About Wings

Inclusivity

Wings welcomes ALL survivors regardless of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, and where applicable, political beliefs, marital status, familial or parental status, sexual orientation or income level.

Confidentiality

Wings honors the privacy and dignity of every survivor. Unless survivors have communicated a desire to speak out and share their stories publicly, we will never violate their rights to receive confidential services.

Empowerment

At Wings, survivors find a place where they are believed, accepted and no longer alone. They are connected to essential resources to advance their healing at their own pace.

Resilience

Wings believes the path to healing is individual and unique to each person, and every person has the ability to heal.

Voice

Accountability

Wings foster an environment of transparency and accountability on an individual and societal level. We help survivors let go of the blame and shame that is not theirs to own and place accountability for the abuse on the person who chose to abuse them. Wings maintains that accountability for appropriately supporting survivors must be a shared goal by families, organizations and communities everywhere. Survivors should not bear the burden of their trauma alone; they must have systems designed to foster their healing.

Advocacy

Wings recognizes supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse as a human rights issue. Survivors have a right to information about the ways their health and wellbeing are impacted, to receive specialized services and to be a part of the dialogue to end the culture of silence engulfing the issue.

Honoring our legacy, co-creating future change. 

Nancy called the group W.I.N.G.S., an acronym for Women Incested Needing Group Support, becoming the Clinical Founder. Once the organization received a financial contribution and needed to incorporate, a survivor advanced in her healing at that time, Mary Shannon, became the first Executive Director, in a fully volunteer capacity. For the first several years in existence, W.I.N.G.S. was all volunteer-driven by an early dedicated group of survivors. 

Over the years, W.I.N.G.S. realized the need to include services for all adults who experienced sexual abuse in childhood. While incest, or intrafamilial abuse, remains an unfortunately prevalent issue with specific challenges, those abused outside of the family also needed support. Wings also expanded to support men and people of all gender identities. 

In 1993, we dropped the acronym and kept the name WINGS and the symbol of a bird in flight to represent the resilient nature of the human spirit and the power to transcend this trauma. Since then, we’ve continued to add specialized services for groups like LGBTQ+ survivors, Spanish speaking survivors with limited capacity, and more on our path to be ever more survivor-centered. 

We’re on a path of growth. Learn about our Inclusive Future.

Our Commitment to Belonging

Childhood sexual abuse affects people from all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, and socio-economic status levels. Abuse is created and silenced by systems of oppression that privilege some over others and create harm to those most vulnerable – children and marginalized groups, while at the same time designing systems of care that leave out the needs of those who are most harmed. This includes all adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and especially those from communities of color, indigenous communities, and other communities that have been marginalized or discriminated against.

In 2016, WINGS began assessing the broad needs of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse as an underserved population. We began bringing public health research to systems change efforts to quantify the needs and amplify the voices of this population at the state level in Colorado. 

In 2021, WINGS took steps to better understand the needs of adult survivors of color to broaden and deepen our practices in areas of access, equity, inclusion and belonging. We also decided to align this intention with our organizational purpose by modifying our name again to Wings, to better represent an inclusive approach that seeks to transform oppressive systems to promote individual and community healing for all.

Today, we honor our legacy and seek to co-create future change by making space to heal for all survivors. We invite you to join us.

We’re on a path of growth! While Wings is currently based in Colorado, and our support group services are primarily offered here, we provide referrals nationwide. We are actively building organizational capacity to offer all our services more widely.  If you would like to learn more about helping Wings scale, please contact our Executive Director at jenny.stith@wingsfound.org.

Thank you to our Support Group Facilitators

A flagship program of Wings has always been our support groups, which are co-therapist facilitated and peer-led. Each week, our facilitators hold safe space for survivors and loved ones to explore and expand their healing, cultivating learning and connection with themselves and with other survivors. We wish to thank the many current and past Wings facilitators who have played a critical role in making space for survivors to heal.  

Learn how you can become a Wings therapist facilitator

Wings thanks the many dedicated leaders who give their time, talent and treasure to advance this vital mission. Taking a stand for this issue in one’s life and in the world is one significant way of making space to heal for ourselves and for each other.  

State Task Force Members

*We are grateful to all leaders who served on the State Task Force at any time during the last four years. Names listed are with the agencies at which each person worked while serving.

