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What Survivors of Sex Trafficking Really Need: Legal Hurdles and Community Gaps in Survivor Support, Part 2 | S6, E2
44 Plays6 days ago
In Part 2 of our powerful conversation with Bekah Charleston, survivor and advocate, we go deeper into the realities victims of sex trafficking face after rescue—from unpaid debt and criminal records to community disconnection and spiritual burnout.
Hosted by the Trafficking Free America Podcast, a production of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking and Kids Not For Sale, this episode tackles the often-overlooked legal, financial, and relational obstacles that survivors must overcome—and how you can help eliminate them.
🔍 Key insights in this episode:
- The 3-step framework of survivor care: escape, safe home, restoration
- Why many survivors face prison, debt, and legal barriers post-trafficking
- How to support real rehabilitation without a “savior” complex
- Actionable ways churches and communities can become part of the solution
- The importance of removing judgment and centering love in this work
📌 Timestamps
00:00 – Recap and framing the rehabilitation journey
00:46 – Safe home vs. restoration home: a critical distinction
04:19 – What survivors face after “the life”: legal records, debt, prison
07:08 – The DEBRA project and how survivors access legal support
08:24 – Why we need nationwide pro bono legal resources
09:37 – Bekah’s nonprofit experience and vision for scalable services
12:27 – Can lack of resources cause survivors to return to trafficking?
14:36 – Federal vs. state support—what’s missing, what can we do?
15:07 – Where survivors feel supported—and where it drops off
18:57 – Government vs. society: who should be solving this?
21:33 – How churches can wrap around survivor care and prevention
23:06 – Practical ways churches can start helping now
25:05 – Two resources Bekah recommends for getting involved
26:22 – Why a “hero” mindset can do more harm than good
28:13 – Bekah’s vision for the next four years of survivor support
31:24 – Final thoughts: it’s time to step up and do the work
🙏 Whether you're a pastor, advocate, policymaker, or everyday person—this episode will help you shift from well-meaning to well-doing in the fight against human trafficking.
👉 Learn how to join our movement at: https://usiaht.org/abolitionist
🔔 Subscribe to catch more survivor voices, strategies for prevention, and real-world solutions.
#HumanTraffickingAwareness #SurvivorJustice #BekahCharleston #TraffickingFreeAmerica #USIAHT #KidsNotForSale #RestorationJourney #ChurchAndJustice #AntiTraffickingPodcast #AbolitionistMovement
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Transcript
Introduction and Victim Restoration
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome back to our conversation with Becca Charleston talking about victim restoration. If you have not listened to part one of this conversation, please listen to our previous episode with Becca before continuing.
Steps to Leave Trafficking Life
00:00:22
Speaker
Here's our conversation with Becca. So to take a step back, if we were to kind of chart out, not like you said, everyone's journey is different and we need to understand that and be ready for that.
00:00:36
Speaker
But if you were to create like the perfect scenario, the average scenario, if you would, um if from someone saying it's time for me to leave the life, which is starting off with They just left, so they need a safe place, but they're probably on drugs. they're probably dealing with some stuff right away.
00:00:52
Speaker
um that what That's the step one. And then the step two would actually be the safe home. Right. And then would step three be the restoration home? Is that kind of what you're charting out?
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean.
Challenges in Housing for Survivors
00:01:08
Speaker
I'm trying to think of the realistic you know individuals that helped because i I've run an organization with a housing program before. um And so, yeah, sometimes it, I mean, sometimes Safe House isn't involved.
00:01:21
Speaker
you know i think, especially when we're when dealing with adults, um a lot of times there's children, right? And there's never enough beds ah at places that take children.
00:01:33
Speaker
i mean, there's there's other barriers that adults kind of deal with. And so, yeah, as far as a typical, I mean, an ideal scenario could look like, you know, and you know the the the bottom that was actually in my situation, in my trafficking situation, the girl that had been there the longest, she was with him for 25 years.
