Support 10 survivors of human trafficking to live and heal in a Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) shelter for one year.
Why we care: Survivors of human trafficking have complex safety and health issues. They need protection and a nurturing place to live while they recover.
How we’re solving this: By providing shelter equipped with comprehensive and empowering programs with special attention on safety and restoration to 10 survivors of human trafficking for one year.
CAST is the longest running and largest anti-slavery organization in the country, and the first to advocate for laws to protect victims. Establishing the first shelter for trafficked women and their children in the United States, the organization is a final lifeline for women and kids escaping modern-day slavery.
CAST is dedicated to identifying victims, mobilizing all sectors of the community to identify and advocate against trafficking, and ensuring that victims receive appropriate services and assistance to recover from their trauma.
What makes CAST unique is the survivor-centered approach to its programs that provide empowerment services to victims. Survivors receive comprehensive, trauma-informed care that helps them reach social and economic self-sufficiency to rebuild their lives. CAST survivor-centered approach engages survivors as key experts once they are stable and have graduated from the CAST program. CAST works in the trenches giving survivors 24-hour access to shelter and services and provides opportunities for survivors to become key leaders in the anti-trafficking movement.
The shelter is the first place victims can call home after escaping the violent world of human trafficking. Serving victims in Los Angeles from over 50 countries around the world, CAST is solving a key problem caused by human trafficking: protecting victims against the all-to-common threat of retaliation from traffickers who are after them, and helping them to rebuild their lives after the trauma and suffering they endured.
The shelter is a confidential, secure, and healing sanctuary for victims. Designed to help victims reclaim their freedom and independence-and bringing joy back into their lives-this house is the first real home they have known for months if not years. Equipped with a computer lab for skill building, a healing garden for meditation and reflection, a living space that promotes a community of trafficking survivors supporting and nurturing one another, yoga and art classes, and a full-service kitchen where victims can cook and eat the familiar foods they were not allowed to eat while enslaved.
Victims enter the shelter but survivors emerge with newfound strength to be on their own again. Expert shelter staff are experienced in trauma informed care which helps victims feel comfortable and safe, teaching them skills to build their confidence to become self-sufficient. This empowerment approach is what makes the CAST Healing Shelter successful.
“I was trafficked to Los Angeles from my home in Ethiopia, and thought I would never be free again. I was so scared but I couldn’t take the violence anymore. CAST helped me escape and I lived in the shelter for 1 year and a half. It was the most amazing place-my new home- because I met others like me and we all shared the same experience. We learned to help and support each other. Staff at the shelter helped us understand that we are powerful and that we have the right to be happy again. Today, I have a job; I go to church, and have many friends. I am happy and it is because of CAST.” -Tgist, Former shelter resident