These leaders assisted on our Many Voices Project community needs assessment, examining access to care challenges and opportunities for adult survivors within communities of color.

Members of the Wisdom Keepers

Apryl Alexander, Psy.D, Associate Professor (she/her)

Metrolina Distinguished Scholar of Health & Public Policy

Associate Professor | Department of Public Health Sciences 

Director | UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center

UNC Charlotte

Lily Boyce, Covid Native Response Team member  

The Denver Indian Center 

Kristiana Huitrón, Executive Director 

Voces Unidas for Justice

Nhu-Minh Le, Director of Victim Assistance 

Asian Pacific Development Center 

Enid Nieves, Director of Hotline Services 

The Center for Trauma & Resilience 

With support from The Gemini Group &  

Taña V. Quintana-Price, MA, LPC 

Mindful Therapy 

Wings has been creating space for adult survivors to heal from childhood sexual abuse trauma for four decades. The world of trauma recovery is becoming much more well-known globally, today.  

Wings grounds our work within the tenants of Trauma-Informed Care, as established by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMSHA). This work recognizes that effective treatment for the symptoms trauma survivors are experiencing today includes treatment for past trauma. It affirms that ‘trauma’ is a natural reaction to overwhelming experiences and with proper supports, individuals can heal.

Healing from CSA Trauma, specifically.

While Trauma Informed Care originated in the substance abuse field, Wings recognizes that substance use and abuse is often a symptom of earlier experiences that overwhelm a person’s ability to cope in healthy ways. This sense of overwhelm was often caused by events such as childhood sexual abuse. For a very long time in our culture, it has been too scary or overwhelming for many people to recognize and acknowledge this earlier and specific type of interpersonal violence. Therefore, it has not been incorporated into an effective treatment response for adults needing to heal from it. We’re here to make it easier to understand and engage with this truth.

Learn more about CSA Trauma-Informed CARE.

Why we center CSA Trauma in our ASCSA CARE Collaborative

We can’t heal from anything if we don’t know what we are healing from. CSA trauma has been an unspeakable, invisible and denied health issue for far too long. Wings centers the knowledge that adult survivors have gained throughout the healing journey, along with clinical and trauma informed practice to shape what we call our “CSA-Trauma Informed CARE” (or ASCSA CARE) approach. It helps all of us understand this issue and how to support the healing journey – as individuals, loved ones, professionals and allies. When we have these critical pieces working together, we can build individual and collective resilience, connection, and growth.

Our ASCSA CARE (Community Action Response & Engagement) Collaborative is a pioneering new multi-disciplinary team (MDT) protocol that prepares communities to fully embrace ASCSA CARE to create the systems necessary to provide adult survivors with the services, supports and space they need to transcend this trauma. 

Learn more about our ASCSA CARE Collaborative pilot.

Healthier lives, relationships and communities

When we transform systems that have denied this trauma, we transform lives of the people within them. Brighter, healthier lives, relationships and communities are our aim.
 

Wings has been dedicated to understanding and advancing knowledge about the needs of the underserved population of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse for four decades. In recent years, Wings has partnered with many stakeholders to gather public health data to supplement what we have learned in working with survivors each day. We thank each survivor, loved one and professional who has shared their experiences with us through these efforts. You can learn more about each one below and how we are applying the information they’ve provided in our work and partnerships. 

Wings seeks dedicated, diverse, passionate and skilled leaders to carry forward our legacy of healing. We have the below opportunities available at this time. 

Wings appreciates volunteers in a number of key ways to support our mission. These may include assisting with special events and activities, serving on committees and becoming ambassadors for adult survivors of sexual abuse. Contact us to learn more.

Wings is dedicated to the principles of equal opportunity—

both in employment and the delivery of services or benefits in programs or activities.  Wings will not discriminate on the basis of age, race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin {which includes discrimination on the basis of limited English proficiency (LEP)}, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender variance, disability, military status, genetic information or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

If you feel you have been discriminated against, inquiries may be made to:

U.S. Department of Justice

Civil Rights Division

950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

Phone: 202-514-3847

Toll free:  1-855-856-1247

TTY number: 202-514-0716

Information on how to report a civil rights violation may be found on the Office for Civil Rights website at: Step 1: Contact – Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice