How Project Legacy is supporting young people who have experienced sexual exploitation
Project Legacy announced this week that we are beginning to serve youth and young adults who have experienced sexual exploitation or who are survivors of sex trafficking.
So far, we have already been helping 3 young women in need of support.
Many of the needs our youth have are the same — they lack basic human services such as a safe, stable home; lack job training; healthcare; and are in need of counseling, treatment and support for their mental health, recovery from substance use or healing from trauma.
Like the programs we operate already, Project Legacy is equipped and experienced in providing the kind of wraparound care many young people need while navigating the challenging, and often painful, experience of changing their lives.
Change is difficult for everyone.
For many of the youth at Project Legacy, it can be especially difficult when their family members don’t support positive changes being made in their lives, and for young people who have been exploited by the commercial sex industry, this can be even more difficult.
For youth and young adults who have been sexually exploited, leaving this life can be frightening. For many, it’s the only life they know and many were introduced to it as minors. As children. One study found that as many as 60-90% of young adults who have been sexually exploited were sexually assaulted as children.
We believe there is a way out of this life and into a life of hope, resiliency and healing. At Project Legacy, we help young people navigating this change process through the following supportive services, at no cost to them:
Case management and referrals
Peer support through a healthy, alternative peer group
Individual therapy and crisis counseling
GED tutoring and preparation
Assistance obtaining medical insurance
Meeting basic needs by providing food, clothing, hygiene products
Rental assistance
Post-secondary and vocational counseling
College tuition assistance
Educational resources (laptops, printers, phones needed for schooling)
Financial literacy and credit counseling
As we continue formalizing this new and needed program at Project Legacy, it’s important to highlight that the core of our work is the same no matter what young person we are working with. Here, we strive to build trust, ignite hope, and provide long-term, intensive resources necessary to effect change.
We will support any young person as long as they need us and as long as they remain committed to the process of changing their lives.
It is costly to offer this type of long-term, intensive support. But without family to rely on and no positive safety net outside of Project Legacy, we are the support engine young people need to help enable change, rebuild their lives and achieve their dreams and goals.
We are able to do this because of you.
Please consider supporting Project Legacy as we continue to move forward providing the programs, tools and resources to offer young people who have been sexually exploited and are navigating the long-term process of healing and transformation.