Melanie Jula Sakoda and friends began Pokrov.org to reach out to survivors of abuse in the Orthodox Christian churches in 1999. They had spoken up about the way a local abuse case was mishandled by church officials, leaving their lives forever changed by the resulting backlash. Realizing how important support was they wanted to reach out to others with similar experiences who were without support. SNAP was always a valuable resource in their work, and in 2008 Pokrov.org affiliated with the larger group. Melanie has been the SNAP leader for the East Bay (San Francisco Bay area) since 2009.