Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Covenant Eyes Podcast. We're so glad to have you joining us again. Make sure that you like and subscribe to the podcast so that we can get the word out about great organizations like the one we're about to talk to today. We have the founder and chief executive for the Institute for Survivor Care. We have, Jeanne Allert. I'm so sorry. It's fine. Yeah. No, she is a PhD, and she actually was convicted to leave the trappings of a lucrative career as an internet consultant to establish one of the very first long term restorative care programs in the Mid-Atlantic for victims of domestic sex trafficking. We are so excited to have you on the show today, and this is a topic that must be talked about. So we just we're just so grateful that you had time to come on the show and share all of the things that you guys are doing and really just dive into the topic of trafficking, because oftentimes we think of it as an issue that over across the seas, but it actually is happening here in the United States. So I'm really excited to talk to you more about that and what we can do to help stop that trafficking. Great. Let's go. Awesome. Well, share with us a little bit about the mission of your organization. And, just I guess how you started it or. Yeah, it's important to go back to Genesis right? Our particular Genesis was one, like you mentioned, I was in corporate life and, had an encounter with a woman on the streets of Baltimore who was being, trafficked and drug addicted and having a conversation with her 1 to 1, face to face, getting a chance to, be exposed to what her life was like was transformative for me. It made me so angry. I couldn't believe this was happening in America. And, And that instilled in me what I call my holy rage that said, you know, I have to do something. So I ended up selling my company and selling my home and buying a house and starting a restorative care program in, Baltimore, Washington area. Not having a clue what I was doing, and ran that program serving juveniles and adult survivors for about 13 years. During that time, we began to realize what was happening across the United States and the gaps in services. So we made a really difficult pivot to becoming the Institute for Survivor Care, which now helps to raise up future ministries, train people to enter into this work, tool them up with what they need, not only training, but specific, you know, tools, technologies, etc. so that we can serve survivors with excellence. So we went from doing to teaching. I love that that is great. And that's such a discipleship model right there. Really. It's great. So talk to me a little bit about, you know, I think a lot of people are a little deceived by how big this problem really is. I think they often don't think that it's happening here. And if they do that, it's something just in the inner cities and it's very sketchy, but we don't know about it. I would like to know, just from your perspective, how invasive is this problem in the United States? Well, we know have incidences of trafficking in every state in the Union. And so it isn't as if it is unique to particular geographies. There can tend to be a clustering wherever there is affluence and poverty close together, because that's an exploit of opportunity, to take advantage of another population. And oftentimes the tracking of the, let's say, arteries of exploitation follow the money. And so you might really look at, for example, the West Coast, the East Coast, major urban areas, but it's important to understand and that we can exploit anybody anywhere. And that can happen equally in rural areas. What I think is important, what Hollywood doesn't do for us very well, is give us a sense of how it looks different in different socioeconomic classes and different cultures in different parts of the country. You know, we might see, for example, more labor trafficking in the agrarian states. We might see more, sex tourism in some of the more highly touristy cities of America. So it takes on a different, shape and form, in different areas. Okay. That makes sense. So, you know, the work that we do at covenant is we're very in tune with pornography is contribution to this industry and how it really fuels that. Can you talk a little bit about how it does contribute to that demand for human trafficking and exploitation? Yeah. You know, probably best, said by a, law enforcement investigator in Maryland where we, were for that 13 years period of time. And he said that he hasn't had a single case of trafficking where there wasn't the presence of pornography in the home of the exploiter. And we have certainly heard from a couple of hundred of women and girls who have been exploited, that pornography is often used as a tool of indoctrination, desensitization, sometimes instruction, you know, you'll watch this and you'll do that. We've heard about that in a familial trafficking situation where parents are, exploiting their own children, that the children often learn adult behaviors, if you want to put it that way, through pornographic material. So they are keenly interwoven. And I don't know that a case could be made that you could extricate them and said, here's here's one bad behavior over here, because they really are dependent upon each other. But that is not to suggest that somebody who consumes pornography is necessarily going to buy someone for sex. But it's a pathway. It's definitely a pathway. That's a good point. What are some of the biggest misconceptions floating around about trafficking and who is affected by it. Well I'd say on by virtue of scale the bigger misconceptions are movies like Sound of Freedom and Taken and things like that that, that paint this, epic hero narrative of some lone stranger going after the system and rescuing children all on his own. That's not helpful. And it's not accurate. The fact that it's transnational only, is a misconception because as we've established, it's right here in the United States and even small communities, the fact that it always involves some big organized crime or transnational, activity, because, again, it can be just, a mom who has a drug addiction and she's selling access to or her daughter or her son, for the purposes of supporting that habit. And, that's something specifically familial that we did a lengthy study on and found that it's somewhere between a quarter to a half of child trafficking in America is at the hands of a family member. So it, it not only takes different forms, but it sometimes takes the shape that we don't want to think about. We we we don't want to deal with that. Right. We