Melissa was 16 and on her way to McDonalds when another teen
approached her and invited her to a party.
Sure, Melissa said, and the girl led her to her “boyfriend’s” car. He was no “boyfriend,” however, and when
Melissa entered that car, she climbed into a trap of sexual exploitation that
would keep her enslaved for ten years.
Melissa was one of over 100,000 girls, average age 14, lured
into human sex trafficking in the United States every year. Like Melissa, they are forced to have sex as
often as 20- 48 times a day. (Source: Polaris Project) Governed by
fear and intimidation, they lose the ability to trust. They traverse adolescence, and possibly early
womanhood as well, deprived of normal social interaction and any semblance of
self-determination. They are robbed of schooling and the ability to learn
everyday life skills. As Melissa put it, “ I didn't know anything that had to
do with the real world, like paying bills or saving money or how to go back to school
or how to manage time. Things that
people would think are just so normal. But for me they weren't normal at all. I
actually had to learn them.”
And so Melissa has come to Glory House, a healing environment in Miami, Florida, where 18-25-year-old female survivors
of sex trafficking can become wholly restored. They come referred from sex trafficking rescue organizations such as There is Hope for Me and the Life of Freedom Center and from Miami-Dade County's Coordinated Victim Assistance Center. Through Glory
House, which is partially modeled on Wellspring Living in Atlanta, they receive
all the care and services they need to recover physically, emotionally and
spiritually.
Executive Director Betty Lara explains: “The abuse has been
so severe -- some of the women had been taken when they were 13 years old –
that it was a whole chunk of their lives.
Five or six years. They need therapy. Massive. A lot of therapy.”
And so they receive individual and group therapy. They receive dental care and the care of a
physician for sexually transmitted diseases, screening for HIV/AIDS, and
routine medical checkups. They earn
their GED and acquire the job skills they need to be self-sufficient. They establish
a vocation, work and save money for an apartment and other necessities when
they leave. And they are offered spirituality for the hope, strength and healing
that Glory House believes comes with faith.
Dominant in the concept of Glory House is mentorship, an
informal one-on-one relationship between a survivor and a trained volunteer
whose personalities and interests are compatible. Volunteers attend a ten-week
course using the international Hands That Heal curriculum to learn about the
unique needs of survivors and the challenges of this particular brand of
caregiving. Once matched with a
survivor, the mentor becomes a resource for everyday advice and assistance. The mentor takes her survivor on errands,
helps her with everyday tasks like writing checks, and functions as an informal
life coach, providing advice on mundane things like what clothes to wear for a
given occasion to more significant questions like how to conceptualize a
monthly budget. Often a mentor will call
her survivor with, say, an invitation to the mall. Over time, with repeated,
steady interaction, a trusted friendship blooms.
With this multifaceted program, survivors heal, grow, and
acquire the confidence they need to move forward.
Melissa’s evolution is a case in point. Melissa’s slavery came to an end when her
pimp was arrested and she found herself in jail as well. Now 28-years-old and out of jail for two
years, Melissa has recently completed
the second of four parts of her GED.
Having learned gardening through a program associated with her prison
experience, Melissa works at a nursery
creating organic vegetable gardens and selling the produce at a farmers market. Financially
independent, she shares an apartment with a friend and, with the help of Glory House,
has been reunited with her son.
Melissa credits Glory House with providing the mentor that
taught all the things that, she says, “people would think are just so normal,
but for me they weren't normal at all.” But of all the components of the Glory
House program, she finds the spiritual most helpful. “It’s the only thing that got me through,” she
says.
While Christian spirituality is central to Glory House, the
program welcomes women from all walks of life and offers them the freedom not
to embrace Christianity. Executive Director Betty Lara is quick to emphasize that
bible study and prayer circle are opportunities, not requirements. To force religious activities on survivors,
she says, is to rob them of their independence and self-determination, the very
antithesis of what Glory House is all about.
And so in mentor training class, she asserts, “Don’t push anything on
anyone.”
But Betty herself is a woman of enormous faith. “Build it and they will come,” she
says. Indeed, since Glory House was
founded in 2011, donated help has come from every direction: website design, office space, accounting and
legal services, grant research and grant proposal preparation, professional
fundraising services. Fundraisers are
staffed by volunteers. Event sites and
refreshments are donated. In eight
months during 2014, Glory House raised $80,000. With a steady stream of
fundraisers planned for 2015, the year's goal is $300-400,000. Betty
believes the organization will be given a house within a year.
The dream – the plan -- is for a secure residence (address unpublished) with two round-the-clock caregivers and one full-time house mother as well as a
dedicated psychologist. The house will accommodate up to eight residents for one to two years.
"After meeting with other organizations that have worked in this field for years we realized that the survivors need their own room and privacy (vs. 2 to a room as originally planned) and this limits the amount of people that can be accommodated in one house. Finally, Glory House wished to maintain a home atmosphere versus an institutional one," board member Leonor Alvarez stated in an email.
Psychological help, group therapy, medical help, educational help and
life coaching will be offered in-house.
At present, Glory House provides housing for four women, one
in a hotel, one in an apartment and two in homeless shelters as well as mentoring for
seven through community liaisons. They receive care and support through Glory
House’s close partnership with the Miami-Dade County Coordinated Victim
Assistance Center, which offers a wide range of services from legal
assistance to yoga classes and many in between.
Glory House is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization and runs an annual budget of $500,000 including private donations and in-kind contributions.Their only major expense is the executive director’s salary: $22,000 a year. In addition to monetary donations, Glory
House particularly needs IT assistance and liability insurance. And a house.
Glory House
PO Box 43073
786-286-9958
South Miami, FL 33143
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