UnSilenced: Battle Creek Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition, 485 E Columbia Avenue Suite 11, Battle Creek, MI (2026)

08/05/2026

THE STORY TOUR IS COMING TO BATTLE CREEK

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, The Story Tour with the Allan Scott Band is coming to Northwestern Auditorium for an evening of live music, powerful stories, faith, hope, healing, and community connection.

This evening is especially meaningful to me. Northwestern was the last traditional school I attended before exploitation and trafficking changed the direction of my life. More than three decades later, I will return to that stage—not as the child whose pain went unseen, but as a survivor, trainer, advocate, social worker, and community leader helping others recognize their worth and believe their story is not over.

VIP admission: 5:30 PM
General admission: 6:00 PM
Event begins: 6:30 PM

Get Tickets

Tickets and event information are available here:

https://brushfire.com/foundandfavored/the-story-tour/633249/tickets

You can also learn more about the Battle Creek event here:

https://www.kaahtc.org/unsilenced-events/the-story-tour-battle-creek

Community Resource Tables

The Story Tour will include opportunities for local organizations, ministries, and trusted community resources to connect with guests before and after the event.

Organizations interested in hosting a resource table should contact:

Jodi Schmouder, Booking & Tour Manager
570-506-8100 (this # does not accept txt msgs)
[email protected]

HELP US COLLECT 800 BIBLES OF HOPE

As we prepare to welcome our community, UnSilenced is collecting 800 new or gently used Bibles—one for every seat inside Northwestern Auditorium.

Our hope is that every person attending The Story Tour has the opportunity to take home Scripture, encouragement, and connections to trusted local resources.

You can help by donating Bibles, adopting a Row of Hope, hosting a collection box, sharing the project, volunteering, or giving toward Bibles and project supplies.

Learn more about the 800 Bibles of Hope Project:

https://www.kaahtc.org/800-bibles-of-hope

Support the project through Zeffy:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/800-bibles-of-hope-take-hope-home-project

800 seats. 800 Bibles. 800 opportunities to place hope into someone’s hands.

Please share this post, invite someone to attend, connect us with organizations that may want to table, and help us make November 14 an evening Battle Creek will remember. 💜

08/05/2026

800 BIBLES OF HOPE: HELP SOMEONE TAKE HOPE HOME

UnSilenced is collecting 800 new or gently used Bibles—one for every seat inside Northwestern Auditorium—as we prepare to welcome The Story Tour to Battle Creek on November 14, 2026.

Our hope is that every person attending has the opportunity to take home Scripture, encouragement, and connections to trusted local resources. This project is about more than reaching a number. It is about preparing 800 opportunities for someone to feel seen, supported, loved, and reminded that their story is not over.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Donate complete, clean, gift-worthy Bibles for adults, youth, or children. Large-print, Spanish-language, study, recovery-focused, and easy-to-read editions are also welcome.

You can also:
1. Adopt a Row of Hope
2. Host a collection box
3. Invite your church, business, or organization to participate
4. Share our project flyer
5. Give toward Bibles and project supplies
6. Help inspect and prepare donated Bibles

BIBLE DROP-OFF LOCATIONS
1. Battle Creek
Christian Counseling Center of Battle Creek
601 S. Shore Drive, Suite 224
Battle Creek, MI 49014

2. Kalamazoo
Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo
1819 Gull Road
Kalamazoo, MI 49048

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

Visit our new 800 Bibles of Hope webpage:

https://www.kaahtc.org/800-bibles-of-hope

GIVE THROUGH ZEFFY

Financial gifts can help us purchase Bibles and cover transportation, collection materials, printing, outreach, and other project supplies:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/800-bibles-of-hope-take-hope-home-project

The Bible collection deadline is Saturday, November 7, 2026.

To donate Bibles, adopt a Row of Hope, host a collection box, arrange a pickup or drop-off, or become a community partner, contact:

Robin Bolz: 269-339-5057
Tricia Meek: 616-329-5579
Email: [email protected]

800 seats. 800 Bibles. 800 opportunities to place hope into someone’s hands.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” —Psalm 119:105

Please share this post and help us invite churches, families, businesses, ministries, and community organizations throughout Battle Creek and Kalamazoo to be part of something meaningful.

