{"id":452819,"date":"2026-09-04T02:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452819\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T02:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:14:12","slug":"2026-change-maker-honoree-ashley-faison-maddox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452819\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Change Maker honoree: Ashley Faison-Maddox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ashley Faison-Maddox\u2019s mom said she could be anything she wanted when she grew up.<\/p>\n<p>She decided to be someone who helped people.<\/p>\n<p>Faison-Maddox is the founder and executive director of the Diamond Collective, a Sacramento-based nonprofit that provides resources to human trafficking survivors and their children. Since the nonprofit\u2019s launch, Faison-Maddox has helped more than 60 survivors in the Sacramento region, she said.<\/p>\n<p>The roots of Diamond Collective are personal for Faison-Maddox. As a survivor of human trafficking herself, she wanted to show other survivors that life is bigger than the trauma. There\u2019s still room to dream and live a \u201cbeautiful life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLife can be beautiful even beyond trauma; it can contain joy,\u201d Faison-Maddox said. \u201cJoy disrupts trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                                          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SAC_008_261107_JV_CHANGE_MAKERS.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" title=\"SAC_008_261107_JV_CHANGE_MAKERS.JPG\" alt=\"Ashley Faison-Maddox, founder and CEO of Diamond Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to providing long-term support to survivors of human trafficking, poses for a portrait after being recognized as one of this year's Change Makers on Saturday, July 11, 2026.\"\/>                                                                                    Ashley Faison-Maddox, founder and CEO of Diamond Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to providing long-term support to survivors of human trafficking, poses for a portrait after being recognized as one of this year&#8217;s Change Makers on Saturday, July 11, 2026.                                                                                            JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS                                                                            jvillegas@sacbee.com                                                                                        <\/p>\n<p>This year, Faison-Maddox was awarded the 2026 Woman of the Year by Assemblymember Josh Hoover\u2019s office for her work empowering survivors.<\/p>\n<p>Under her leadership, the organization provides healing experiences to survivors of trafficking by providing access to the Sacramento Ballet and through kayaking and horseback riding.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the collective even travel the globe as a part of their healing process. The group recently took a trip to Costa Rica.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter trauma, we can look at this world with a lens of negativity,\u201d Faison-Maddox said. \u201cHaving hope and being able to dream \u2026 always having something to look forward to \u2026 I want survivors to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/281978408\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788488052_993_SAC_SN_231129_Emma_116.JPG\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Emma Hall\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/281978408\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emma Hall<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Emma Hall covers retail and business for The Sacramento Bee. Hall graduated from Sacramento State and Diablo Valley College. She is Blackfeet and Cherokee.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashley Faison-Maddox\u2019s mom said she could be anything she wanted when she grew up. She decided to be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-452819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}