Empower Who
She’s extraordinary, having already shown the will to overcome adversity.
Some circumstances is all that separates us, and circumstances can be changed.
Survivor’s are extraordinary, having already shown the will to overcome adversity. They want more for themself than the history from which they come. They have goals and hopes and dreams. Once a pathway is identified to get achieve them, Empower Her Network helps breakdown roadblocks in the way.
The survivors we serve are resilient and ambitious, self-determined, hardworking American born and immigrant survivors of domestic trafficking and are 18+ years old with legal immigration and work status in the United States.
Having been stripped of basic human rights for years and sometimes decades, the survivors of Empower Her Network face different combinations of intimidating but not insurmountable obstacles: trapped in the minimum wage poverty spiral, facing housing barriers with bad credit or no credit, unable to afford vocational or education opportunities. Empower Her Network funds those tangible needs while curating confidence, igniting hope and establishing focus. These life skills are purposefully held back from trafficked persons and need to be relearned.
Housing
Housing instability may have driven her into the Life in the first place.
On the streets, women and girls face violence and predation. Trading sex for shelter is a reality for many homeless girls and women.
For girls and women in the Life, it’s easy to feel trapped in a housing paradox.
If lack of housing drove her into prostitution, her dependence on the Life increases when those same housing systems deny her shelter as a result of her prostitution record.
A woman’s need for shelter, food, clothing and protection is easily exploited by traffickers. Women with children are even more vulnerable.
Some systems may demand that she change her life in order to gain safe housing.
Yet she needs safe housing to just imagine those changes. She also needs services to help her along the way including mental health counseling, addiction services, job training, life skills and access to education or legal services.
Watch The Life Story to the right to learn more and find out steps toward change >>
*All above commentary is from The Life Story website. EHN members and alumni are part of this video series