Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others. Trafficking of children involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of children and youth for the purpose of exploitation. They can be forced into many forms of slavery including labor and sex trafficking. The runaway and homeless youth, victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, war or conflict or social discrimination are frequently targeted by traffickers. Florida ranks 3rd in the NATION for human trafficking and we are fighting hard to change that!
Watch our human trafficking documentary, INVISIBLE!
In an effort to put an end to this inexcusable crime and help restore hope and dignity to victims, Place of Hope released the INVISIBLE documentary online, presents education through the community, and provides wrap-around care for survivors. This program trains the community on what to look for and how to help. Recovery services are provided for victims throughout all of our programs. These services include professional case management, quality medical care, counseling, therapy, tutoring, mentoring, life-skills development, hope, and healing opportunities. Place of Hope provides these survivors with the tools they need to overcome their past and create a bright future.
Throughout our various locations and programs, we provide professional case management, access to quality medical care, counseling, therapy, and comprehensive support services to ensure the safety and well-being of our youth. We do this while providing consistent residential care, supervision, and healthy influences that strive to meet each of their physical, emotional, social, educational, and spiritual needs.
Family Cottages provide family-style foster care for sibling groups, special needs (“hard to place”) foster children, and victims of sex and labor trafficking in need of consistent, structured long-term care. Our proven effective model employs professionally trained, live-in Cottage Parents caring for no more than six foster children in each cottage.
Villages of Hope provides independent living, residential support, and essential life-skills development services for emancipated foster youth and otherwise homeless youth, including victims of sex and labor trafficking. We provide a supportive and proactive living and learning environment primarily for youth who “age out” of the state’s foster care system or are homeless.
Joann’s Cottage is a family-style maternity home for girls providing comprehensive care for young mothers and young mothers-to-be. It operates at a secured location in a traditional family neighborhood, welcoming girls, that includes victims of sex and labor trafficking, into a safe, healthy and productive environment 24/7.
Seven Stars Cottage is our family-style emergency placement and assessment center for abused and neglected boys. We provide short-term emergency care and support services for up to eight boys (ages 5 to 17) who have been removed from their homes by the State of Florida due to allegations of neglect and abuse, including labor trafficking, and are temporarily unable to return.
Place of Hope offers presentations, training and educational workshops to individuals and agencies, as well as business and civic groups that have an interest in learning about ways to prevent human trafficking.
Place of Hope offers the My Life My Choice prevention and treatment curriculum provided by the Justice Resource Institute. This is used to empower youth to protect themselves from the commercial sex industry and its predators, as well as support survivors in rebuilding their lives.
Hope Campaign is a monthly community outreach in which materials, labeled with the National Human Trafficking Hotline, are delivered, along with missing children’s flyers, to hotels and other locations in various areas of Palm Beach County identified by local authorities as places where human trafficking is likely to occur.
We are in the process of developing a new social enterprise, Peninsula Coffee, to help combat human trafficking in our community. By buying bags of coffee or using our coffee catering services, community members will be able to provide hope to the survivors of our recovery and support programs. This social enterprise will also create jobs for the youth in our care, where they will learn essential life skills that they can take with them into their careers and gain the experience they need to create bright futures for themselves.
Education and Prevention Services Sponsors
With the sponsorship of these generous community members, Place of Hope can offer education and prevention services to the community.
Palm Beach County Bar Association – North County Section
Gary Peters Family Foundation
David and Marla Saunders
Barbara and Mort Seltman
Richard W. Slawson, Esq.
The Warren Family Foundation
Richard W. Slawson, Esq.
The Warren Family Foundation
Education and Prevention Services Partners
Place of Hope collaborates with other like-minded organizations to provide the best education and prevention resources possible to our community.
The Milagro Center
Palm Beach County Crime Prevention Officers Association
Presentation Partners
33rd Annual Preventing Crime in the Black Community Conference
Advent Lutheran
Boca City Council
Boca Raton Rotary Club
CareerSource (Belle Glade)
Crime Prevention Officer’s Association
Discover the Palm Beaches
FPL
Hair Market
Human Trafficking Coalition of the Palm Beaches
Junior League of the Palm Beaches
Leadership Boca
Leadership Class 36 (Port St. Lucie)
The Lord’s Place
Marjorie Fisher Boys and Girls Club
National Coalition of 100 Black Women
NCCI
Palm Beach County Crime Justice Commission
Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force
Palm Beach County Substance Abuse Coalition
Shoppe 561
St. Andrews Country Club
St. Mary’s Hospital
Stuart Leadership Advisory Council
Treasure Coast Human Trafficking Coalition
Vero Beach Christian Business Association
Wellington Regional Medical Center
West Boca Medical Center