Nestled in the peaceful countryside of the greater Harrisburg region, a new home for healing will soon be operational. Greenlight Operation opened the doors to this new restoration home to Bishop Timothy Senior recently, explaining its unique purpose – to support women who are looking to heal from the trauma of human trafficking.
The home will offer a unique, 12-18-month program designed to offer support for six women to heal from the trauma they suffered, while also supporting them to develop life skills so they can become independent.
“Part of the program is to holistically be healed and to gain some skills. We try to work through everyday living – How do you cook? How do you clean?” said Michelle Keadle-Taylor, residential program director for Greenlight Operation. “We also go into job skills. They will have individual goals.”
The home expects to open this fall with its first class of survivors. The home will offer a number of services to sex-trafficked survivors, including trauma-informed therapy, case management, life skills coaching, job readiness training, medical and dental care, driving lessons, substance abuse recovery and opportunities for ongoing education.
Jordan Pine, founder and CEO of Greenlight Operation, explained that over 700 volunteers have worked with the organization throughout the years to open the restoration home, which has been a blessing in getting it ready to open.
“The Dauphin County Human Trafficking Task Force through the DA’s Office came and volunteered,” she said.
As the first program of its kind in the region, Pine explained that one of the goals is to ensure the participants have the skills and healing they need so they don’t slip back into a trafficking situation.
“If that next phase doesn’t happen, you end up serving the same people over and over again. If they don’t get their needs addressed, they end up going back,” Pine said. “Our desire is how can we serve the six women in our care so we’ll never see them in a program again. So they are breaking the cycle of trauma.”
Pine explained that while the women coming to the program are out of immediate danger, they still have a long road ahead to find healing.
“Statistics show that 44% of traffickers are a family member. When they (the survivors) leave (the trafficking situation), especially if it was a family member, they don’t feel safe to return home,” said Pine. She shared a story about a woman who came to a service at a church where Pine was speaking. This woman was hanging around and Pine was able to speak with her. The woman disclosed she thought she was being trafficked. When Pine asked if she was safe, the woman said no, adding that her boyfriend, her trafficker, was also there. Once Pine was able to safely speak with this woman, she explained she worked at a gentleman’s establishment and wasn’t allowed to quit.
“On a slow night, she would service 10 men in a 24-hour period. On a weekend, it could be 30 to 40,” said Pine. “We’re talking about people that have had everything torn from them.”
Keadle-Taylor added that as a Christian organization, they hope “the women here will find their faith. We are His hands and feet. I feel that without even uttering a word, they can see that. As they identify what programs they want, we come alongside them. We’ll do everything we can to help them transition into a job, into education.”
Toward the end of his visit, Bishop Senior sat down with Pine and Keadle-Taylor to speak more about his vision for bringing light to the topic of human trafficking through his pastoral letter, “Setting Captives Free: A Pastoral Letter on Human Trafficking.”
“We need to be visibly living our faith, not just talking about it,” Bishop Senior said. “Living it is in some ways more powerful. It’s evangelization. That’s how the Church grew in the Acts of the Apostles.”
The bishop added that he is interested in collaboration and advocacy across organizations and that this is one topic that resonates across party lines.
“I think we need to be bringing people around this topic. It’s a significant issue,” said the bishop.
Pine added she once had someone tell her that “it was easier to get a little girl delivered to his house in Lancaster County on a Friday night than a pizza. That’s how prevalent it is.”
As the restorative home nears completion, Pine said there are still opportunities for people looking to get involved, whether through financial support or donating their time.
About Greenlight
Greenlight Operation’s mission is to “strategically combat human trafficking through educational initiatives and serve sex trafficked women through a continuum of restorative care.”
Greenlight offers human trafficking seminars, consults with frontline workers on how to identify and interact with survivors, advocates for state policies that will further prevent trafficking and operates the restorative home.
A privately funded operation, the majority of Greenlight’s programs are made possible through individual and business donations. To learn more about Greenlight Operation, visit their website at https://www.greenlightoperation.org/.
(Photos by Rachel Bryson, The Catholic Witness.)
By Rachel Bryson, The Catholic Witness