08/01/2026

INTRODUCING THE 800 BIBLES OF HOPE PROJECT! 15 weeks. 800 Bibles. One community preparing for a powerful night of hope.

Today, UnSilenced officially begins a 15-week journey leading us to The Story Tour with the Allan Scott Band on November 14, 2026, at Northwestern Auditorium in Battle Creek.

Our goal is bold, but we believe our community can do it: Collect 800 new or gently used Bibles—one for every seat in the auditorium.

The Story Tour is more than a concert. It is an evening of music, ministry, real-life stories, recovery, redemption, and hope. People will walk through those doors carrying grief, addiction, trauma, fear, loneliness, and questions about whether their lives can ever be different.

We want every person who needs one to leave with a Bible in their hands and the reminder that their story is not over.

For the next 15 weeks, we will be inviting individuals, families, churches, businesses, organizations, recovery communities, and community partners to help us fill 800 Seats of Hope.

You can participate by:

📖 Donating new or gently used Bibles
🪑 Adopting a Row of Hope
📦 Hosting a Bible collection box
💛 Giving toward project supplies or Bible purchases
🚗 Helping with Bible pickup or delivery
🙏 Praying over this project and the people who will attend
📣 Sharing our weekly posts and inviting others to participate
🎟️ Making plans to attend The Story Tour on November 14

Every Bible collected represents more than a number. It represents a person who may be searching for hope, healing, belonging, recovery, or a reason to keep moving forward.

I know what it feels like to believe your story has already been decided for you. I also know the power of discovering that God can meet us in the hardest chapters and help us write something new.

This project is an act of faith. We may not know whose hands will receive each Bible, but we believe every one of them can carry hope into a life, a home, a recovery program, a shelter, a jail cell, or a moment when someone feels completely alone.

Help us reach our goal of 800 Bibles and prepare Battle Creek for an unforgettable evening of hope.

To donate Bibles, adopt a Row of Hope, host a collection box, contribute toward project supplies, or arrange a pickup or drop-off, please contact UnSilenced.

📧 [email protected]
📞 269-339-5057
🌐 www.bcunsilenced.org

Save the date:

🎶 THE STORY TOUR – BATTLE CREEK
📅 Saturday, November 14, 2026
📍 Northwestern Auditorium
🚪 VIP Doors: 5:30 p.m.
🚪 General Admission: 6:00 p.m.
🎤 Event Begins: 6:30 p.m.
Get Tickets at: THESTORYTOUR.ORG

Will you help us place 800 Bibles of Hope into 800 seats—and help fill those seats with people who need to know that hope is still possible?

Comment “I’m in” below, tag a church, organization, or friend who may want to participate, and share this post to help us begin this journey together.

Week 1 of 15 begins now. Let’s fill every seat with hope. 📖💛

07/31/2026

📖 Something hopeful begins tomorrow.

For the next 15 weeks, UnSilenced will be inviting our community into a faith-filled project leading all the way to The Story Tour in Battle Creek on November 14.

The goal is big.
The vision is meaningful.
And we cannot do it without our community.

Tomorrow, we officially introduce the 800 Bibles of Hope Project.

Get ready to help us fill 800 seats with more than people.

We are preparing to fill them with hope. 💛

07/22/2026

Today was one of those days that reminds me why collaboration matters.

A heartfelt thank you to the incredible team that stood beside me as we had the privilege of training the leadership, corporate team, and clinical professionals at Summit Pointe on recognizing and responding to human trafficking, digital exploitation, s*xtortion, labor trafficking, and su***de awareness.

💜 Leyna Danelle – Thank you for sharing your expertise, your passion, and your statewide perspective through the Michigan Anti-Trafficking Project and the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission. Your knowledge continues to strengthen this work.

💜 Danielle Sackrider – Thank you for bringing such compassion and clinical excellence to the conversation around su***de awareness and prevention. Helping professionals understand not only what to look for, but what to say and how to respond, is life-changing.

💜 Chief Rich Mackey – Thank you for bringing the law enforcement perspective and for demonstrating what true community partnership looks like. Your commitment to working alongside behavioral health, advocates, and survivors sends a powerful message that protecting our community requires all of us.

