Girls, women, LGBTQ individuals and others across the U.S. are being pressured, tricked, threatened or beaten into marriage, usually by their own parents. For them, marriage often means a lifetime of rape and domestic servitude.

Unchained is the only organization dedicated to providing comprehensive, often life-saving legal and social services and emotional support — always for free — to help women, girls and others in the U.S. to resist or escape their forced marriage. Unchained also is the only organization dedicated to promoting social, policy and legal change to end forced and child marriage in the U.S. The organization started and now leads a growing national movement to end child marriage in every U.S. state and at the federal level.

A day at Unchained is rarely dull. Members of the small but feisty Unchained team are followed frequently by news and filmmaker cameras and travel around the U.S. to testify at legislative hearings and to Chain-In, in bridal gowns and chains, to protest forced and child marriage. In just the last few years, team members ate dinner with Chelsea Clinton, watched Trevor Noah perform and got tattoos together to commemorate Unchained’s historic legislative victory that ended child marriage in Delaware – the first U.S. state to eliminate this human rights abuse.

Unchained prioritizes self-care and team building. Unchained team members take daily team walks (virtually or in person), end work early every Friday for a virtual “we survived the week” celebration, join monthly art therapy sessions and set aside random days as work-free “nap days.” They enjoy semi-annual staff retreats during which they go for a hike in the woods, play board games for hours and eat too much guacamole.