Safe Harbor: A place for youth saved from the sex trade can heal

MILLERSBURG — Providing a place where children can restart their lives, thanks to the generosity of many, is what Safe Harbor is all about.

The organization is a faith-based, long-term, residential, therapeutic community for girls, ages 14 through 18, who have been rescued from sex traffickers.

Safe Harbor offers a trauma-informed, holistic on-site care that includes medical and physical care provided by Springvale Health Centers in a building on 30 acres of donated land in Holmes County, according to Safe Harbor founder and CEO Melissa Brown.

Phase 1 construction is underway, with a goal to be operational in the first quarter of 2024.

"All six buildings are literally up," Brown said. "Electric, gas lines and water are all going in this week. Everything is going underground before it freezes."

By the end of the first week of November, she hopes to have a realistic timeline to give court dockets an official target to place the girls with Safe Harbor. Agencies from the FBI, Homeland Security, police, child advocacy centers, foster care centers, children's networks all work with Safe Harbor.

"Human trafficking isn't just a police problem," she said. "Kids are running into people in all sorts of different arenas, and we're working together to make sure they have the right care."

She noted that it is very common for girls to be trafficked by their own family for drugs or money.

Giving a girl everything she needs to restart her life

"Sex trafficking is one of those things that is evil and dark, and people assume it will look evil and dark," Brown said. "It never looks the way we imagine, and therefore it hides in plain sight.

"What we're doing is building a campus on 30 acres," she continued. "Everything a girl needs to restart her life is there, including medical care. Every cottage will hold four girls each, plus the cottage care giver. Each girl will have her own bedroom and her own bathroom. Having her own private area is huge for healing."

The medical wing will provide all the care the girls need on-site, including primary care. Behavioral health medications can be managed, gynecology, basic dental and eye care can all be done on-site. There will also be a school building.

"When a girl is being trafficked, she isn't going to school," Brown said. "Or, if she is going to school, she is struggling because of all the things happening to her outside of the classroom. We do an assessment when the girls first arrive to see where she's at to get her caught up.

"We're able to create a plan specific to her needs," the CEO continued. "Quaker Digital Academy (QDA) has in-person teaching and they will be doing things with Chromebooks. Art therapy, dance therapy and music therapy will also be done in the school."

Faith based; God can do anything

Brown explained even though Safe Harbor is faith based, they are not forcing Jesus on anybody.

"It literally doesn't work," she said. "Our staff will believe that God can do anything. I can't wait to tell a girl that this is what God did for her."

Sex trafficking is about dollars and cents. And it's about making money, she said.

"On average, a child is sold five times a day. That's unfathomable," Brown said. "Over the course of one year, that is 1,825 sexual assaults. There are no books that can help the victims lead a normal life. Skeptics say the victims will always be damaged.

"I refuse to believe that," she continued. "I serve a God that can do anything. He can take the broken pieces and make them whole in a way that leaves professionals scratching their head because it doesn't make sense to the books they look at. At Safe Harbor, we're going to help a girl untangle the lies that she believes about herself."

She added a girl's value isn't in her body, but her value lies in the fact that she is God's creation. The things that happened to her are not who she is, but were done to her. The guilt and shame are not hers to carry. She was mistreated and taken advantage of.

"We are going to help untangle the lies," Brown said. She is separate from the things that were put on her. We're going to help mend and heal the inside so they can have a long-term success."

She said they are not going to magically erase the fact that a child has been sold. But it doesn't have to be what defines them for the rest of their lives.

Brown pointed out trauma is passed down from generation to generation. She believes healing can also be passed down.

"When a girl arrives at Safe Harbor, we start the healing process," Brown said. "Our facility will be able to take in girls from Ohio and from neighboring states."

When the Holmes County facility opens in the spring, they will be able to house 12 girls immediately. By the time the facility is completed to house 25 girls, it will become the largest facility in the northeast United States.

Second largest illegal industry in the world

Sex trafficking is the second-largest growing illegal industry in the world behind drugs and ahead of guns. Across the United States, there are only about 1,000 beds available for survivors.

"We are site secure," Brown said. "We are disrupting an evil business. When a girl is at Safe Harbor, they are no longer making money for someone else. We have to be mindful of that, and make sure our staff and the girls are safe.

Brown points out that Ohio ranks fifth in the country for the most recorded cases of sex trafficking.

"For us to have a 25-bed facility in one location with comprehensive, total holistic care on site is incredible. The people that have come alongside of us is incredible, from ProVia, who donated all the windows, doors and siding and all the stone for what will be 12 building," Brown said. "Mullet Cabinets donated all the cabinetry. Tango & Gatti did all the gutters. Tower Industries is doing all the showers and all the countertops. And they leveraged their influence to bring other people to the table.

"What I think is incredible is these people I just mentioned, which is just a small part of all those involved, were already experts in their fields," she continued. "They didn't have to learn anything new. And they have taken their expertise and leveraged it to be part of something that is bigger than them."

More than two dozen companies have helped make this happen in Holmes County, including: Eight Days of Hope, Tekton Engineering, BODO Surveying, Hilscher-Clarke Electric Co., P&L Builders, Wheeling Heating/Cooling, PreimerMetals Custom Medal Roofing and Siding, Leader's Edge, Keim Concrete, Royalty Roofing, ProVia, Tower Industries, Davey Resource Group, Progressive Foam, Keim, Donamarc Water Systems, J Miller & Son Excavating, Tango & Gatti Inc., Swiss Valley Associates, Mullet Cabinet, Holmes Lumber, MRV Siding, Wertz Geotechnical Engineering and Eco-Seal Home Solutions.

Safe Harbor is holding a sold out fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, where they will share construction updates and more stories about what they are doing.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Victims of sex trafficking will find safe place in Holmes County