has been a Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) Advocate at the Crisis Call Center since 2005, and has provided over 930 hours of face-to-face advocacy to child and adult victims of sexual assault, their friends and families in the year 2011 alone. She has been recognized by Senator Harry Reid, the Alliance for Victims’ Rights, and the Crisis Call Center as an exceptional advocate because of her tremendous dedication to and compassion for victims. Mary Ann continues to be an integral part of the SASS program not only as valuable member of the advocacy team, but also as a teacher, role model and mentor to advocate trainees.

Mary Ann is well known among her peers and colleagues as an outspoken, passionate activist whose writing and public speeches encourage societal dialogue and reflection on our views of rape. She reveals the long-term emotional and spiritual impacts of sexual assault and explains how our silence contributes to tacit acceptance and perpetuation of intimate violence.

*All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to various nonprofit shelters and crisis centers.

:: Find it @ Amazon or Sundance Bookstores.
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