00:01:51
Speaker
And so her escape looked like, you know, hiding, hiding in the city, you know, calling someone, calling me for help, hiding in the city until we could get her a plane ticket. And then she went ah several states away and really kind of restarted her life. Like, if you know, if we, we, I, she was lived with me for about six months, you know, which gave her that little bit of, you know, to be able to get on her feet and get some healing, get some therapy going.
00:02:18
Speaker
and And then she never received any other services after that. Like she's remarried. She kind of has her own life. So that could be someone's journey. But then also, you know, it could be, ah you know, someone getting out and um and maybe they're potentially involved in a, you know, a law enforcement investigation, maybe like like myself.
Legal Services and Rehabilitation
00:02:39
Speaker
um And that that means that hopefully they're going to be getting plugged into the services that are you know in their area and you know maybe potentially you know an individual like that that was potentially cooperating with law enforcement or something you know might be willing to um you know go into services, especially in order to prevent and...
00:02:58
Speaker
and um mitigate charge any charges that might be being held against them. you know There's been a lot of cool programs that have popped up, like diversion court programs, where if you complete a program at a residential treatment center, then you know you can have your charges either you know vacated or reduced against you.
00:03:19
Speaker
um And so sometimes you see that happen. Yeah, i mean I guess it's hard to talk about like, because it is it's just so different you know for each
Restoration Program Shortages
00:03:27
Speaker
individual. and I don't think that living in a restoration program is all that common for human trafficking survivors.
00:03:35
Speaker
I'm not advocating that we don't need them or they're not being used. They are, they're they're being used in their full for sure. But um there's so many more survivors than there are beds. That that I don't think that and I'd be curious to see what percentage actually do um receive some type of living assistance.
00:03:55
Speaker
I think it's kind of the mentality that we shouldn't keep someone from restoring their lives because it's not available to them. kind of having that mentality of like, I'd rather have way more beds than survivors and when it comes to the beds being access accessible, right?
00:04:12
Speaker
um So ah getting past the safe home, like we said, we're kind of talking about rehabilitation here.
Dealing with Legal and Financial Issues
00:04:20
Speaker
What, um yeah I mean, you said you you had to spend some time um in prison, and which is a lot of people's story in that sense. I wonder if there's, and or the reason why you had to spend some time in prison, because you the illegal acts that you had or the debt that you had and stuff like that.
00:04:39
Speaker
um It was ah just outside of your control once you got past life. Right. So in your rehabilitation experience, um what did you have to go through to kind of deal with those, the legal the legal issues, the, the, the debt, so on and so forth?
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, well, and that's yeah. When we talk about you know what's what's still needed in this country, that those legal services are huge. Actually, ah i tried to launch a nonprofit. It was ultimately unsuccessful. Unfortunately, after two years, we weren't able to get enough sustainable funding because there is there is a huge gap for survivors needing those legal services to to get over some of those barriers.
00:05:18
Speaker
For me, um by the time I ran and once and um and after I ran to the time that I finally changed my life, which is about a two, two and a half year period, um once I finally was kind of getting my life together and able to receive some of those services, for me, all the debt, it had already been sitting for two and a half years. And so if I went back and filed bankruptcy, for example,
00:05:44
Speaker
then that would have started my seven year time clock all over. And so for me, I just decided to wait until it no longer affected me. owe the IRS a quarter million dollars because of my trafficker.
00:05:55
Speaker
And so I had to wait 10 years. There's a 10 year statute of limitations that from the day they assess the taxes that they can come after you for those taxes. And so basically, I was fortunately able to get a non-collectible status because I moved back into my mom and dad's house. I was going to school. I was a single mom.
00:06:12
Speaker
like I could obviously show that I had no resources to pay any of that money back. And so um I was able to ah hit that 10-year statute limitations, and they finally rolled off. I'm super happy today. We actually have a law that passed.
