Photo by Michael Hahn
A transitional shelter providing housing and services for survivors of human trafficking is opening in 2018 at a site in Central Virginia, Safe Harbor and Bon Secours Richmond Health System announced Tuesday.
The shelter is the newest addition to their joint rehabilitation program serving survivors of human trafficking in the region. Safe Harbor opened an emergency shelter for human trafficking victims a year ago. The shelter provided 19 human trafficking survivors with emergency physical, mental and emotional care. The new shelter will seek to serve survivors’ long-term needs.
“This new house is like a next phase. They’ve stabilized — they’re going through counseling, if they have substance abuse issues they’re working on their sobriety and they’ve really achieved goals in their personal development, but they’re not yet ready to move out independently and live on their own,” Cathy Easter, Safe Harbor executive director, said in an event held Tuesday at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital to announce the new shelter.
The transitional facility will house six residents and will provide them with opportunities to learn life skills, gain an education, secure employment and focus on their counseling needs. Safe Harbor received a two-year grant of $500,000 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to create the emergency and transitional shelters.
Human trafficking is known as modern-day slavery. Victims of trafficking are forced or coerced into engaging in commercial sexual acts, labor or services against their will, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. It’s estimated that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. In the United States, Virginia ranked 15th for the most reported cases of human trafficking in 2016.
Bonnie Price, a founder of the Bon Secours Richmond Health System’s forensic nursing program, has worked with human trafficking survivors for more than 25 years. She says that reports of human trafficking may have increased in recent years because of awareness.
“To be honest with you, we don’t know how big the problem is,” Price said. “We don’t have accurate stats because we haven’t been able to get a handle on how big the problem is.”
But Safe Harbor and Bon Secours Richmond Health Center can see positive changes in their charges, says Easter.
“We’re helping them emotionally heal. There’s a big difference between when they walk through the door and when they’re ready to leave,” Easter said. "So that’s the progress we measure. Every client is different.”
