TAMPA, Fla. — Where do the victims of sex trafficking go after they’re rescued? That’s a question Laura Hamilton says was the push she needed to start Bridging Freedom. It’s a nonprofit for young girls who have been victims of sex trafficking.
“We need more safe homes. There’s always a waitlist. We are pretty much full year round,” Hamilton said.
Bridging Freedom is a top secret, state licensed safe house that Hamilton said the state desperately needed.
“It’s hard to hear that this is happening in our neighborhoods. It’s hard to hear that a child is lured in and then forced to provide sexual acts to buyers, unspeakable things that they’re asked or forced to do upon their little bodies,” Hamilton said. “It’s hard for the community to hear child sex trafficking and what all that involves. So, we use words that are services. They are providing services to buyers. It’s hard to go into too much more detail when you’re speaking to a lot of people because it’s so hard to hear.”
After working for years on sex trafficking task forces, Hamilton said opening the facility was her way of making a real impact. Now her facility helps girls ranging from ages 12 to 17-years-old.
“They are little girls. They need little girl things. They love to color. They love to hold the teddy bear. They love their little movies. So, what your child loves, they love it too. They’ve just been so traumatized with everything they’ve gone through with having to provide services to multiple buyers a day.
At Bridging Freedom, the organization’s mission is to restore childhoods with therapy, education and a sense of home.
“The children that are in need of services here at Bridging Freedom come from three different areas. Either they’re coming from the foster system, they get so frustrated with their circumstances, they run. Another child might be from a family that’s abusing them, selling them, even involving them in trafficking and she may run,” said Hamilton.
She said as scary as that sounds, one of the other dangers threatening girls who end up there is something very common.
“You have to look at that phone. You have to make sure there are protections on that phone so that your child doesn’t start developing a relationship with a stranger that they should not be. That is how simple it starts,” she said. “You give a child a cell phone, it’s like giving them the keys to your car and say ‘be safe.’ It’s not safe to give a 12-year-old or a 9-year-old keys to your car. So, when you give them that phone, you have to put parental protection on that phone because there are people looking to lure that child in.”
Hamilton said places like Bridging Freedom will be needed for the foreseeable future. But she’s hopeful their work and the work that prevention education leaders in the sex trafficking awareness community are doing will make some kind of difference.