Debt Relief for Survivors
00:06:25
Speaker
I want to say it passed within the last one or two years. It's called the DBRA, the Debt Bondage Repair Act. And so that is specifically the law was passed for survivors like myself that then I could have proven that the debt that I incurred was due to my trafficking experience.
00:06:43
Speaker
And there's ah there's multiple ways you can do that. um But then but they they hold the law makes it so that the three big agencies, is Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, can no longer it doesn't make the debt go away, but it does make the credit agencies stop reporting the debt.
00:07:01
Speaker
So the debt ah in essence stops hurting you because it's no longer being reported on your credit report. And so that allows you to, you know, go out and rebuild. um And so that wasn't available, you know? So for me, I just kind of waited it out.
00:07:15
Speaker
um And then let's see, what other barrier did you mention? You mentioned financial. What else did you say? Yeah. Well, let me ask you your question. ah what What was the acronym for that again? D-B-R-A. The D-B-R-A. If someone wants access to ah utilize that service, do they have to usually go through an attorney or some professional services to assist with that?
Importance of Legal Support
00:07:39
Speaker
Yes, they'll have to get connected either through a case manager at an organization. um i'm happy you know to connect people if they want want to reach out to me after the show, if they're interested in finding out more.
00:07:50
Speaker
Because you do have to kind of go through that vetting process to prove that you were being trafficked at the time, as I mentioned. And that's usually done. There's an organization and want to say they're in the Carolinas somewhere that is kind of the the clearinghouse for that for the whole country.
00:08:04
Speaker
And is that, and that I'm guessing that's a, uh, uh, no cost to the survivor in that situation? Yes. Yes, of course. Yeah. No, but I'm sure that if we were to get, um, uh, lots of survivors and lots of help, they would need probably more help. And, you know, so that's, that's the kind of service we need throughout the country.
00:08:22
Speaker
Um, let's talk about a little bit about them. What, what did they establish ultimately and maybe motivate others to establish as well? Is it like a group of attorneys that are helping with this? Is it maybe not just, maybe it's not quite attorney level. What, who are they exactly?
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, this one is Morin Van Allen is the name of the the law firm. And I want to say they're a for-profit law firm that has this kind of giving back side, this altruistic you know side where they serve survivors and have been trained as well. there's And there's a there is a growing legal community that still, it's not big enough, but there's a ah national survivor law collective list serve. And so individuals like myself are on there and like Morin Van Allen, for instance,
00:09:06
Speaker
um And that if someone has a legal need across the country, they hit the entire group and find out, okay, who's doing work in that area and who can help. Awesome. Awesome. So that's, that's a great connection for anyone listening and wanting to kind of get involved in this is to, to look them up and to use them as a resource.
00:09:24
Speaker
What we're wanting to do with the US Institute is ultimately help find more resources, use utilize more help, not be the one-all be-all kind of like you said, there's lots of organizations that already exist and let's let's connect to them first and help these organizations grow.
Funding Struggles in Legal Services
00:09:37
Speaker
And then if there's a whole, let's find, let's create that. But um But yeah, going ah so that, that helps out with the debt. Now let's, let's talk about the legal services and getting um certain things wiped away. I've talked with several um um ah attorneys that offer or try to offer this type of help.
00:09:56
Speaker
And it's a lot of work and so it would be thousands upon thousands of dollars to pay anyone to do this. It's a lot of hours of work to erase those things. So, um You know, you started, i know the nonprofit was ultimately unsuccessful when it comes to finances, but what what was ah the the legal service that you established and what can but maybe can we, um ideas we can birth from this that you were doing yourself?
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah. um So the we bucketed our legal services into three buckets of crisis legal services, which um could look like ah they're dealing with a law enforcement. You know, either and they got caught up in some investigation or seeing or...
00:10:41
Speaker
yeah There's something criminally happening potentially. it could also be crisis for you know a child of protective services. right You might have children involved that there's a crisis legal need.
