seats, laundry services, hygiene training, parenting skills training, feeding and sleeping schedules trainings, interview and job skills training, medication stabilization, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, case management to medical appointments, food stamps, and others. For someone who dislikes following rules, she managed to learn much of the above skills and was able to transition into permanent supportive housing. The post transition period has been challenging due to the nature of the struggle for the need for independence versus the need to continue to ask for support.

Our 39-year-old resident and mother of four lost custody during her years of being trafficked in her youth and adulthood by her mother and another trafficker. She began having multiple medical illnesses and chronic autoimmune disorders getting progressively worse so that there were days she was unable to get out of bed. She was treated by Dr Sinha and our medical team and had spent her days in the Uchiyama Family Lounge at Ashley’s House rethinking how she wanted to live her life. She was going to school to get her GED, struggling with some subjects, learned to ask for help, began standing up to her boyfriend who wanted her to babysit his kids most of the time, and received trauma therapy. Since discharge, she has taken charge of her mental and physical health, completed her GED, and considers herself successful with a well paying job and nice residence.

Our little six-year-old boy won our hearts and minds with his discovery of Broccoli a vegetable that we started cooking practically every day we could in response to his excitement. He was raised on ‘junk food’ and his mother who was herself in multiple foster home placements, trafficked by her own mother as a child and then exploited by “friends”. She was generously giving her money and learned the hard way that she needed to discriminate between real versus exploitative friends which can be a very hard lesson to learn.

For a very brief period of three weeks, we housed a young 18-year-old trafficking survivor who was going to be homeless. We completed her educational psychological evaluation for her learning disabilities for school accommodations, got her food stamps card application completed so it could be increased so she could buy a lot more food; accompanied her to a tattoo learning class to fulfill her dream to enroll as a tattoo artist trainee. Addressed her nightmares. She moved in with her boyfriend once she had these needs met. On follow up two months later, she reported she had moved in with family.

We have learned that some of our residents like to be “visiting residents” and stay for weekends, or a night to get away from their current living situations. Pregnant women, victims of domestic violence, exhausted end of their rope mother sneezing a break – a place to sit in silence, think about their lives, ponder about – next steps. Your support will help them get clarity and peace. The Ambassadors and Board of Directors at SAFECHR thank you for your support.