(Photo/Ira Gelb via Flickr)
...a Florida nonprofit will open a first-of-its-kind safe house that offers sex trafficking survivors in the state — which has the third-highest number of human trafficking victims in the United States — an alternative to living life on the streets.
Modeled after safe houses in Atlanta run by Wellspring Living, the Selah Freedom organization, which works to bring awareness to sex trafficking as well as to provide a safe place for survivors while they transition back into mainstream society, plans to open its first safe house on Nov. 1.
Unlike other safe houses in the United States that are run more like flophouses, this four-bedroom house located in Sarasota, Fla., is decorated just like a real home — complete with plush pillows, a flat-screen TV, antique furniture, candles, fresh linens and china glassware.
According to the organization’s clinicians, many sex trafficking victims were abused as children and have experienced trauma for such a long period of time they have developed a very intense form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“A ‘safe house’ means much more than safety,” [according to Elizabeth Fisher, Saleh co-director] “These young girls and women also need access to specialized counseling to help them overcome the terrible trauma of slavery. Their other needs include medical care, skill training for jobs, education, language assistance, immigration paperwork, child care, and transportation.
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