wince at the, at the very heartbreak of that. But those are the realities, the realities are that people are vulnerable in a variety of ways. They can be vulnerable by economics. It can be compromised because of substance abuse. It can be, in many ways, relational, compromised children in foster care, runaway kids and those that are not socially connected and protected are highly vulnerable to being exploited. Let's let's kind of pivot to what you guys do best, which is really helping people in the healing process. Because that's kind of what your, your organization is best known for is about that process. I think, if I'm not mistaken, you guys actually created a custom process in the early stages. And you use trauma informed care, for survivors. So can you talk to us a little bit about what the healing process looks like with your organization as you work with these survivors? Yes, we created a model of care, but I want to say it was largely the architects of the model were the survivors themselves. Because when we got into this work, you know, we didn't know what we were discovering. And we were so dependent upon every woman and girl that crossed our threshold to teach us, what we needed to know. And there was a lot of collaboration and observation to arrive at what our stages, in the recovery process. And I think anybody in your audience that is familiar with addictions will be familiar with that. We've sometimes heard about the stages of change as a theory that people go through phases leading towards whatever is that sobriety, abstinence, healing. And so for us, what we learned is that usually within about the first, 90 days, 30 to 90 days is a highly ambivalent time. So I'm going to give you some stereotypic generalizations, but they they play out. And during that period of time, let's say that she is very ambivalent about whether or not healing is even possible for her. Can she do it? Does she want to go back? Is the devil she know? Maybe not so bad as opposed to the one she doesn't know? And so that's a difficult time to go through. And that's why we see a lot of relapse, and rebounding. And, you know, it surprises the lay people because they're thinking, why would you go back to an abusive situation? But we see that in addiction. We see that in domestic violence. Then we see a stage that's really kind of interesting. Once a survivor has begun to make the commitment to try, that it's almost as if she has this, the world is my oyster phase where she sort of goes, okay, well, I want to do everything. I want to make up for lost time. And you could say it's a little manic. But but it's a it's a wonderful time. Think of a middle schooler right where they're going to be an astronaut. They're going to be a dentist. They're going to jump off a plane. They're going to do all the things. And that's an important time, because a lot of those years, as Scripture says, the locust were eaten. And so they're kind of going back and reclaiming those times of discovery and wonder and possibility. Then we see a settling into now it's the work. Right now it's walking it out. And if you compare it to sobriety, that would be all right. I've gone through the first year, but now I just have to maintain sobriety. And that can prove to be really hard, because just doing the daily slog of abstinence, of sobriety is so difficult. And so that period of time, depending upon their wounding, that could be nine months, that could be a year and a half. And then we see in the latter phases what you might refer to as social reentry, where they begin to imagine, connectedness outside of the shelter setting. They begin to imagine belonging and being a part, of the rest of the world. It's funny because they, people who've been exploited call us squares, those of us who have not been. And so they're like, look, Miss Teen, I'm going to become a square. And so it's kind of looking forward to that new life. And then like a lot of processes, there can also be a little bit of a quicksand moment. There can be a little bit of a danger because just like your kid graduating from high school, you know, stepping out seems great until you get out there and all of a sudden, oh my gosh, it's hard. And so now what we're seeing is there's really this fifth stage that again, people in sobriety would know well, which is the the phase of staying connected to a community so that you stay on track. And certainly in your work, the whole accountability piece, the whole just got to have my brothers around me because I'm going to need to call them just because that thing crossed my path. And and this can be true for survivors. Wow. That's fascinating. And it's so interesting how it directly is correlated to other, you know, recovery programs and different addictions that we see. So, you know, that last period that you just talked about that one can be really challenging. But with community, you know, that is really the secret sauce. When you're surrounded by people that can can encourage you and hold you accountable and walk alongside you in those tough spots. It really makes all the difference. How do you guys go alongside these survivors, like as they continue their journey? Do you try to help place them with local church bodies or community groups? Because obviously you can't stay with them? Probably for their whole life. So how do you get them connected so they receive that ongoing support? Well, I am on the eighth year with one survivor and she named her daughter after me. So I think I was pretty enmeshed at this. But but you're correct that we, we didn't know going into this work, we kind of thought that this would be akin to maybe a hospital or a rehab type of thing where you would render some services for a period of time, and then they would they'd be fine. And we're finding that that's not true. That that connection is really hard to establish. You know, interestingly enough, a large percentage of survivors will leave their geography to go get help someplace else. So if I was trafficked in Texas, I might go to Tennessee because I just want to be somewhere else. We call it getting out of your cesspool. And, that's true again, for other forms of recovery where you just have to change your environment. But then when you do that, you've left everything behind. So you have to reestablish all of that. So church connection is huge. It's very important. We've got about 63% of the shelters across the United States are Christian shelters. And so they often are connected with, church bodies around their community and try intentionally to get survivors plugged in. I think also getting them connected, in