Julia McNeil is a founding Director and the Chief Operating Officer of Safe
Passage Foundation. 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, 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.
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.
