I’ve spent the better part of the last twenty years fighting human trafficking. I’ve been privileged to meet strong and amazing women who have suffered horrifying hardships at the hands of traffickers and pimps. I’ve heard story after story. At some point, I began to notice a pattern. And what was terrifying to me was how many of the stories start the exact same way.

Most of the women I’ve met on the streets and in the brothels of Western cities haven’t come from far away, impoverished villages on the other side of the globe, like we so often hear or imagine. They started in foster care.

The stats are alarming: 70-80% of street and indoor prostituted people trafficked in America come from “the system.” It’s not hard to imagine why. The future for foster kids is not bright. When they “age out” of care, there is no one there to help navigate the perplexing and challenging realities of real life. Well, actually, there is someone there. He’s called a pimp or a trafficker. Like lambs to a slaughter we let our foster girls walk out of care and into the hands of exploiters.

So what do we do? Well, we think it’s time to be brave.

A few years ago I moved to Los Angeles and found my office in Long Beach. As God had arranged it, I ran into a group of amazing women at Seventh Street Church in Long Beach who, after learning these stats and hearing these stories in their own community, decided to do something about it. They got together and began to respond to the need. What started as a conversation led to a local event. Out of the event came the formation of meaningful relationships with girls from the foster care and probation systems and their caretakers, relationships that now allow these women to make a massive difference right where they are.

It’s not the whole answer—but it’s a great start.

When I saw what they had started, I knew it held the keys for many other communities as well. I know that the best world-changing ideas always start at the grassroots. And this is a grassroots response from heartbroken people who believe that God wants to reverse the curse of the foster girls in their city.

As I shared with others the horrifying statistics and the story of this amazing local response, people started to ask for details. How did they do it exactly? What happens at this “catalytic” event? How could our church do it?

This is Brave Global

A campaign that invites God’s people to reach out to the most vulnerable girls with a message of empowerment in every community across the Western world.

We know that this is only the beginning. But we also know that God has a plan to redeem everything. Every at-risk girl has a future and a hope that is bright with possibilities. God has dreamed and planned for them. We are going to be brave enough to tell them that and then to journey with them to fight for their freedom and their future. They aren’t the problem—they are the solution.

Wanna join? Ready to be brave?

DANIELLE STRICKLAND
Author
Speaker & Activist
Brave Global Co-Founder