Ashley Judd ( End Human Trafficking) – Breakfast 2014 Oct 22

On Wednesday, October 22, 2014 join Ashley Judd, celebrated actor, activist and advocate for human rights and social justice, and the author of the best selling memoir All that is Bitter and Sweet, at the Canadian Women’s Foundation 2014 Toronto Breakfast.

All That Is Bitter and Sweet

Ashley Judd is an award-winning film and stage actor known for her roles in both box-office hits and art-house gems, and the daughter and sister of country-music royalty. In 2002, drawing on a deep well of empathy forged by a painful childhood, she found her true calling: as a humanitarian and advocate for those suffering in neglected parts of the world.

Asked why she was opting out of a successful career, walking away while she was one of the highest-paid women in Hollywood, Ashley herself could not provide an answer. She simply knew that after her first trip to the notorious brothels, slums, and hospices of southeast Asia, her own life depended on advocating on behalf of the vulnerable. Promising each new sister, “I will never forget you,” Ashley began writing extraordinary diaries—on which this memoir is based—expanding her capacity to relate to, and to share with a global audience, stories of survival and resilience.

Along the way, Ashley realized that the coping strategies she had developed to deal with her own emotional pain, stemming from childhood abandonment, were no longer working. Seeking in-patient treatment in 2006 for the grief that had nearly killed her, Ashley found not only her own recovery and an enriched faith but an expanded kit of spiritual tools that energized and advanced her feminist social justice work.

Now in this deeply moving and unforgettable memoir, Ashley Judd describes her odyssey, as a left-behind lost child attains international prominence as a fiercely dedicated advocate. Her story ranges from anger to forgiveness, isolation to interdependence, depression to activism. In telling it, she resoundingly answers the ineffable question about the relationship between healing oneself and healing others.

Ashley has starred in more than 20 films, on Broadway and television. She has been nominated for Golden Globes and Emmys, and has won a variety of critical awards.

In recent years, she has largely chosen to opt-out of acting in order to focus on humanitarian work, and has been an advocate and activist for poverty alleviation, public health, human rights and social justice. She has visited grassroots programs around the world, speaking truth to power and carrying the message of empowerment and equality to heads of state, donors, the private sector, and the media.

“The line that runs through all of my work is gender inequality. In all the pressing issues in which I am deeply involved, the lack of equal status of girls and women is central.”

Join Ashley Judd as she talks about her own passion to end human trafficking of women and girls.

Tickets are available for purchase today. Tables of eight are available for $2,500 and single tickets can be purchased for $325.