Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Ng.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Laura. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Traffick Free began as a ministry out of Park Community Church (“PCC”) in Chicago in 2008. At the time, the team was about learning about the issues of human trafficking and hosting events to invite the public to learn alongside us. I was not very heavily involved in this ministry for the first two years but in 2010, I made a decision to devote the majority of my volunteer time to building Traffick Free.
For the first two years as a ministry, the team had identified several social service providers and law enforcement who were engaged in the fight against human trafficking. When asked what the number-one gap was in serving victims and survivors of human trafficking, everyone responded with “emergency housing.”
To answer this need, it was evident that we needed to become an independent non-profit so we established our 501c3 in April 2011 and I have been its executive director since.
A few high-level points of our journey since 2011:
– 2011 – 2013: Our all-volunteer team spent time researching what meeting the need for “emergency housing” might look like. In the meantime, we continued to partner with more and more organizations doing similar work in Chicago and producing educational events for the public. Our team asked all around the country for advice.
-2014: We announced to the public that the awareness organization they have come to know would be pursuing opening a drop-in center. What 2-3 years of research revealed was that beyond an emergency place to land, was a need for a model that asked little of the participant but, rather, provided a safe and welcoming space first, absent of a lot of traditional barriers to services including lengthy invasive assessments, so that participants could even start to contemplate leaving a life of exploitation. This led to the desire to develop a 24-hour drop-in center. We continued to spend time educating the public about sex and labor trafficking. I officially became the only person on staff at Traffick Free (which is still true today).
-2015: We hired a consultant to walk us through the process of developing this program and by December 31, 2015, we had written about 300 pages of protocols to run a drop-in center for self-identified female persons who had or were currently engaged in commercial sexual exploitation. Our wording was and continues to be very purposeful so that we do not define for individuals what their situation may be (e.g. “prostitution,” “sex trafficking,” “survival sex,” etc.)
-2016: We spent several months locating the perfect space, based on survivor and social service provider feedback, and finally signed a lease effective November 1, 2016. We spent the rest of the year renovating the space. In the meantime, we worked with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office as well as other service providers to assist in the needs of individuals when their resources might be limited. Of course, we continued to educate the public about sex and labor trafficking.
-2017: We officially opened our doors to the drop-in center on February 2.
-February 27, 2018: We have officially received 97 unique referrals since late 2016, many of whom we have assisted from a distance, but 51 of those individuals have come to the drop in. Many of them now come back on a regular basis and refer other women who may need our services as well.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not a smooth road. Being a volunteer-driven organization, there are always inconsistencies in just how fast we could move things along. While we have always had very determined and highly-capable volunteers, sometimes work, school, family, etc. just took precedent.
Additionally, the need to educate the public, particularly donors, about the prevalence of the issue continues to be a need. Our model of services is very attractive to the women we serve but takes some explaining to attract funding.
Due to the unique low-demand, harm reduction, and participant-driven principles that drive our direct services, it presents both opportunity to pivot whenever needed but this also means that there is a high likelihood of unpredictability in our days.
What role has luck (good luck or bad luck) played in your life and business?
I’m not sure I believe in luck. As a person of faith in the combination of my cultural upbringing as an Asian American, I believe in both my God as well as continually building towards goals through my own abilities. The parts I thank God for always include bringing alongside amazing volunteers as well as a professional network of partners for Traffick Free.
What others may see as “bad luck” were opportunities for me to evaluate whether I was still the right person to carry the goals of Traffick Free forward – particularly in summer 2016 when the first space we looked at feel apart after investing time into it for months. However, I then received some really uplifting encouragement when a key partnership was offered to Traffick Free and I kept going. It’s been mostly uphill again since.
Contact Info:
- Website: traffickfree.org
- Email: findoutmore@traffickfree.org
- Instagram: instagram.com/traffickfree
- Facebook: facebook.com/traffickfree
- Twitter: twitter.com/traffickfree
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