Jessica Barth and Caitlin Dulany met under strange and difficult circumstances. They and nine other women were being filmed at a coffee shop while discussing personal trauma. All 11 of them had recently accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, and were gathered during the making of ” Weinstein: The Inside Story,” a BBC “Panorama” documentary. The pair have been busy collaborating ever since. According to an article published on The Guardian, Barth and Dulany realized that they were both passionate about helping “prevent others in the entertainment industry from slipping into a similar position: powerless to report an incident and unaware others might have experienced similar misconduct.” The actresses spent the past year working towards that goal and establishing Voices in Action.
Launched in October 2018, the organization is an anonymous online reporting system. Its website, “which has been backed by top lawyers and Hollywood actors, allows people to record incidents of sexual harassment and abuse. Crucially, victims will be alerted by the website’s team of lawyers if others get in touch about the same alleged perpetrator.”
Dulany, whose credits include “Mistresses” and “Saving Grace,” says that connecting with other women who had similar experiences was a “game-changer” for her. “Assault can be difficult to talk about, even with our closest family and friends,” she explains. “When I met everyone that day at the coffee shop it was still raw. I’d been silent about it for so long, so I wasn’t sure if I could talk to people about what happened. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to leave my house.”
Barth, who starred in the “Ted” franchise, adds, “It felt awkward to be coming together under such circumstances, but I’m so glad I went, because what came out of it has been a true gift over what has been a monstrous time period.”
That meeting was ultimately “tranformative,” according to Dulany. It’s how they realized that “uniting victims had to be part of what [they] did next.”
“Women don’t report sexual crimes,” Barth emphasizes, pointing to statistics that prove her point. “They don’t feel there is a place to go and don’t think they’re going to be believed.” That’s why Voices in Action is “so necessary” as a platform.
“We have seen and experienced why people in our industry are vulnerable, and we see the solution,” Dulany says. “We’ve been working really hard over the past year, speaking to experts, making sure we get this right. We don’t want to see people going through what we did, but they still are and they still don’t know where to go.”
“Neither of Voices in Action’s co-founders will have access to the website’s submissions,” The Guardian details. “The only person to see reports will be a ‘trauma-trained moderator,’ whose identity will be kept private. As soon as a report is lodged, the victim is given a time-stamped receipt that can be provided as a form of documentation in court or provided to the police. When there’s a perpetrator match, victims are offered a free consultation with trusted lawyers, and given suggestions of investigative reporters they can get in touch with.”
Voices in Action’s celebrity ambassadors include Oscar winner and fellow Weinstein accuser Mira Sorvino, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star Terry Crews, and “Claws” actor Harold Perrineau.
Barth and Dulany believe part of what distinguishes the org is the fact that it’s led by victims. “Since the women hadn’t been invited to participate in any of the early gatherings for Time’s Up, the industry support group formed by Hollywood actors in response to the Weinstein scandal, they felt they had to establish their own organization,” The Guardian notes.
“A lot of organizations in Hollywood are doing good things,” Barth acknowledges, “but they’re not necessarily survivor-run, and the people on their boards are in positions of power, which I think can deter victims from coming forward. At the moment we are self-funded, but we are reaching out to everyone at the top of our industry for support – those at Time’s Up, the highest level agencies, and studio executives. We feel like it’s their responsibility to help support us financially, to keep our industry safe.”
While Barth and Dulany are explicit about the fact that they aren’t pressuring victims to go public with their stories if they aren’t ready yet, they emphasize that documenting abuse when it occurs can be important. “One of the most common things we see in sexual assault cases is that if people don’t report right away, it affects their cases later,” Dulany explains. Bath elaborates, “So with our platform, you can report, it’ll go into our system and you get an email receipt that is time-stamped, which we’re finding can be a critical piece of evidence if you decide to press criminal charges. This allows victims to say: ‘I did report it, here is my evidence, I just wasn’t ready to come forward publicly then.’ This is what a lot of survivors feel.”
You can contribute to Voices in Action and find more information on the org’s GoFundMe page. Head over to The Guardian to read the complete interview with Barth and Dulany.
