Nikole Lim is a speaker, educator, and author of the book, Liberation is Here. Nikole shifts paradigms on how stories are told by platforming voices of the oppressed–sharing stories of beauty arising out of seemingly broken situations. Her heart beats for young women whose voices are silenced by oppression and she desires to see every person realize the transformative power of their own story. As the Founder and International Director of Freely in Hope, Nikole has been deeply transformed by the powerful, tenacious, and awe-inspiring examples of survivors. Their audacious dreams have informed her philosophy for a survivor-led approach to community transformation. Nikole graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University and a master’s in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is trained in Compassion-Based Resilience through the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. She is a native of the Bay Area and can often be found buying African fabric on the streets of Nairobi. Her vision is to equip survivors and advocates to lead in ending the cycle of sexual violence: believing that they will be the ones to bring us all into liberation. In it, her hope is that the world may be transformed by them–just as she has.
“Generosity is sharing of time, energy, and resources that lead toward communal liberation.”
Freely in Hope is equipping survivors to lead in ending sexual violence by creating safe spaces and fellowship training for women who have experienced sexual violence. The Storytelling Fellowship equips women of color and survivors of sexual violence to raise their voices, lead with creativity, and build a world free of sexual violence. Our mentoring framework will allow mentees to strengthen their vocation as storytellers and practice sharing their voices, work, and vision in an international nonprofit context. Supported by consistent mentoring by nonprofit and industry leaders, technical workshops, peer critique, and a community with an international community of survivor-advocates, Fellows will practice storytelling as a vocational means to lead change in our world.