00:10:53
Speaker
It could also be ah EPOs or protective orders right that need to be put in place. Then we but our next bucket would have been restoration services, which look more like the individual has been out of crisis. you know They're usually not in crisis at that point. They've received some services.
00:11:08
Speaker
And they're ready to get back on their feet, which could look like, you know, um getting their record cleared, ah you know, getting debt taken out of their name, whatever, getting over those barriers.
00:11:19
Speaker
And then in the last bucket, we had accountability services. And that was more for things like you, you, you're in a healthier place in your life. And now you're ready to start holding those bad actors that harmed you accountable, whether that could be civilly suing a trafficker, it could be going after a hotel that was complicit in your trafficking.
00:11:39
Speaker
um you know For me, I actually wound up suing the state of Nevada to try to end legalized prostitution. And that was, we looked at that as an accountability piece because that was me trying to hold the state of Nevada accountable for having legalized prostitution, which makes their illegal market flourish 63% higher than the next highest state. And so that could be an example of accountability services.
00:12:00
Speaker
um And so what we what we quickly saw in the two years where we had served, i want to say about 60-ish clients um already in that short amount of time, what the number one need was family law.
00:12:14
Speaker
That was the number one need that unfortunately is, like you said, extremely time intensive, and cost which means cost, obviously, for attorneys. If they're doing it pro bono, they're still you know writing off that cost for themselves and family law, um, was, was that number one need. And so we were trying to encourage more people to partner with, you know, those types of firms to be able to get pro bono hours.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah. So and there, yeah, I think that covers it. That's, um, it's a big task, you know, but it's super needed, you
Barriers to Escaping Trafficking
00:12:53
Speaker
know?
00:12:53
Speaker
um, um I mean, i don't know if you know this, but I'm just curious. Have you seen cases where because they could not get the legal services, because they could not get the financial ah service, ah financial ah like like the debt replacement services, have you seen them now fall back into their life or go backwards because of those situations?
00:13:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean- even having the courage to get out because you are facing those barriers and knowing that there is any relief out there, sometimes that's the biggest obstacle, you know, is because people just assume that, well, this is going to be my life forever now. You know, I've been arrested, you know, for X, Y, Z or, you know, have, ah you know, whatever charges on their record, especially when it comes to things like violent crime, you know, you know,
00:13:43
Speaker
active right now on trying to get the Trafficking Survivor Relief Act passed. that would be It's called the TSRA, all these acronyms. But the TSRA would provide federal vacature for people like myself that have incurred federal felonies as a result of their trafficking experience.
00:13:59
Speaker
And so... um that there's nothing at the federal level. Thankfully, at the state level, which is where most human trafficking charges and prostitution-related crimes are charged at, there are states, you know, um Texas, for instance, ah we just got a clemency process passed.
00:14:17
Speaker
So there are some vacature expungement clemency processes at the state level that are out there. They need to be strengthened, you know, and obviously expanded more. Um, but at the federal level, there's nothing yet. And so I've been a part of that effort since really about 2016, we've been trying to get that law passed.
00:14:35
Speaker
Is that something that's only at a federal level? Is that a state thing? The TSRA is just at the federal level. Yeah. Okay. What can people do to possibly help out with that?
Misinformed Support from Communities
00:14:44
Speaker
Um, and we're literally, I mean, call your senators right now and try to get them to co-sponsor the bill. Um, you know, if we get activity right now before the October break is we're trying to get it passed through the house and the Senate before the October break. So it's definitely an action item if people want to call and yeah, the TSRA trafficking survivor relief act.
00:15:05
Speaker
Um, Becca, you've, you are a survivor. You've gone through this. Uh, you have, um, a very, uh, Powerful story.
00:15:18
Speaker
And I'm curious from your perspective of survivor, as you've seen ah how others have maybe come around you or not come around you and and try to support what you got going on and and support um other survivors going in through the process of rehabilitation and so on and so forth.
