Julia McNeil
Julia McNeil is a founding Director and the Chief Operating Officer of Safe Passage Foundation, an organization whose goals include providing support and advocacy for people raised in restrictive and isolated communities. Ms. McNeil has eight years of experience in IT project management and currently works as a Senior Systems Analyst for a pediatric health care and research facility.
Julia McNeil became involved with child advocacy through participation in a number of projects with NGOs and child rights advocates regarding sexually exploited children and youth.
Born into an isolated religious community, and having left to start a new life at the age of twenty (in 1995), Ms. McNeil is the eldest of eleven children. The challenges both she and her siblings faced when exiting their community of origin demonstrated to her first hand the need for support and resources for this particular demographic.
In 2001, Ms. McNeil went on to create an online support group (www.movingon.org) for young people who were born into the same isolated community she was. This interactive web site provided a place for youth to safely interact with people who understood the challenges of integration into society and to participate in peer-to-peer support.