This wasn’t just another training. It was an opportunity to bring survivors, behavioral health professionals, law enforcement, and community leaders together around one shared goal: recognizing exploitation sooner, responding with compassion, and building systems that better serve those who need us most.

Thank you, Summit Pointe, for opening your doors, your minds, and your hearts. Together, we are building a community where awareness becomes action, collaboration replaces silos, and every person who walks through the door has a better chance of being seen, heard, and supported.

Safer Together. Stronger Together. UnSilenced Together. 💜

07/18/2026

Summit Pointe + UnSilenced = Healing & Hope (Branded joint logo created and approved with Summit Pointe)

On June 1, 2026, UnSilenced and Summit Pointe entered into an affiliation and training partnership—and this coming Wednesday, we will officially step into the room together for our first in-house training! I am so incredibly excited for what this partnership represents.

A few years ago, UnSilenced began providing human trafficking education within Integrated Services of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County's community mental health system. Now, we are honored to stand beside Summit Pointe, Calhoun County's community mental health authority, as we strengthen the way behavioral health professionals recognize and respond to trafficking, exploitation, trauma, and vulnerability.

Our partnership is built around WMU's accredited Beyond the Chart: Recognizing Human Trafficking Through a Clinical and Survivor-Informed Lens—a three-hour training created by UnSilenced Battle Creek Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition, to help professionals recognize indicators, understand trauma responses, identify barriers to seeking help, and respond in ways that protect safety, dignity, trust, and choice.

A very special thank-you goes to Jeannie Goodrich, CEO of Summit Pointe, for believing in me, trusting UnSilenced to educate Summit Pointe staff, and creating space for lived experience to have a meaningful voice at the table. Your willingness to see value in both professional knowledge and lived experience means more than I can adequately put into words.

This Wednesday, we will passionately pour into Summit Pointe's staff, corporate team, and leadership by providing a broader understanding of what human trafficking looks like today and how easily it can remain hidden within behavioral health, crisis response, substance use, homelessness, domestic violence, and other complex situations. Together, we will examine the different forms of exploitation, including s*x trafficking, labor trafficking, familial trafficking, online-facilitated trafficking, cyber exploitation, and exploitation connected to po*******hy and s*xually explicit content. We will also explore how grooming, coercion, trauma, fear, dependency, and unmet basic needs can influence a survivor's behavior, increase emotional distress, and affect their ability to seek help. The training will also include su***de awareness and education, including how to recognize warning signs, respond with compassion, ask direct and supportive questions, and connect someone to appropriate help without judgment or panic. Most importantly, we will focus on helping professionals move beyond assumptions, recognize possible indicators, know what to say and do, and create safer pathways for support, appropriate referrals, crisis intervention, and coordinated community action.

I am also incredibly fortunate to co-facilitate alongside a powerful multidisciplinary team:

1. Danielle Sackrider, LMSW: UnSilenced Social Worker and Trainer, Su***de Prevention Coordinator, and Kalamazoo LOSS Team Co-Lead
2. Leyna Luttrull: Survivor, victum advocate, UnSilenced Trainier, Director of Collaborative Initiatives with the Michigan Anti-Trafficking Project and an appointed member of the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission
3. Chief Rich Mackey: UnSilenced Guest Trainier and the Chief of Public Safety for the Emmett Township, Battle Creek!

For three hours, the worlds of lived experience, social work, behavioral health, su***de prevention, law enforcement, community advocacy, and legislative systems change will come together in one room.

That is how we move from awareness to action.
That is how we stop working in separate lanes and begin building coordinated pathways of identification, safety, accountability, and support.

That is how we help professionals recognize that the person standing before them may not be "difficult," "noncompliant," "attention seeking," or "making poor choices." They may be surviving coercion, violence, fear, dependency, and circumstances that have never felt safe enough to disclose.

Calhoun County is already making a strong statement: there will be zero tolerance for the buying and selling of human beings for s*x. But accountability must be accompanied by education, survivor-centered services, prevention, safe reporting options, and systems prepared to respond when someone reaches for help.

