Professional dancer and Jeffrey Epstein survivor Jess Michaels shared her story at an event in St. Joseph Thursday evening. She was there to advocate for an organization that’s desperately in need of funding, as federal grants for domestic violence and sexual assault services dwindle.
Caring Connection in Benton Harbor began its fiscal year Thursday with a 57% reduction in its funding. The Empowered Voices fundraiser aimed to raise crucial funds for the organization and its 23-bed shelter, the Empowerment Center.
Standing in front of a packed ballroom at Shadowland at Silver Beach, guest speaker Jess Michaels told her story.
Michaels said she was raped by Epstein in 1991, when she was 22 years old. The disgraced financier died in jail in 2019. By then he was a convicted sex offender awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Michaels now speaks publicly about her experience to raise awareness.
“Getting to talk to people in their communities, I feel like I'm able to make an impact to show them that this is actually really relatable. You know people that have been sexually abused," she said.
Michaels said organizations like Caring Connections are a crucial resource for survivors, especially in the aftermath of an assault.
"I get to support the organizations that are on the ground helping people every single day," Michaels said. "You know, everybody points to Epstein and they think it is an anomaly and they think that it is something unique or special and it's not. Jeffrey Epstein is literally basic sex trafficking 101 and that happens in every town and in every state in our country."
She added that she wants to use Epstein’s name to raise awareness and funds for survivors and the organizations that help them.
”I'm not the one that should be ashamed. And Jeffrey Epstein did a lot of evil stuff with that name. I plan on changing this tragedy with his name,” Michaels said.
Much of Michaels' speech focused on the importance of destigmatizing the freeze response — which is a neurological response to danger that may cause someone to freeze when attacked or assaulted.
Michaels said she wants to raise awareness for survivors who are criticized or ostracized for not fighting or fleeing during an assault.
"People that like me froze when it happened and blamed themselves for years. And places like the Empowerment Center where they take in survivors and intimate violence survivors — you know, they're the people that help heal. They're the people that are there for people like us. People that I didn't know existed back in 1991," she said.
Caring Connection CEO Robin McGinnis said the event was designed to uplift the voices of survivors like Michaels and show donors why organizations like Caring Connection matter.
"There’s multiple reasons we’re having tonight’s event," she said. "One is to highlight the needs of survivors. Bringing Jess Michaels here was important for us whether she's an Epstein survivor or not, which she is. But it's really about, people need to understand what sexual assault and domestic violence is.”
McGinnis says the organization was hoping to raise $40,000 at the event, as a step toward closing its budget gap.
