Meet Amy Ballon of Raising Awareness For The Innocent in Fort Lauderdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Ballon.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As a successful. Real estate sales and marketing professional in pre-construction development for over two decades, I never imagined how my life could change in the blink of an eye. As the victim of one night of domestic violence by my ex-husband, a former cop, calling 911 for help led to a false accusation, arrest, and charge. Feeling helpless and voiceless during my 16 months leading up to a dismissal and expungement, I vowed my voice would be heard and used to help others. Thus, Raising Awareness For The Innocent began. Starting as a Facebook page with over 100,000 followers, I knew this was bigger than me. I took a year to write my book Fabulous to Framed-Wrongfully accused of a felony, the true story of a woman who fought for her innocence-and the innocence of others. The book has just been released on Amazon simultaneously with the incorporation of Raising Awareness for the Innocent.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When my incident transpired, I was the exclusive sales and marketing company for a 100 million dollar project in Pompano Beach. During the 16 months, I had to fight this false charge, I would attend a marketing meeting in the morning and then a criminal calendar calls in the afternoon. These were as polar opposite worlds as one can get. I refused to allow my success to be tainted by another’s lie. Until my case was declared, a case the state no longer wished to prosecute, my future was unknown. I have always believed that success is the best thing one can do in the face of adversity, my determination prevailed. Once the case was over, I could finally use my voice only now, it was to help others find their voices in a safe place.

Raising Awareness For The Innocent – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Raising Awareness for the Innocent is a new company. We just officially launched in October which is domestic violence month. We hosted an event with the Innocence Project of Florida whose mission is to exonerate innocently incarcerated victims. I related so much to this organization because had I not had the means to fight, I could’ve been one of the wrongfully convicted. My book launch was part of the event and we had two men who spent a combination of 50 plus years in prison speak. All proceeds went to the Innocence Project of Florida. It was a magical night to create awareness on how easily anyone can become wrongfully part of a broken system. We are different because there is no place for an innocent woman wrongfully arrested after being the victim of domestic violence. Since 30-40% of all women are arrested during a DV call due to mandatory arrest laws, there is nowhere to turn when one is victimized twice. We want to support those victims and empower women to stay strong and help them navigate through this unchartered territory. We are working in partnership with other organizations to have domestic violence policy reform.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
This year, I was a proud recipient of CBS radio Al Cole”s People of distinction award. It was at this event that I spoke about something other than real estate. Clearly, a topic most would be ashamed to talk about, but I knew it was important. After all the honorees spoke, I found a line of people waiting to talk to me. Both men and women saying they had gone through something similar but never talked about it. Moments like those have been the most fulfilling. Allowing a safe space for others to share their stories without judgment. Also turning such a negative incident into a positive platform and never compromising the truth by being fearless and telling my lawyer never to offer me a plea! I’d go to jail for 15 years before I ever admitted anything attached to this horrific lie. The validation of complete innocence by being asked to be a host on my lawyer’s board for an Innocence Project of Florida event. This was not the path I chose, but I am grateful to have the opportunity to help others.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.raisingawarenessfortheinnocent.com
• Phone: 305-788-3885
• Email: amybethballon@gmail.com

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