The headlines are almost implausible to believe: “24 children rescued from human trafficking scheme in Orlando”… “385 teen girls involved in the sex trade in Florida each month”… “Tallahassee townhouse a prison for Guatemalan women.” These stories are all current, each brought to light within the last few years.
This week, Human Trafficking Week, reminds us that within our own communities there are those who traffic people for twisted gain. And that we should not sit idly by.
The Florida Legislature and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been doing their parts to bring human trafficking out of the shadows and to provide supports to those who have been so cruelly victimized.
One organization, Bridging Freedom, wants to offer more to these girls.
Laura Hamilton, president of the St. Petersburg non-profit, alongside groups such as the Junior League of Tampa and Ad 2 Tampa Bay, have been working on this issue for years. Hamilton also facilitates collaboration with law enforcement members of the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking — a group that includes local police, sheriff’s departments, FBI, ICE, and the Florida Department of Children and Families Human Trafficking staff.
Through this, Hamilton has developed a unique and promising goal: to build a long term care facility for girls who have been human sex trafficked.
The concept is to establish Florida’s first “therapeutic safe home” where rescued children and teens receive holistic care to help them heal over a period of six months to two years. Residents will live in several homes in a secure campus with nurturing residential caretakers. There, they will receive medical care from physicians and therapists, rehabilitation, therapeutic recreation, education, life skills training, career development, and transitional mentorship.
“Now that people have the awareness,” said Hamilton. “It’s time for them to react.”
There are less than five facilities nationwide that provide this type of long-term individualized, interdisciplinary care, and none in Florida, a state ranked among the hotbeds for human trafficking.
