Photo Credit
Zack Whaley
Safe & Just Michigan
Ceci Bordayo, Outreach and Community Engagement Development Fellow
Ceci Bordayo is an advocate for trauma survivors who uses faith and music to reach people. She became a Safe & Just Michigan Community Engagement Fellow in Fall 2023.
Bordayo, recorded “House of Secrets,” a song that recounted the physical and sexual abuse in her family during her childhood, in 2018. Since then, she has been an advocate for survivors of sexual trauma. She created “Pass the Mic,” a storytelling platform that encourages survivors of crime, medical trauma or other experiences to share their stories with each other in order to find hope in one another. Bordayo also works at House of Promise, a Michigan-based nonprofit for survivors of sex trafficking. She is also the founder of Pass it On, a nonprofit based in Lansing that will become a state-of-the-art community center.
Bordayo said she became interested in the fellowship because she saw her family impacted by the criminal justice system. Some of her cousins grew up without their fathers, who were incarcerated. When they returned home from prison, she saw her family struggle to find good jobs with a criminal record.
During her fellowship, Bordayo will be working to reduce barriers to health care jobs for people with a criminal record.
“I’ve seen the importance of rehabilitation and that people get a second chance at life,” Bordayo said. “I want to learn more about how policies that change people’s lives become law. I want to learn and grow in those areas.”
Bordayo lives in Lansing.