Residential Program Approach

Holistic & Structured

Our program provides holistic, structured residential programming for trafficked mothers and their children, while also preventing these children from being exploited or sold.  Our 12-18 month program, staffed 24×7, provides safety, community, beauty and basic needs. To help survivors achieve sustainable life change, we provide healing for body, soul and spirit via licensed therapeutic services, life and parenting skills, health coaching and medical care, education and vocational planning, and supportive relationship building.  Child-care and therapeutic options will be provided for children during the day, while their mothers set goals, develop practical plans and skills, and establish social and professional networks to rebuild their lives.

Assessment before Commitment

To ensure we are investing resources wisely and creating a stable environment for our clients, each woman who is a candidate for the 12-18 month residential recovery program will go through an interview and admissions process to determine her readiness and fit for our long-term program.  Eventually, we hope to have a separate facility with broader admissions criteria for a 30-90 day program.  This assessment period gives the client an opportunity to experience a structured residential program and us an opportunity to asses their commitment.

Strengths-Based, Trauma Informed Practices

Clients have been physically abused, mentally and emotionally manipulated, and often have little sense of who they are as individuals.  Our program will be based on a proven therapeutic approach that identifies and builds on their strengths and unique personhood, even in the midst of what might be deemed as “destructive” or oppositional behavior.

Service Partnerships

Our ability to successfully identify and serve clients lies in forming strong partnerships with county task forces, health care providers, and other social service agencies.  Our program priority will be users and victims in Lake County and the Chicagoland area.  We will form reciprocal arrangements with other residential programs in our area and in other locales in the US, so that we can refer clients to programs and geographies that will be a best for them (i.e., sometimes best for a client be removed from the locality for her own safety and long term commitment to treatment.)

Paid Residential Leaders and Staff

Work in this field, while rewarding, can be demanding, overwhelming, and the burnout rate is high.  Leaders are pulled in many directions as they educate the community, raise funds, equip massive numbers of volunteers, oversee staff, and ensure the safety and efficacy of the program.  Even more challenging is the onsite staff’s face-to-face work with clients who have multi-faceted complex trauma.  Volunteer reliability in any environment can be a challenge, let alone one that requires this level of patience and sacrifice.  The success of our residential program depends on building trust with our clients through consistent structure and love.  For these reasons, we feel strongly that key leaders and onsite counselors, case managers, and coaches must be paid salaries that honor their efforts, provide a living wage, and ensure consistency of experience for our clients.

Faith Based, Free to Choose

God has offered His friendship to us, along with the gifts of forgiveness of sin, abundant and eternal life, and the help of the Holy Spirit.  We have been given the freedom to reject these gifts or to receive them through our belief in Jesus as the Son of God.  We give this same freedom to our clients and non-staff volunteers. The Bible says, “God is Love.”  What victims need most are consistent love, mercy and compassion.  Those in key leadership positions and in ongoing day-to-day relationship roles with the women in our residential program will be people whose goal is to show the love of Jesus in all they do.  In addition, opportunities for Christian exploration and spiritual practices will be offered and encouraged.  That said, our belief system will never be required, coerced or forced on anyone (i.e., nothing will ever be withheld from a client if they do not engage with spiritual opportunities or share our beliefs; nor will we offer more love or reward if they do.)