00:15:35
Speaker
Where do you often see where people show empathy, show care, and then where do you see it just kind of start to drop off in your experience? yeah Um, Hmm.
00:15:49
Speaker
This is, yeah and I want you to be completely honest. I really do. I want you to be brutal. Yeah. I mean, I feel like honestly the church, I mean, I think there's honestly, there's no easier way to get hurt in this movement than by a well-meaning Christian.
00:16:04
Speaker
Wow. and And that's, that's just the truth. ah Unfortunately, like I say that um I am of that faith, you know, but think, think you know, people glamorize sometimes what helping survivors of trafficking looks like. You know, some people, you can quickly see their motives when it's more about them making themselves look good and like, look at how I'm helping these poor little victims, um you know, and it and it becomes less about connecting with the population that they're serving. And so, I mean, I have heard horror stories you
00:16:40
Speaker
you know a a residential program that tried to do an exorcism on a survivor that had dissociative identity disorder like they literally tried to yeah i mean that's just that's just wild but it's even more like you know i think people sometimes people they they want to help and they get passionate about this but I think when they, when their eyes are actually open to, you know, when you think about someone that's been involved in prostitution for any amount of time, yeah they have, they've literally seen the worst of society. They have been treated the worst by society.
00:17:24
Speaker
They have, you know, had their identity, all the shame, all that stuff, like just shattered. Right. And, and i think. I think sometimes people don't really understand how that plays out for the rest of your life.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe the kind of behaviors or proclivities or I mean, even just the fact like when you think about why we don't have the same amount of safe homes for boys, why we don't have the same amount of safe homes for people that are LGBTQIA plus, whatever the acronym is now, you know, the that the most disenfranchised people are barely even getting served in this field.
00:18:03
Speaker
And why is that? I'd like to I mean, you know, Why? why Right. Like, why don't we have for those individuals that need it? And and because they don't fit in your religious, not yours. Right. But in people's religious viewpoint, if they're not accepting of, okay, that boys could be trafficked too, or that, you know, LGBTQ plus individuals need housing, need services just as bad, if not even worse, right. Than others.
00:18:30
Speaker
And yet we have hardly any services across the country for them. And I think that's really sad, you know, and I think that's and to me, it comes back to like you don't really understand the population you serve. Because if you think that I'm going to go through 10 years of prostitution and then come out and like be some super sage Christian and get married and have 2.5 kids and like have this picture perfect white picket fence life.
00:18:55
Speaker
then you're a fool, right? Because our our lives typically, unfortunately, don't look that way. And, you know, for for a lot of reasons. And so I think when we help people just so they can come out and do what we think they should be doing,
Church Support for Survivors
00:19:09
Speaker
right? I have a lot of conversations with people across the country about what is your definition of success?
00:19:13
Speaker
You know, because if it's that that individual comes out and now looks exactly like you and, you know, that's... for Oftentimes for survivors, our version of success is going to look different than other people. And i think that we would have a lot more inclusive services if if we really had um maybe more raw conversations around some of this.
00:19:36
Speaker
Where do you, like, i mean, I do feel like we're starting to have raw conversations, but where do you see them? Like the ears just kind of fall off or like, or...
00:19:47
Speaker
ah Like here's where I kind of have seen it a little bit like, oh yeah, you're right. We need the government to act more. And I'm starting to think while that certain things are important, kind of like what you're going after, some of these things that will help out with ah with with legal things and think things that are outside of our control that we have to go after.
00:20:06
Speaker
Is this a government problem or is this a society problem that and who should be solving it? Yeah, I mean, and definitely a society problem, right? Like if we aren't going upstream and preventing the demand for commercial sex, we are never going to make any progress.
