Aspire Partnership, a collaboration of LifeWay House and Covenant House New York, has received an anonymous grant of $1 million over 3 years to establish Aspire Home, a safe house for trafficked youth in New York City.
“I am absolutely thrilled we are embarking up on this joint initiative with Covenant House,” said Sister Joan Dawber, SC, Executive Director of LifeWay Network. “The reality of human trafficking is not diminishing but is evolving in more complicated and insidious ways. This partnership and LifeWay’s network of relationships allows us to work together towards meeting this growing and urgent need – it is so exciting!”
Read the official press release from Covenant House to learn more:
(New York, Monday October 27, 2014)
A new, anonymous grant of $1 million over three years will result in Covenant House New York and LifeWay Network establishing the Aspire Home in New York, a safe house for trafficked youth.
Covenant House New York and LifeWay Network will transform an underutilized property into a therapeutic home with a 10 bed capacity, where these young women can transition from victim to survivor. The home will serve survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and labor and sex trafficking between the ages of 18-24 and offer comprehensive, wrap-around services including mental health and casework services. Survivors can live in the home for up to 18 months. Referrals will be made into through Covenant House New York’s main homeless shelter.
“This anonymous grant will save the lives of trafficking victims in New York,” said Creighton Drury, Executive Director of Covenant House New York. “We are excited to be collaborating with LifeWay Network, whose safe home for trafficked women in New York City is a beacon of hope for trafficking victims. This program draws on the strengths and experience of both Covenant House New York and the LifeWay Network to establish the Aspire Home in New York, where we will expand our efforts to be a safe haven and a place where trafficking victims can get the help they need to recover and rebuild their lives.”
In addition to providing a life-affirming safe house, the grant will allow Covenant House and LifeWay to address the critical issue of economic self-sufficiency and independence for survivors through job training, mentorship, internship and employment opportunities with committed corporate partners.
“This is a significant breakthrough in our ongoing efforts to support survivors of human trafficking,” said Sister Joan Dawber, Executive Director of LifeWay Network. “This grant, and our collaboration with Covenant House, will not only get more young women out of immediate danger. With this program, we will also be able to provide the ongoing support that will transform the lives of trafficking survivors.”
A recent study of homeless young people at Covenant House found that almost a quarter of them had been involved either in trafficking or survival sex, where sex is exchanged for something of value, often food or shelter. “Half of the trafficking survivors told us that if they had a safe place to stay, they would not have had to give away their dignity and innocence to people who were all too ready to exploit them,” said Drury. “Clearly, if we provide safe shelter to more young people, there will be fewer of them for pimps, gangs and johns to use and abuse. Aspire Home will be that safe haven…”
(New York, Monday October 27, 2014)