Services and history

RAISE grew out of a small, in-person support group that began meeting before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the group moved online, transforming from a local gathering into an international community of survivors and family members.

Over time, participants stepped into leadership roles, and the facilitators who now guide RAISE have been working together for more than five years. In 2025, we created RAISE to meet the unique needs of a global, virtual peer support network, distinct from the original local group.

Our work uses technology and international collaboration to provide accessible, survivor-led support in a world where few resources exist for those affected by cults and coercive control.

People & Culture

Culture

Our culture is built around decentralised leadership and collective decision-making. We aim to keep hierarchy to a minimum, with directors, participants, and contributing members working together on peer-level terms. Decisions are made collectively, so that no one voice carries significant control over another.

We resist the professionalisation of this work, which too often puts people on pedestals. At RAISE, leadership is something we practise together, not something reserved for a few. Directors serve for 6 to 18 months, creating space for new perspectives and keeping leadership fresh, dynamic, and shared.

We are inspired by and learning from other organisations practising decentralised governance, and we are committed to adapting those lessons to our own unique community.

People

RAISE is first and foremost a community of people. Most of our participants are survivors of cults and controlling groups, or family members of those who have been harmed by them. We bring together a wide range of lived experiences, and we honour the wisdom and resilience that each person carries.

What unites us is the belief that peer support is powerful. Everyone who joins RAISE brings something valuable, and we see each person as an equal contributor — not as a client, a patient, or someone to be “fixed”. Instead, we learn from one another as peers, recognising that lived experience is expertise in its own right.

Our Team

Joy Cranham

Co-Director & Facilitator

Evvie "Lionheart" Habet

Co-Director & facilitator