Survivors of Homelessness and Human Trafficking Rise Together Across The Globe

  Please join us Friday morning when our speaker will be Carmel Jud. Carmel is the founder and executive director of Rising International. One evening Carmel Jud reached over to the pile of books stacked at the side of her bed and read one question that changed her life. “How are you best suited to serve humanity?” Two years later Carmel and her husband sold almost everything they owned, moved into a donated barn and launched Rising International.

    Rising International is the first nonprofit in the world to use the home party business model to contribute to solving extreme poverty; both locally and abroad. Carmel’s innovative idea for alleviating poverty using a $185 billion direct sales model has earned her much recognition and several awards, including Huffington Post’s “Greatest Person of the Day.” She opened for Melinda Gates at a TEDx event, was named 50/50 Leadership’s “Woman of the World,” garnered first place in the Cruz Cares Social Innovation Competition, won the Silicon Valley Community Impact Award, and is a proud recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Changemaker Award. 

  Since its inception, Rising International has supported 22,000 women and children living in the most dangerous and remote places on Earth. Today, Rising works with women in more than 20 developing countries. Part of its mission is to focus on areas of the world where it’s the hardest to be alive as woman.

  From an early age Carmel Jud did daring things. At age 15 she was living on her own, and after attending high school for two years, she founded an award-winning advertising and market research firm. In the 20-year history of the company, Carmel led CJCG from a start-up to a sought-after firm working with Fortune 500 companies.

  After receiving a tip about a child who was sold into human trafficking, Carmel spearheaded the 2014 launch of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. The Coalition includes more than 40 organizations, businesses and law enforcement agencies now working together at the forefront of a localized movement to end human trafficking—an ambitious but not impossible mission, as Carmel has learned that sometimes the most important change is the kind that comes from daring to try.

  Carmel will share how Rising International is enabling women surviving homelessness, gender-based violence and human trafficking to connect with other survivors around the globe. Through the power of entrepreneurship they help each other to rise.