Welcome Friends and Classmates to PATH
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For Joining Facilitated Circles-Scroll Down
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***Update on Our Newest PATH Initiative***
The PATH Institute has gathered a unique multi-perspective group to explore and promote better practices for addressing sexual abuse.
With alumni support and the contribution of lawyers, educational leaders, trauma researchers, survivors, restorative practitioners, and boarding school administrators we have moved forward and are launching a series of facilitated dialogues for boarding school administrators. Click on this link to see more about the Collaborative Think Tank For Administrators
Our vision started with the PATH presents talk with Dr. Judith Herman sponsored by PATH for the Exeter community. We made a short video about what came from this inspiring dialogue below:
See Dr. Herman’s full presentation here
See our 2024 PATH Presents offering with Elizabeth Clements from HiddenWater and Dr. Charol Shakeshaft from Virginia Commonwealth University who has written a book: Organizational Betrayal from her more than 30 years of research on school responses to sexual abuse.
Check in with PATH Presents to see more about PATH Sponsored Speakers as we plan to bring more who to our community and find their full presentations at: YouTube
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Join our facilitated circles for the Exeter Community register here
April 2025 Circles:
April 21, 6pm EST Community Circle for concerned alumni
April 26, 11 am EST Survivors only Circle
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About PATH:
Phillips Exeter Academy Alumni for Truth & Healing (PATH) created this website to keep connected with our community as we respond to our school and encourage alignment to values of goodness through collaboration and innovation. We are a growing organization advocating for change with and for Phillips Exeter Academy through action for alumni sexually harmed. The PATH Survivor Support Fund initiated by concerned alumni speaks to the potential for engagement and support within the Exeter community. We will continue to post resources on this site and update our actions, initiatives, and relevant news stories about Exeter’s response to sexual misconduct both historical and current. For updates of Exeter in the news see here. Please also see out instagram @exeterpath. For resources see here.
Mission
PATH believes that the Exeter community will be strengthened by the Academy’s acknowledgment of the harm that has occurred to sexual misconduct victims, by reconciliation with alumni whose lives have been inextricably altered by their experience, while restoring and reseeding trust in our community through ensuring it is one that is increasingly safer, responsive, learning, and growing.
We believe that Exeter has the opportunity and responsibility to lead the way in creating pathways for recognizing and responding to reports of harm, and healing for those who are harmed, consistent with in loco parentis and Exeter’s charter to instill the highest morality in its students, by setting the example of accountably and responsibility as remedy of harm caused to individuals and our community.
Read the full Mission Statement here.
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The PATH Fund for Survivors
To those who have generously given, Thank You. The financial grants are truly only part of what the Fund offers Exeter survivors. Your care and support in this issue is immeasurable. Experiencing the respect of fellow alumni is sometimes even more healing for many survivors. Abuse is about the loss of power and control, and healing is the supported return of power and control within a community that cares.
The PATH Fund provides an opportunity to put non sibi into action. The PATH Survivor Support Fund exists to support individual survivors of abuse at Exeter with therapy expenses in particular. Run through FJC, an established philanthropic organization in New York City, donations to the Fund enjoy the same tax treatment as those to a 501(c)(3) charity. The Fund is currently supporting several survivors with therapy, one is receiving support with housing. Monthly distributions at this time are nearly $3,500 and we hope to continue these monthly grants as needed and to help other Exeter survivors with the costs of therapeutic care and basic living expenses when needed.
“I never knew how healing this alumni community could be”
“Something wonderful has happened, I was able to find a therapist I trust enough to work with, and to be vulnerable and open about what I experienced for the first time. I am still not in a place where I am ready to come forward about my experience, but the therapy is helping enormously.”
Please consider becoming a monthly supporter. It means so much to your fellow alums in their path to healing.
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PATH is actively pursuing a more definitive and collaborative solution with the Academy to support the needs of survivors without either adversarial mediation or litigation. We are working toward a mutually beneficial process that will address survivors’ ongoing needs and provide an option more aligned with thee words of our schools’s founder, John Phillips: Goodness without knowledge… is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous.”
PATH is deeply appreciative for the ongoing alumni support. We need every voice to insist that Exeter fully acknowledge the sexual abuse and misconduct, be sincere in accountability and work genuinely with survivors toward a safe, non-adversarial nob re-traumatizing process for support when it is needed. We believe this is what will ultimately make our whole community better and safer.
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