The Partnership to End Human Trafficking (PEHT) is a nonprofit organization that provides survivors of human trafficking a pathway toward healing and independence through community outreach, residential recovery, and economic empowerment.
Connecticut has a critical lack of available emergency shelter for victims of trafficking. This has not only created a crisis of homelessness for those exploited by sex trafficking, but it has also exacerbated the challenge of providing stabilization services to survivors while they identify sustainable housing options. Global PEHT requested funding for emergency shelter, residential stabilization, and the staff and administration necessary to provide a continuum of care to survivors in their region.
Becoming a GrantTank recipient means that Global PEHT will better assist trafficking survivors in their transition from “the life” into “program life.” Survivors often need a period of intensive case management to achieve the basic levels of stability necessary to participate in a residential program, and now Global PEHT is better able to offer that trauma-informed care.
Support from The Jensen Project will be allocated as follows:
Emergency Shelter: This grant will enable PEHT to provide short-term accommodations for survivors, in addition to food, clothing, and transportation from their initial location to a safe place. Emergency shelter would not exceed three weeks and may include a variety of sheltering options, such as hotels or sober homes that require a weekly fee.
Residential Stabilization: This grant will fund two furnished efficiency apartments. These apartments will house survivors who have moved past crisis mitigation and are awaiting placement in transitional and permanent housing options. The residents of these apartments will receive intensive case management support from PEHT.
Staffing support: This grant will fund one full-time clinical case manager along with the supervision and program oversight from their Clinical Program Manager. Both positions will conduct community outreach to identify potential survivors and interface with them to facilitate every aspect of their care. This includes collaborating with local agencies to identify housing resources, facilitating appointments with mental and physical health care providers, and assisting survivors in their transition from crisis mitigation and stabilization, to identifying a more permanent housing solution.
Administration costs: This line item represents overhead costs, including human resources functions such as payroll and benefits administration, supervision and training of new staff, increased general liability insurance, and general program supplies.
PEHT will track the number of clients served, types of services provided, length of stay, and number of clients placed in residential programs/long-term housing.
The Jensen Project is proud to offer this grant and additional assistance to Global PEHT because of their commitment to growth, research, partnership, their staff members, and the population we collectively serve.
Global PEHT applied for GrantTank last year, but they did not become a recipient. When we met them last year, we thought they were doing great work. They were in a state of leadership transition, with a new executive director who started in the heat of Covid to run their existing housing program and to help them build out their economic empowerment program.
We wanted to see what their program would look like a year later to determine how we could pour back into them. When we were able to do the second site visit and see the brick-and-mortar store come to life, attend an art show, and see the residential house, we saw proof of tenacity, longevity, and powerful growth. Over the last year, they made the renovations they said they were going to make; they’ve staffed the survivors they said they were going to staff. We had no reason to not fund them because they had done everything they said they were going to do in the last 12 to 18 months.
We were also thrilled to see many of the same faces we had seen last year. Their staff had grown in a healthy way, which established trust. It said a lot about how committed their staff and board was with their mission and how they treated their employees.
They were transparent, communicative, and available. They let us know that they were going to be taking on a safe home—no need to poke and prod to get answers. No one on The Jensen Project team walked away with questions about what was being requested or how their organization was being run.
Their entire board and leadership team read both our 2021 and our 2022 Insights Reports and then crafted a tailored application based on previous feedback from us. On our Zoom meeting and during the site visit, they would ask us questions: “Hey, in your Insights Report, you mentioned that you’ve been looking for X, Y, and Z. What does that actually look like? What else can we learn from that?” They had done their research on us. They already knew our public-facing partners. They read Janet’s story. That speaks volumes.
Funding from The Jensen Project will help Global PEHT increase the total number of individuals served through PEHT’s continuum of housing: stabilization through nights in shelter, meeting personal goals, and the move into transitional and permanent housing.
A yearly grant program, funding up to $2 Million to advance economic empowerment and housing opportunities for agencies who serve adult female survivors of human trafficking.
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It takes funding for organizations to help women impacted by sexual violence, but it’s just the starting point. The Jensen Project’s holistic approach empowers nonprofits with grants, resources, and ongoing support to fuel the fight against sexual violence.