Project Destiny
Your Destiny Matters Here
The Virtuous Woman Inc. understands the correlation in young girls between the ages of 10-24 from going into Prisons and the Juvenile Justice System. The VWI addresses Runaways, Homelessness, Human Sex Trafficking,
Domestic Violence and Foster Care, Project Destiny has a runaway support group and provides proper information of services, Project Destiny Home of Hope (Specialized Recovery Home for Victims of Human Sex Trafficking ages 12-18 years old), a 13 week curriculum workshop with The Butterfly Journey, Vocational Training and Transitional Housing, 10 Steps to Recovery from Trauma of Addictive Behaviors of Human Sex Trafficking and Transitional Housing.
Domestic Violence and Foster Care, Project Destiny has a runaway support group and provides proper information of services, Project Destiny Home of Hope (Specialized Recovery Home for Victims of Human Sex Trafficking ages 12-18 years old), a 13 week curriculum workshop with The Butterfly Journey, Vocational Training and Transitional Housing, 10 Steps to Recovery from Trauma of Addictive Behaviors of Human Sex Trafficking and Transitional Housing.
Bringing 9 years of community outreach and hands-on advocacy experience to the Los Angeles County and the Superior Court Systems. We answered “The Clarion Call” by providing informational workshops and seminars conducted with the faith- based community and non-profit organizations focused on the crisis and epidemic of human trafficking and homeless youth. We offer several different mentoring programs for participants to have access to mental health services, life skills, financial literacy and health and wellness. It is the intent of The VWI through Project Destiny to change family structures to a positive and loving environment by assisting families with counseling, rape prevention, lifestyle skills, employment, food programs, vocational training, job training and a safe trusting environment.
The VWI through Project Destiny believe we have to start in our own local communities:
The average age of runaway, homeless females ranges from 11yrs to18 yrs. old.TAY’s Ages 18-25
Interviews with Runaways without families are looking for love and safety anyway they can find it and feel safe.
90% of Homeless Kids/TAY will become addicted to some form of drug and/or alcohol substance.
70% of these are forced in gangs, human trafficking and prostitution
The VWI goals to rebuild and reintegrate these youth back into society. Our programs and collaborative relationships will bring positive structure and communication within all of the South LA demographic area. Partnerships formed with several emergency shelters, transitional housing, LAPD, and Los Angeles
County Sheriff to assist with detention of these victims & we are in process of opening housing for homeless TAY. Our programs will bring positive structure and communication with South Los Angeles and other demographic areas. To date, we have established several new relationships with community leaders, public
officials and public service agencies by gaining the proper information needed to help participants began the first steps in the right direction and build productive citizenship.
12 to 14 years old
*twelve to fourteen is the average age that victims enter into sex trafficking.
Where were you at fourteen years old?
Were you focused on school, making friends, spending time with family, and looking forward to the future?
Or were you worrying if you were going to make it home alive each night, forced into sex for money, sold from one
pimp to another, physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, with no hope for the future? These tragic scenarios are
what thousands of girls face here in Los Angeles County, all before their eighteenth birthday.
Los Angeles has the most trafficking victims in the country because of the diverse communities that make up the sprawling city, making it easier for victims to remain in the shadows.
Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, especially victims of abuse, runaways, and the homeless.
Most traffickers were an intimate partner of the victim, exploiting their trust.
Enter project destiny.
We have been working for more than a decade to get children off the streets, and back to being teenagers.
We mostly serve young women, but also increasingly work with young men and those who identify as transgender.
Though victims can come from any background, 80% of our current mentees are African-American.
Most are from California, but others came from as far away as the East Coast.
Less than 10% were forced into trafficking; most were coerced by their peers or a partner.
At Project Destiny, we have two main goals. First and foremost, we help victims of sex trafficking regain con-
trol of their own destinies. We do this by working toward our second goal: to bridge the gap between com-
munities, law enforcement, and faith-based organizations. It is when these three groups work together that
we will be able to restore our neighborhoods and offer hope to our young people.
Though we have a strong spiritual foundation rooted in Christianity, Project Destiny works across all reli-
gions and backgrounds to create awareness and resources for victims of child sex trafficking in Los Angeles.
Our motto is
RESPOND
We are Certified First Responders for the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department.
When a trafficking victim is identified, we are notified – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
From there, we take the victim out of their current environment, and into a safe space.
RECOVER
The first step in recovery is to establish a new routine, filled with positive influences.
Our goal is to reunite victims with their families, or establish them in a new living situation.
Home of Hope, a residential treatment center with beds for 12 girls.
REBUILD
The rebuilding process begins with a series of 13 mandatory, once-a-week courses.
This course aims to help victims rebuild their self-esteem and discover their purpose.
Participants are assigned a mentor who helps them navigate their new life, off the streets.
Through community outreach we hope to increase awareness of child sex trafficking, and show trafficking is
happening right here in our neighborhoods. In addition to training church leaders as educators and activists,
we work to educate officers and first responders that these young people are not criminals but victims, and we
advocate with local government to enact social change at the policy level.
We are building an above-ground railroad, creating a wide-reaching network of support throughout our city.
Join us. Help us help them learn how to be fourteen again.