00:20:24
Speaker
I mean, we're just going to be we're just going to be repairing the broken when they finally are able to get out, you know, that we're not we're not stemming the tide at all. And so I think it is a huge cultural shift that that some people are some people deserve to be bought and sold, that some people that that's that's okay for them. um So I do think it's a huge societal shift. And I don't know, watching like obviously the you know and sexual violence, the anti-sexual violence community, like domestic violence or rape crisis centers. And those have kind of been systematized in a way, like you're saying, with maybe a lot more heavier government funding and maybe less private funding.
00:21:06
Speaker
And i think that's made those services, you know, I don't think that's been an entirely bad thing for those services. You know, it does. Government funding has its own challenges for sure. But in terms of making sure the services are inclusive and, um you know, tying that funding to some of those ideals and making sure that we do have a wide variety of services for the wide variety of people, you know, that wind up finding themselves looking for help.
00:21:33
Speaker
I mean, um if I were to paint a picture of every single church – in America gathers around um an organization that provides um ah victim care. So when I say victim care, we're talking about that, the first step, believing life or that safe home.
00:21:55
Speaker
um And then we think about restoration. That's that, that's that ah restoration. And we're talking about the rehabilitation, the rehabilitation, the working out the legal fees and, and, and, and and the debt and whatnot.
00:22:06
Speaker
um If we had a church that, it was dedicated to assisting with that for survivor care. And then also going after the prevention side, which is going after the demand, which is addressing more than just, Hey, you shouldn't buy, Hey, you shouldn't be addicted to porn, but rather addressing how sexual addiction happens in the first place.
00:22:28
Speaker
um if If every church, just simple, just church simply gathered around, we'll donate to this. We'll serve in this and whatever capacity we can, um If you had those types of resources around you with what you're doing, how powerful could
Practical Church Involvement
00:22:44
Speaker
you be?
00:22:44
Speaker
Oh my gosh. would mean That would be amazing. I mean, yeah I mean, it's even, especially survivor led services, you know, if churches could really wrap around and support and empower, right. Survivors that are out there that have started organizations that, or, you know, have ideas for them.
00:23:04
Speaker
I think that could, that would be crazy. you know, when What is that practical solution though? What is that practical way of doing that? Like, and and i I'm like, if someone's listening to this, I'm like, all right, archers will do Where are I? What's the first step? Because they could be, they could be in Tampa, they could be in Iowa, they could be wherever, right? ah What would be the practical step to, to help out with that?
00:23:24
Speaker
what I guess I'm, what's your question again? So my question is, what is the practical step that a church can take to then begins wrapping around those services exactly about, okay, how do I help out with this safe home? I don't know of any, how do I help out with those restoration services for some of like, like they don't know of these organizations that exist.
00:23:41
Speaker
How do they, how do they practically get involved? Um, and and And like give, give some ideas. Yeah. I mean, a host, ah host a conference, bring, bring the stakeholders in your community, offer to give them 30 minutes to an hour to speak to your congregation about what they do and why it's important. You know, that would be a great way, you know, to, to find out. So I think the first step is, yeah.
00:24:04
Speaker
Finding out what's in your community, what currently exists. And you already, you already meet once a week. What's. a ah Yeah. Yeah. So inviting them in. Yeah.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah. Because, you know, obviously church members, right. They time, talent or treasure, right. We all have one of those three things and maybe all three of them potentially, you know, that, you know, church members honestly were the lifeblood of, um, my, when I ran valiant hearts, you know, as far as volunteers, like giving their time. i mean, that was, that was huge.
00:24:36
Speaker
So I think there's a lot of ways that the church can get involved and should. so um When it comes to ah how ah you help connect a lot of people together and stuff like that, um what I'm curious if you can, and I know I'm kind of throwing this at you, what if you can kind of give us two main resources that you would suggest in starting out with helping with re restoration slash rehabilitation?
Resources for Supporting Survivors
00:25:04
Speaker
um So like a legal service or a restoration home or something of the sort, where where can where would you suggest maybe someone start with? I mean, people could go look at the Polaris project. i think they're kind of the national clearinghouse for as far. i feel I feel like they're the best maybe directory that I know of.