This partnership is about creating those stronger systems. It is about making sure survivors are not overlooked because their stories are complicated. It is about helping professionals see beyond the chart. It is about building a community where people experiencing exploitation are met with understanding rather than judgment, options rather than demands, and a pathway toward safety rather than another closed door. Safer together. Stronger together. UnSilenced together.

07/16/2026

First Official Social Media Announcement, Battle Creek:
Uncle Bobby Has Something to Tell You!!

Who better to make our very first official announcement than a man who has spent decades using his voice, his music, his faith, and even his own hands and knees to fight for the heart of our community?

The legendary Bobby Holley—our very own Uncle Bobby—is helping us announce that The Story Tour with the Allan Scott Band is coming to Battle Creek!

Bobby Holley is more than a community activist and entertainer. He is a Battle Creek staple, a living piece of our history, and what we lovingly call ministry in motion.

For decades, Bobby has stood against gun violence, bullying, crime, substance use, homelessness, drunk driving, and the many challenges affecting our children and families. He has walked, marched, rallied, performed, slept outdoors, pulled a casket through city streets, and crawled mile after mile to make people stop and pay attention.

His mission became personal after his 13-year-old nephew, Trent Buckner, was shot and killed in Battle Creek in 1987 while returning bottles to a store. Trent never made it home, and his murder was never solved.

Bobby could have allowed that grief to silence him. Instead, he transformed his pain into more than 30 years of service, advocacy, education, and action.

In one of his final major crawls, Bobby traveled more than 20 miles from Battle Creek toward Kalamazoo during cold, wet, and icy conditions. With padding taped to his hands and knees, he crawled because he believed simply walking would not receive enough attention.

He described himself as a man crawling and pleading on his hands and knees for the violence to stop.

That is Uncle Bobby.

He does not merely talk about the problems affecting our community. He places himself directly in the work. He has used every gift, platform, song, step, and breath available to encourage peace and remind people that every life matters.

So, when Uncle Bobby believes in the mission and vision behind something, you know we must be doing something right.

The Story Tour is not simply a concert. It is an evening of powerful music, honest stories, faith, hope, healing, and the reminder that no life is too broken and no story is too far gone.

📅 Saturday, November 14, 2026
📍 Northwestern Auditorium—Battle Creek, Michigan
⏰ VIP doors open at 5:30 p.m.
⏰ General admission doors open at 6:00 p.m.
🎤 The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

GET TICKETS AT: THESTORYTOUR.ORG
Have Questions? Call (570) 506-8100

This event will take place on a stage that already carries deep meaning for our community and for my own story. We are preparing a space where people can take a breath, feel seen, hear messages of restoration, and be reminded that their pain does not have to be the final chapter.

Thank you, Uncle Bobby, for believing in our ministry, lending us your voice, and continuing to show Battle Creek what it means to love a community through action.

Battle Creek, watch the video, share the announcement, and get ready. The Story Tour is coming home!!

07/11/2026

Some training teaches skills, and some training changes the way we see people.

This August, UnSilenced is honored to join two incredible investigators who have spent years moving the conversation forward around trauma, memory, victimization, and human-centered interviewing. Detective Jonathan Pignataro and Detective Sergeant Randy Volosky are bringing their Foundations of Human-Centric Interviewing training clinic to Battle Creek at FireKeepers Casino Hotel on August 25–27, 2026.

This MCOLES-approved, 24-hour training goes beyond the traditional trauma-informed model and asks a deeper question: What happens when we understand not only what trauma does to the mind, but what it does to the body, memory, nervous system, and the way people communicate?

For many survivors, memories do not arrive in chronological order. Details may emerge through sensory experiences rather than timelines. Survival responses can look like avoidance, anger, numbness, humor, compliance, withdrawal, or inconsistency.

Too often, systems mistake those responses for deception, manipulation, resistance, or unwillingness to cooperate. Human-centric interviewing challenges us to do better. This training explores trauma and memory, neurobiology, neurodiversity, cultural safety, rapport-building, documentation, corroboration, sensory interviewing techniques, and creating conditions where people can share their experiences with dignity and safety.

