1,800 Miles

Josh Phillips has been actively advocating against sexual violence since 2003 when he joined an advocacy group at Central Michigan University. Since then he has had the privilege of presenting numerous programs on campuses and in communities throughout the United States. Because he situates sexual violence as a cultural issue, his education philosophy is that we must be actively against sexual violence instead of passively for it. Between his undergraduate and graduate work Josh took a year to volunteer in Camden, New Jersey working at homeless shelters and after-school programs. When he returned to CMU in 2007 for graduate work, he and two fellow advocates attempted their own active resistance against sexual violence when they created the group East Coast Walkers. In the summer of 2008 the East Coast Walkers efforts were manifest when they successfully completed a 1,800 mile walk from Miami to Boston to raise awareness about sexual violence. Josh's hope is to use stories from the walk to inspire others to creatively engage in everyday activism in an effort to create dialogue about social justice and the issues that affect us all.