OUR PROGRAMS
Economic empowerment is at the core of our strategy. We invest heavily in providing the support and resources needed for survivors to attain economic empowerment. In Hampton Roads, that usually begins with the provision of safe shelter.
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All of our programming uses an Intensive Community Treatment model.
RENTAL ASSISTANCE
Our rental assistance program uses a scattered site model that empowers participants to make successful transitions into permanent, market-rate housing. We use private rental agencies to provide the housing and use individual donations and grant funding to lease units. Housing subsidies can be provided for up to 12 months.
Each client assists staff with developing an individualized service plan that best fits their needs. Participants leaving the program are provided an aftercare plan that includes continued supportive services for at lease six months and in some cases longer after discharge. The Transition in Place program works with female, male or transgender survivors who are 18 years old and older, exiting jail, homeless, single, pregnant and/or parenting.
TRAUMA INFORMED EMPLOYMENT
Survivor Ventures partners with small business owners to create unique employment opportunities. Partners are carefully vetted and selected based on a criteria developed to ensure a trauma-informed environment. This program involves on-site job coaching and intensive community treatment.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
AND EDUCATION
We provide stipends so that survivors can afford to take advantage of existing vouchers and scholarships to complete job skills and vocational training programs.
SUPPORTIVE EMPLOYMENT
Survivor Ventures harnesses the natural talents of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation and redirects them towards self employment and the creation of legal business ventures.
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Survivor Ventures employment program participants can obtain additional training in business and retail operations, equipping them to open their own business or store.
Through this program participants create a vetted business plan and are connected to local entrepreneurial resources, accelerators and incubators to gain access to co-working spaces, business seed grants and loans.
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT
We realized that there was a huge gap in supportive services for survivors to access mental health services and alternative healing modalities. Many survivors experience complex trauma along with the barriers they face.
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Our partners provide talk therapy, breathwork, and many other supportive services to our mentees so they can rebuild their relationship to themselves, and gain invaluable skills to better cope with the symptoms of complex trauma and other mental health struggles in a healthy way.