employment, also in terms of just activities, just social activities sometimes, you know, you have to think that if you've been molested since you were eight and you were turned out as a product by 17, you didn't cultivate hobbies, right? You don't you don't have a concept of recreation or free time. And what we've learned about that latter phase is probably the biggest danger zone is idle time. And that's when, unfortunately, you get the phone back and you just start scrolling. And there's a lot of temptations, as you well know. You know it. Just hearing you say these things too, it just it breaks my heart that, you know, that we have we have to have services like this because I, you know, and then I think to the porn industry and how it just feeds this demand, it just sickens me that there's not more public outcry, you know, to stop this. And what can we do and what can churches do to prevent trafficking and to support survivors in their community? Because I would imagine every community has this going on in some way, shape or form within their greater community. What can we do? Because I just sometimes feel so torn, like, how do I make a difference in this space? Yeah, well, let me go back to your first point. On that, in terms of how it's socially reinforced, and sometimes the, the deck is stacked against you because you wouldn't perhaps think maybe your listeners wouldn't think that there is active promotion of sexual exploitation, but in fact, through the pornography, there absolutely is the indoctrination of our children at very young ages that they should, you know, they've got a moneymaker and they should make their own way, and they can use Only Fans or they can use TikTok. And, you know, we've got prepubescent children who are earning various forms of tender cash forms, online by selling pictures of themselves or talking to strangers. So there is a huge social reinforcement. And I think the way we also put a tremendous amount of social pressure on the value of money and how money is, idolized. And I've talked to a number of survivors who said, you know, it's hard to go from if I was an escort in Memphis or Vegas or something like that, and now you want me to get a job at the Burger King? And how am I going to live on that? I have no skills. And so just economically, there's a big temptation there. So that leads to the second part of your question, which is what can we do? Well, the most important thing that anybody can do would be to start within your own home. If you have children, these are vital conversations to have, and you don't need to approach it as if you're going, well, I don't know how to talk to my kid about sex trafficking. Well, the media is full of opportunities for you to springboard from that. Maybe you go see Sound of Freedom, and then you take your kid out for lunch and say, what did you think? Do you know any kids like that? Hey, I heard this about TikTok. Have you ever heard of anybody in your school who's ever done something like this and just stoke that dialog? You know, the adage is true. One safe person in a child's life is the greatest insulating factor. I would say also to your audience keenly, the value of men in the lives of their daughters cannot be overstated. 70% of our survivors grew up in fatherless homes, and there is such a tremendous desire for that hole to be filled. And unfortunately, it's just been occupied by people who meant harm. Not good. But I do not find that women are afraid of men, or don't trust men, or hate men or any of the things that we might, presume to be true. Instead, there's a great hunger to know that kind of, dignified and sacred intimacy, but also just to have a male friend, to have a father figure in your life. It's so valuable. You know, I saw this, podcast, just two days ago, and it was, a roundtable of some women who were of age willfully prostituting themselves. And it was interesting because the interviewer went around the room and asked them about their relationship with their fathers. And to a point, they all said they have no relationship with their fathers. And that's very telling. So let me be an encouragement to the men, in your audience because their role, as awkward as it is with your daughters, is so incredibly vital to the way she will perceive herself and whether or not she will fall prey to somebody who comes along and says, I'll be your daddy. Oh, my goodness, that is such good wisdom. And I know our listeners will definitely respond. We are bringing today's episode to a close, but I want to make sure that people are able to connect with your organization. And I believe you guys also have a conference coming up, which may be a really good way for people to engage and to learn how to get involved with organizations like yours and help fight against trafficking in the United States. Can you share with our listeners how to get in touch with you and a little more about your conference? Coming up to our website is Institute for Survivor Care. It's long, but it's easy. Institute for Survivor Care. Org and there are some resources there for the general public. There's a map on the shelters across the United States and a whole bunch of our research. We put everything we make out so that, everybody can learn from that. And then the conference that we're doing at the end of March, early April, the domain for that is exploitation conference.org. Now, I will say that it's not so much a public conference as it is for members of the public, or perhaps of church bodies who want to actively engage in anti-trafficking as part of their ministry. It is the National Christian Conference on Sexual Exploitation. So it will be a gathering of believers who are involved in this work in a variety of ways, from strip clubs to street outreach to residential care. We'll have a former porn star there will have a buyer who is redeemed. He will be there. And so there will be plenty of opportunities for people to see how broad the field is and where the opportunities are for engagement. Wow, that sounds incredible. And a really great opportunity for people to get involved. So thank you so much for sharing that. And thank you so much for coming on The Covenant Eyes Podcast. Let us know how we can be of service and support your mission because it is so, so important. And to all of our listeners, we will put links to all of the the items that we just talked about, links to the conference so that perhaps you can get involved in your community. Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to this episode of The Covenant Eyes Podcast. We'll see you again soon. God bless. Take care.