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Jackson home to new sex trafficking shelter – The Jackson Sun

Despite a glaring sun and often oppressive humidity last week, one corner of Jackson was full of energy and high spirits as crews with the charity organization Eight Days of Hope worked to build the city's newest shelter for victims.

At an undisclosed address, a crew of about 25 workers beat the heat with laughter and gospel music as they framed the 5-bedroom facility for the Scarlet Rope Project, a Jackson faith-based nonprofit that works with victims throughout West Tennessee.

“We're so excited about this,” said Julanne Stone, executive director of the Scarlet Rope Project, as she stood on the newly-constructed front porch.

“God, prayer and hard work has really helped bring this together.”

‘A lot of addiction and trauma'

The Scarlet Rope Project began in 2015 and provides long-term residential shelter — from 18-24 months — for female victims of sex trafficking. So far, they've served 42 women in Jackson and hundreds more with outreach efforts.

“They come with only the clothes on their back,” Stone said. “We don't need insurance or anything like that. We provide housing, medical care, stuff like that. Our big thing Is mental . We know there's a lot of addiction and trauma in these situations, so we have trauma therapists that are on staff that we contract out. Our main mission is for them to work on their trauma, and we provide a safe place for them to be able to do that.”

“We believe in the power of Jesus and a good therapist,” she laughed.

The new shelter will take the place of Scarlet Rope Project's previous downtown shelter, which could only house five women at a time and did not have space for a full-time staff.

“We knew we wanted to build a better facility soon, and after COVID-19, it just felt like the right time,” Stone said. “This new home will provide us some office space, as well as double our capacity. We'll house about 9 women here, as well as a full-time staff.”

The location will have five double-bedrooms, five bathrooms, a continuing education computer lab, art room, and more.

“We want it to feel like a home,” Stone said. “We want these women to know it's their home.”

Adam Hanes, a worker with Eight Days of Hope, felt just as passionately and thought the project fit right in with the organization's mission statement.

The nonprofit got its start in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Hanes said.

“A father called a son in Buffalo, New York, and said ‘Let's got to Mississippi and help people,' and they ended up taking 684 people on the first trip,” he said. “Since then, we've done 17 rebuilding trips, on which we've rebuilt thousands of homes after natural disasters (and) done $30 million-plus of work, all for .

“We've never charged anyone for our services.”

A place for help, hope

The organization started the safehouse construction ministry in 2019, and that's when Hanes said he found his calling. He went to work full-time.

“Human trafficking is something near and dear to my heart,” he said. “We're all made in the image of God, so nobody deserves to be treated like something to be purchased.”

Contractors and builders from more than eight states joined Hanes on site for the Scarlet Rope Project build, each working to build the facility for free.

“This is a new niche type of shelter,” Stone said. “We're really (distinguishing) sex trafficking victims from domestic violence victims. Because it does have specific trauma to it that we want to address.”

Stone said a major part of the project's mission was educating the public.

“It's not like the movie, Taken,” she said. “We know a lot of the women that come through here were in trafficking situations that they didn't even self-identify. They didn't even realize what they were in…We have it here in Jackson. It's not just Memphis and Nashville.”

The name of the organization, itself, is its own message, Stone says. The symbol of the scarlet rope alludes to the Biblical tale of Rahab, a prostitute in the city of Nineveh who aided two spies sent by the Lord to destroy the city. In return for her help, she was instructed to secretly hang a scarlet rope out her window so she and her family would be spared.

Much like Rahab's home, the new shelter will be a secret space that is safe from harm, Stone said.

“As you go through the Bible, you see her name in the lineage of Christ,” she added. “We want the women to know that despite their history and what they've been put through, we're all in the lineage of Christ.”

Fundraising for the new facility is continuing.

The organization has paid about half the costs so far, Stone said, noting that plans call for the shelter to open in November.

“We use private grants only, as well as church and individual support,” she said. “We don't take any state or federal money.”

Hanes said he appreciated the group's efforts in the community and pleaded for churches to become part of such programs.

“Find ways to help this ministry, and ministries like it, that are doing this good work,” he said. “Stop ignoring the problem and do something about it.”

Scarlet Rope is accepting donations and volunteers to aid in their mission. For more information, visit scarletropeproject.com.

Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at [email protected], by phone at 731-343-5212, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham. 

This article is pulled “as is” from the “human trafficking.”

 

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from a Google Alert for “human trafficking.”

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