Our Vision

VOICES is currently in the beginning stages of establishing the first safe home for victims of human trafficking in Hernando County, FL. Our vision for Voices is to meet these girls right where they are in life & come alongside them. We want to give them hope and a future to celebrate and look forward to. We want to build a comforting home and create a presence where God’s presence dwells to bring restoration beyond what we can do. Our vision is to be able to bless these women and let them know they are not alone, through life skills classes, dance classes, an equestrian center, and holistic therapy. A main source of light in the community to build these girls up is what we are aspiring to be. We would love for you to come alongside us in our vision for Voices.

What is Human Trafficking?

Definition: The unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Human trafficking has been going on for ages but up until quite recently, it’s finally being shed some light. The top 3 types of human trafficking going on in the world are 1 sex trafficking, 2 labor trafficking and 3rd debt bondage. 40 million men, women, and children are enslaved today more than ever before yet people aren’t speaking about it. The hotel industry, massage parlors, strip clubs, and all pornography websites help aid in human trafficking. Many victims have come forward on the website porn hub as well as the back page. Backpage was taken over by the FBI a couple of years ago. Florida is among the top 3 in the nation for having the most human trafficking cases. https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

Statistics

 • Florida is the 3rd in the nation with leading human trafficking cases. 

• Florida in the last year has had 896 cases. 640 of those cases were sex trafficking. (Humantraffickinghotline.org) 734 victims were female, 172 of the victims were minors.

• In 2019, one in six runaways were human trafficking victims. 

• The average age a minor is trafficked is between 11 to 14 years old.

 https://rems.ed.gov/docs/Human%20Trafficking%20101%20for%20School%20Administrators%20and%20Staff.pdf