Refuge for Women

Refuge for Women, Inc. is a religious and faith-based organization which provides housing, counseling and the development of life and work skills for women who desire to leave the adult sex and entertainment industry.

That Every Woman Who Is Sexually Exploited Will Have The Hope, Support, And Tools Needed to Pursue H

Goal One: Increase the Number of Women We Serve by opening the full continuum of Refuge care at each of our 7 locations by 2025. 3 program homes at each site: Emergency, Long Term, Transitional

Goal Two: Integrate Survivor Made (Refuge for Women Social Enterprise) at each of our 7 local sites by 2025

Goal Three: Mature in our Programming, Outreach and Employee Support through implementing consultant and certification suggestions and integrating new HR and employee support and training systems.

Refuge is committed to ongoing leadership development at all levels through video and in person specific co hort and one-one meetings. These keep us united as an overall team and focused on our vision and mission. Since our vision and mission is to serve exploited women, I will highlight recent investment in leadership that directly impacts our ability to do this well. We have hired a Full Time National Program Director to oversee trauma informed programming quality and consistency at all sites, to connect with and assess applicants to our program for better placement fit, to coach/train the local program directors on bi weekly basis, to measure impact of our programming on resident mental health/their movement towards independence through monthly assessments, and to adjust programming and staff accordingly. Also, we held a workshop for Directors with John Stewart, a trauma informed architect, to help intentionally plan residential spaces with resident needs in mind.

In our effort to fulfill our vision and mission, it is important to partner within the community. On national and local levels, *we have partnerships with law enforcement and government officials to create understanding of trafficking/exploitation and develop systemic pathways to offer women alternatives such as Refuge *we regularly present at conferences, task forces, community groups, churches *we regularly present to youth and parents through podcasts, school programs, trauma informed trainings for first responders *we partner with recovery organizations, housing organizations, similar residential programs, outreach organizations, behavioral health organizations, homeless organizations to reach more women with the kind of support they may need *we raise awareness through our presentations, social media, podcasts, radio broadcasts. *we would be happy to provide a specific list of some of our partners if that would help

Like most organizations, Covid has added a layer of challenge to reaching women, empowering women, staffing our residential homes, managing covid outbreaks, connecting in our communities, growing our donor base, expanding our programming to meet need. Through maintaining the clarity of our goals, inviting the input of staff and residents, valuing our staff and volunteers and cultivating a problem-solving instead of problem complaining mindset, we have been able to flex our resiliency muscle. This has resulted in the addition of 3 new Emergency Home locations and Emergency Home staff training (1 house purchase, 1 plan for ground breaking this spring, 1 plan to launch), development of new ways to reach women through law enforcement in response to closures or limited service offerings of other community organizations, maintaining community presentation relationships through offering video webinars and trainings.