We are sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, businessmen, and Eagle Scouts who are survivors of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America.
We are sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, businessmen and Eagle Scouts who are survivors of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America. Trauma often debilitates individuals and fragments our communities. Communication often turns to silence, relationships undergo strain and shock echoes through our everyday lives. Some of our members are featured in the Hulu documentary Leave No Trace. We chose to break our silence and share our stories. We also feel obligated to provide opportunities for other former Scouts to break their silence about their own sexual abuse. We are here to help you on your road to transforming trauma into healing.
Please join us and support our mission to end the injustice of sexual abuse.
The Impact Campaign
The Treehouse Project is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to impact projects in association with Vermilion Films, the production company of Oscar® nominated, Emmy® Award winning filmmaker, Irene Taylor.
In June, 2022, the documentary film Leave No Trace premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and is now screening on Hulu. The intention of the Leave No Trace impact campaign is to support the needs of the survivors in the film and we followed their lead in developing an impact strategy. Thus, this project has been created with the support of The Treehouse Project by the film’s survivors and impact producer Lise Balk King.
Background
When the film’s subjects gathered for the first time at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere, they remarked how profound the experience was to finally meet, and realized how much they had been missing the camaraderie of other BSA survivors. They recognized a unique need for support, especially in light of the pending cessation of the communication channel that was created for the 82,000+ plaintiffs in the BSA lawsuit (the Tort Claims Committee Town Hall meetings) that they said gave them “profound recognition” that they were “not alone.” In surveying the film’s survivors on how they would like to make an impact, they universally expressed their wish to 1) provide support to other survivors, especially those who have not had the opportunity to connect to a support network, and 2) help in the work to provide greater protections for children so that there are no more victims in the future.
Goals of this impact project are:
To provide a centralized virtual gathering place for survivors to find validation, solace, and healing where they may share their stories and participate in online recovery;
To provide resources to survivors, family members, and allies to aid in recovery;
To provide information to elected leaders, advocacy organizations, and activists on gaps in public policy that need to be addressed at the state and federal levels;
To provide resources to those who care for children, including parents, educators, and childcare providers, in order to help prevent abuse in current and future generations.
About the Film
The Boy Scouts are an American institution, lauded by multiple presidents as the epitome of integrity and described by one interviewee in the documentary Leave No Trace as “wholesome as apple pie.” But beneath its Norman Rockwell exterior lies a scandal—and a coverup—of shocking proportions. More than 82,000 men have come forward with charges of sexual abuse against scoutmasters and other authority figures within the Boy Scouts, prompting bankruptcy filings and a massive settlement that’s still moving through the U.S. court system.
Peabody and Emmy®-winning and Oscar®-nominated director Irene Taylor (“Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements,” “Beware the Slenderman”) of Vermilion Films, Imagine Documentaries and ABC News Studios investigate the downfall of an American institution in the powerful and timely documentary, Leave No Trace. The film draws on financial records, court documents, and scores of interviews to dissect a century-long cover-up by The Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The organization concealed that pedophiles were in its ranks, but the disclosure of secret “perversion files” in litigation eventually led to disgrace and bankruptcy. Only those files attached to the case (as part of the discovery process) have been released.
Producing alongside Taylor is Sara Bernstein and Justin Wilkes for Imagine Documentaries, Emily Singer Chapman and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nigel Jaquiss. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard serve as executive producers. Following its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, “Leave No Trace” streams on Hulu.
The film looks at the sexual abuse, told through firsthand accounts of survivors still trying to cope with their trauma today, even as they crusade for justice in a high-stakes court case. Interviews and taped depositions with former BSA leadership, including a highly placed insider, reveal how financial considerations factored into BSA executives putting the interests of adults and the organization ahead of keeping boys safe. The film explores the connection between declining membership—the scouts’ financial lifeblood—and policies that failed to protect boys from their abusers. And the film reveals that BSA leadership prioritized banning gay scouts and leaders over-reporting pedophiles to authorities.