WHAT WE DO

After doing outreach in Nevada, California, and Oklahoma to thousands of women in the commercial sex industry, from strip clubs to porn conventions to legal brothels to massage parlors to online ads for more than 11 years, in 2022 the Stand 4 Justice team led an exodus of women and children out of bondage. This brought us to a crossroads in our efforts. We could go back to doing outreach, but who would care for the needs of the women that were just rescued? We knew God was doing something new, so we decided to wait and listen.

After Founder/Executive Director, Sarah-Jane Vegas, took an extended sabbatical after that intense season of rescue, the word God gave her was to grow deeper, not bigger. So instead of resuming outreach efforts, our team’s focus shifted to bringing healing resources and community to survivors of trafficking and exploitation and their children. God has been faithful to meet us in this vision! We realized the need for deeper healing for women who have survived trafficking and exploitation is great. Though their bodies may be free, their minds and hearts can still struggle with the results of their trauma. The statistics show that women who have come out of trafficking and the commercial sex industry experience PTSD at the same rate as combat veterans.

Survivors need a safe community to process what has happened and women who understand and have overcome themselves. It’s in these spaces that the brain can begin to tell them, “I am safe. I am understood. I can finally heal.” We asked God to supply us with a home, a safe haven for women and children to gather, and He provided a beautiful place for us to begin hosting survivor nights for a group of women who have escaped trafficking and exploitation. We share meals, pray for one another, and have a house full of babies and children playing together. It has been a beautiful healing journey and the women are walking in deeper unity and freedom as a result of having a safe place.

In 2023 we launched our Survivor Empowerment Program and begin to further equip and empower women. Through therapeutic parenting classes, money management and business classes, self-defense, specialized therapy, and retreats survivors are taking back what has been stolen from them. We are grateful to be providing a community of love and support for those who have survived trafficking and sexual exploitation. With confidence we can say, “There is hope! You are more than your trauma and your past! You have a future!”