UnSilenced is honored to contribute a three-hour survivor-informed and community-centered section of the training. Robin Bolz will share from both lived experience and professional clinical practices regarding human trafficking, coercion, trauma bonding, victim response, and the realities of survival that often do not fit neatly into expectations or reports. Danielle Sackrider will bring her expertise in su***de awareness and prevention, helping participants better understand the intersections between trauma, hopelessness, victimization, and recovery.

Together, we hope to bridge the space between systems and survivors. Because when we understand trauma, we interview differently. We document differently. We investigate differently. We respond differently. And sometimes those differences become the reason someone feels safe enough to tell the truth for the very first time.

Thank you to Detective Jonathan Pignataro and Detective Sergeant Randy Volosky for bringing this important work to our community and for allowing UnSilenced to stand beside you in this effort.

Battle Creek is fortunate to host conversations like these. The ripple effects will reach far beyond the classroom.

📍 FireKeepers Casino Hotel — Battle Creek, Michigan
📅 August 25–27, 2026
🎓 MCOLES Approved and CEU’s provided
🤝 Law Enforcement • Nursing • Advocates • Prosecutors • Physician Assistant • First Responders • Psychologist • Interviewers • Social Workers • Peer Support Specialists • Recovery Coaches

When we understand how trauma affects memory and communication, we stop asking, ‘Why is their story messy?’ and start asking, ‘How do we create enough safety for the truth to come forward?’

07/04/2026

Because of You...

Yesterday, we paused to submit our first grant follow-up report to the Battle Creek Community Foundation.

As we reflected on the past year, we were reminded that this report isn't really about dollars spent—it's about lives touched, partnerships built, and a community choosing to stand together against human trafficking, exploitation, and WOW. Just Wow.

Because of the Battle Creek Community Foundation's investment, and because so many of you believed in a vision that was once just an idea around a table, UnSilenced has grown into something far greater than we imagined.

Together this year, we have:
🩵Maintained a survivor hotline connecting individuals to immediate support and community resources.
🩵Expanded street outreach throughout Calhoun County.
🩵Developed the Beyond the Badge community awareness initiative and the Beyond the Chart survivor-informed professional education program.
🩵Distributed more than 5,000 Beyond the Badge Visor Buddy Cards throughout Calhoun County and Southwest Michigan.
🩵Received WMED approval to provide Continuing Education credits for physician assistants, nurses, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and other healthcare professionals.
🩵Received MDHHS MiPeers approval to provide Continuing Education credits for Michigan Certified Peer Support Specialists and Recovery Coaches.
🩵Became an official Western Michigan University School of Social Work BSW/MSW field placement site.
🩵Contributed more than 650 internship hours toward developing programs, strengthening organizational capacity, and expanding community partnerships.
🩵Established affiliation agreements with Summit Pointe and Integrated Services of Kalamazoo to provide survivor-informed human trafficking education four times annually.
🩵Provided survivor-informed education to Michigan’s Human Trafficking Commission at the State Capitol.
🩵Participated in educational exchanges with law enforcement and security professionals from Thailand, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and other international partners.
🩵Strengthened partnerships with law enforcement, healthcare providers, behavioral health organizations, recovery programs, faith communities, schools, universities, and nonprofit organizations.
🩵Increased community awareness through educational outreach and Emmy Award-winning WWMT News Channel 3 coverage featuring UnSilenced’s survivor-informed advocacy partnering with law enforcement.

And somewhere along the way... As a new organization, we also learned the importance of remaining adaptable. Throughout the year, we refined policies, training materials, and organizational practices as survivor-informed research, professional guidance, and community feedback continued to shape our work. Those experiences strengthened our programs and reinforced our commitment to continuous learning, accountability, and excellence.

None of this happened because of one person. It happened because of an entire community, so thank you all for your support. You have shown that when a community chooses compassion over silence, incredible things happen.

We still have so much work ahead of us, but because of you, more people are being seen. More people are being heard. More people are finding hope.

This is only Year Two. We're just getting started. 🩵💜

UnSilenced: Battle Creek Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition

08/05/2026

08/05/2026

08/01/2026

07/31/2026

07/22/2026

07/18/2026

07/16/2026

07/11/2026

07/04/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Share