Coalition Mission
The nonprofit organization International Freedom Coalition exists to eradicate child maltreatment worldwide by strengthening the family unit.

Walk a Week in Your Shoes
The Walk is the Coalition’s primary prevention campaign promoting the positive parenting principles and healthy family interactions that dissolve many root causes of child maltreatment. Parents, relatives, and families lie at the heart of all research-based influences that prevent child abuse and neglect. Thus, by featuring the stories of everyday families navigating and overcoming common challenges in today’s society, the Walk simply puts practical solutions from families who use them into the hands of families who may find them useful.

Message from Sapphire Jule King: Coalition Founder
Given my sincere belief in the possibility of creating safe family environments for all children, on January 15, 2010 I set out to personally backpack 12,577 miles around the US in search of strong families in action– no shoe sponsors, no food sponsors, no hotel sponsors. Over the coming two years, I wanted to chat and break bread with families who are resilient, nurturing, actively engaged, creative, supportive, and functioning as a unit.

I chose to forgo a shoe sponsor so that I could literally walk in your shoes. Likewise, I bypassed food, beverage, and hotel sponsors to ensure that I would experience the home environment you created for your family rather than be a polite visitor before retreating to a posh hotel. After all, we are not interested in perfection or opulence… just the real things that real people do everyday to make a child’s life worth living.

Ironically, the twists and turns and mountains and valleys of the first eight months of the Walk challenged me to re-evaluate my perspectives on my role within and dedication to my own family. During the first 29 weeks, hundreds of readers read in candid detail about my internal struggle to be true to my life’s work while also making my family a priority. In the end, the love for my family took precedence, and I decided to lead the Walk via an alternative path.

An Authentic Walk in The Shoes of the Homeless and Unemployed
Following God’s calling to discover something, to unveil some truth that has yet to be explored, Ms. King moved to Rhode Island with no money, no housing, and no income. “If you have the courage, you will find the need,” God urged . She did it, and in October 2010, the Walk resumed in an unusual way.