For my birthday, rather than cool new clothes or the next gadget, I want to ask for something much more important.

I am asking for your help to raise funds to fight sex trafficking.

For my birthday, the greatest gift you can give me, is supporting Journey Out's work to prevent sex trafficking and help survivors get back on track with their lives!

Help reach my birthday goal of raising $500. If we reach the goal, Journey Out wins an extra $150 in Matching Funds (which would be AWESOME to help them get!).

Please make this a very special birthday and join me in fighting sex trafficking and providing the nurturing support that survivors require to heal and return to a whole life.

Join me on this special day and make my birthday wish come true!

Please find a summary of Journey Out's excellent work:

DROP-IN CENTER PROGRAM

Journey Out realizes that change is difficult and fraught with many dangers for those who are being sexually exploited. Journey Out provides a safe place to discuss all of the issues related to exiting a life of abuse, violence, and poverty. We also discuss common challenges and ways to move forward from the experience and thrive. 

The Journey Out Drop-In Center Program offers assistance to individuals seeking a way out of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. We provide them with survivor-led support groups including: Getting Out of The Life, Healing Through Art, Ending The Game Intervention Program, and an Empowerment Group. We meet our clients “where they are,” utilizing the best practice theories and intervention modalities of harm-reduction, trauma-informed treatment and the stages of change.

Our clients need more than support groups to exit a lifestyle they have become trapped in…they need support services. In response to those needs, we offer case management and referrals, survivor mentorship - giving peer-to-peer support and counseling, individual therapy and crisis counseling, GED preparation and testing, HIV testing and education, medical and vocational referrals, and meeting basic needs by providing food, clothing, hygiene products and condoms.

DIVERSION PROGRAM

The Prostitution Diversion Program (PDP), is offered by Journey Out in collaboration with the LA City Attorney as an alternative to incarceration. The PDP allows for a prostitution-related offense to be dismissed upon completion of the program, it also provides access to desperately needed services. The PDP is also available for transgender individuals and men.

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS: Journey Out has a South Los Angeles Satellite Office where we offer our diversion program three times a week. Additionally, Journey Out offers our diversion program at APAIT (a nonprofit organization located near Koreatown) for Asian speaking clients. APAIT offers professional translators that work collaboratively with our Survivor Group Facilitators to offer a culturally appropriate program.

DOMESTIC MINOR SEX TRAFFICKING PREVENTION
& INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

Journey Out works with youth in group homes and in community centers providing prevention curriculum programs; My Life My Choice and Word On The Street. These curriculums are designed to empower young women and educate girls on the tactics that pimps and traffickers use to recruit victims into the commercial sex industry.

The Ending The Game curriculum is a powerful and innovative new intervention designed to educate and empower child victims of sex trafficking. The curriculum provides guidance and first-hand knowledge of survivors to aid victims and guide them on their path to recovery and out of the hands of pimps and traffickers.

DIRECT STREET OUTREACH

Staff and volunteers drive the prostitution tracks of Los Angeles and hand out information about services available to victims. Information about emergency shelters both within California and outside of California are given in case the victim needs help when being trafficked to another city. A lipstick with the Journey Out phone number is put in every outreach packet. The label is discreet and easy to conceal from pimps and traffickers but also gives victims a lifeline.

In addition to Street Outreach, Journey Out collaborates with law enforcement as victim advocates during police task force operations. During these operations, we offer our programs and services on the spot to victims. Journey Out has been involved in the FBI Innocence Lost Task Force operations locally and is known as the "go to" organization for law enforcement for victim advocacy and service provision for adult victims of sex trafficking.

COMMUNITY & AGENCY EDUCATION

Journey Out provides education to the public about issues of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, as well as specialized training for law enforcement and social service providers. We educate the general community through informational speeches at colleges, universities, high schools and for community groups throughout Los Angeles. Educating the public is an important aspect of prevention, especially for youth who have little to no knowledge about the tactics pimps and traffickers use to recruit victims into sex trafficking.