00:25:25
Speaker
Sure. to find organizations who's doing what in your area. you know You can look by geographic location. And so you could go to polarisproject.org, put in your city and state, and then find out all those organizations. You'll have to do all of the vetting on your own. I don't think there's been much vetting. They're just people added to the list, kind of. yeah And so to see who's still open, who's still providing those services, um that would be a great place.
00:25:50
Speaker
um I'm wondering if the NTSA, that National Trafficking Sheltered Alliance, if you're more interested in restoration, I'm sure reaching out to them you know and finding out you know what safe homes are, if if it's not on their website, you know are in your state. um And then you could reach out to those ah safe homes individually and find out how you can support them, whether it's sending supplies, maybe it's buying Maybe they want to do a new book series and you can buy the, a copy of the book for however many people are in the safe home. And there's a lot of ways that you could give to those orgs.
00:26:22
Speaker
Now we talked about this before and you kind of touched on it a little earlier.
Empowering Survivors
00:26:28
Speaker
the mentality that everyone should have when coming into this is I'm not coming in to be a hero. I'm coming in because just cause there's a need and there's something I can do.
00:26:37
Speaker
But if once you have the mentality of I am the hero, um, you're in, you you're providing something empty ultimately. And, and I don't think you're helping anybody. Why, why do you think, why do you think that mentality hurts more than helps?
00:26:54
Speaker
Well, I think it's kind of the, it you know, allegorical to you, you feed a man fish or you teach him how to fish. Right. And it's it's kind of kind of similar to that because, you know, are are you going to be the savior and you're going to be the one that they have to come to you for everything? Well, then you're setting up a perfect victim, honestly, because if we're not empowering them to figure it out on their own and and yes, I'll support you and walk alongside you, then where they're going to they're going to be abandoned again once if something happens to you or, you know, if your ministry goes away or, you know, you don't want someone to become dependent on you, right? We're trying to create
00:27:30
Speaker
people that, you know, can, can manage their own life at some point and set them up on their feet. That's, that's good because, um, again, because what, what touched me of what, how you kind of said earlier, it's, it's the well-intended Christian that often does the worst, like, which is why education is super important.
00:27:51
Speaker
Um, and, and, and why we're trying to do some of stuff like
Goals for Survivor Support
00:27:55
Speaker
this. Um, Becca, if, ah If there was one thing that you'd want to see different over the next four years, um as, as, as community gets more involved, as, as ah we have more federal laws to help out with ah rehabilitation, restoration, and even States, what, what do you want to try to see happen the next four years? What is your beautiful vision for rehabilitation?
00:28:21
Speaker
um i mean, I think. having more zero barrier housing has got to be part of the puzzle. um you know I think going upstream and you know having prevention curriculum in schools, not only for prevention of trafficking, but also prevention of you know creating this culture of demand for commercial sex, like we talked about. um and And I think being able to you know when there's a a really powerful study that came out recently it's the national survivor study that came out it's actually polaris project that commissioned the study and they they interviewed i want to say it was around 460 people ah survivors 460 survivors responded to the survey and so um what came out of it is some really
00:29:15
Speaker
abysmal stats and really sad stats that speak to the amount of work that's left to be done. Still, um we are, as survivors, we're 11 times more likely to be live in poverty for the rest of our lives. I think only 6% of us actually made a livable wage that was consistent and stable.
00:29:35
Speaker
And so that's really sad. Like when you think about, I think it was, a you know, 6% of 460 people. Like that's, I want to say it was less than 10 for sure. it was, it was sad.
00:29:47
Speaker
um You know, we, I think, you know, we're getting people into the safe homes and, and that's helping, but how are we really setting people up for success for the rest of their lives?
00:30:00
Speaker
Too often to be a survivor means that you have to work in the field because you're still facing those barriers and working for nonprofits, as you said earlier, you don't do it for the money, you know? And so a lot of times if you have a huge criminal record, well, where else can I work other than a field that kind of understands me? And then what kind of opportunities are there in this field for survivors?
00:30:22
Speaker
not that many sometimes, especially in positions of leadership, unfortunately. And so I think we still have some work to do there as far as um meaningful inclusion of survivor leaders in the field, um you know, in positions of leadership, you know, that survivor led organizations are the ones that close down the most, you know, they're the ones that are the least supported. So I i think I'd like to see survivor led organizations kind of kind of put up, you I guess bolstered up is what I mean a lot more as well by then, I would hope.
00:30:54
Speaker
Yeah. I'm with you on all those.
Empathetic Support and Understanding
00:30:58
Speaker
um Becca, thank you so much for just joining our call and and helping us, helping clarify a few things on, kind of what the really really rehabilitation process is.
00:31:09
Speaker
And um and um' and it's not this is not the one and be all conversation. It's the it's kind of the starter conversation to to think about. um There's way more help that someone needs for years after leaving the life. And that's just, that's just the, um, so these are steps two through 10, if you would.
00:31:30
Speaker
And, um, and it takes a lot of help. It takes a lot of resources. And, um, and I think this is the first step for someone getting involved. And while we want to try to make the journey easier for someone to get involved, um,
00:31:46
Speaker
If you need it ah too easy of a job to look for something like, oh, if you make it easy for me, I'll do it. Then i would I would ask, are you even doing wanting to do this then?
00:31:57
Speaker
Are you not wanting to put the the effort in? um You expect survivors to be able to find all these resources, yet you can't yourself find it. And so um I kind of implore anybody listening this to like, hey, it takes some homework, it takes some action, it takes some looking, it takes some researching.
00:32:14
Speaker
um and But the key thing though in everyone's research, and ah let me know if you agree or disagree, you got to look for the heart and what they're providing as you're v as you're vetting anybody.
00:32:27
Speaker
Is it a large facility with a lot of beds? We've seen that doesn't work. Probably don't go after that route. Are you asking the ah ROI of these places? That's not the right way to be looking at this.
00:32:38
Speaker
um It's, are you servicing only people who would become a Christian or only Christians? Oh, are you serving LGBTQ? Well, I don't know if i support that.
00:32:48
Speaker
You need to understand that these are all children of God and there's literally nothing, nothing that should keep them in any kind of that That is not um something that that Christ would want them to have.
00:33:05
Speaker
It is not, that's not your choice. you What you're right here to do is bring the kingdom to them. And so none of these should be barriers in how we help people.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:33:14
Speaker
and um And we should all come in with the understanding that I have no idea what this person has gone through.
00:33:21
Speaker
And I am no idea how I can help them, but I've been told this thing will help. So I'm going to do that. And I'm not coming as a hero. I'm not coming in as someone who understands or knows. I'm just coming in simply saying, how can I help?
00:33:33
Speaker
And I think if you have that servant's heart, then we can do, I'll do something about it. And, um, Becca, I, I, I, um, I want to say on behalf of um anyone that has even hurt you directly of a well-intended person, I'm sorry.
00:33:50
Speaker
And I pray that we can all kind of gather around that thought of, Hey, Let's talk, let's have these conversations, let's be raw, let's be ready to accept that we might be wrong on something when it comes to this type of work.
00:34:03
Speaker
And um i greatly encourage you to continue the good the good fight in helping survivors and helping this prevention and helping educate everybody on, hey, this is what's truly going on.
00:34:14
Speaker
And let me use my voice in this. And it's very brave of you to do that. And so thank you. Thank you for helping all of us. I appreciate that very much. Yeah. Thanks for, you know, having, I know myself and the other people that I know you have on the show and I, you know, I love the way that you guys elevate survivor voices. So thanks.
00:34:32
Speaker
Becca, we'll, we'll talk again soon. I'm sure of it. So thank you for joining our podcast today.