Latisha's House Earns Safe House Certification Silver Award | Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

WILLIAMSBURG — Latisha's House, a Virginia-based residential home providing therapeutic and restorative services to survivors of trafficking, was on Sept. 9 awarded a silver level of certification from the National Safe House Certification, provided by the Safe House Project.

Latisha's House provides a long-term, transitional housing program for adult, female survivors of sex trafficking and offers individualized support to empower them to build a bridge from their traumatic past to a positive future, according to a press release.

Through the Safe House Certification process, Latisha's House's transitional residential program and long-term residential program were evaluated in the categories of management, governance, financials, and operations established standards, it said. Through this six-stage certification process, including final determinations made by a third-party certification review board composed of industry experts, the programs were found to be providing excellent care based on best practices established through empirical research and survivor input.

According to Safe House Project, organizations receiving a silver certification are offering services that meet many industry best practices and demonstrate a commitment to serving survivors with high-quality programming and working toward continuous improvement in their standards of care. Certification is intended to not only evaluate organizations, but also indicate to survivors, placement agencies, and law enforcement which organizations offer strong programming for support during their healing journey.

“Latisha's House has shown that they are committed to transparency and growth throughout certification. As a survivor of trafficking, I am grateful for organizations like theirs that provide services to survivors who have inequitable access to services. Their devotion to advancement and care for the underserved has shown brightly during this process” said Alia Dewees, Safe House Project Director of Aftercare Development.

Safe House Project is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) combatting domestic sex trafficking by increasing victim identification of trafficked individuals through survivor-informed training, supporting victims in their escape, and increasing the number of restorative care opportunities for child trafficking victims, according to the release.

“As someone who works alongside healthcare networks, educational institutions, business leaders, and law enforcement in Virginia to increase survivor identification, it is critical that we have safe house programs that can provide high quality programming to survivors,” Brittany Dunn, Safe House Project's Co-Founder & COO said.

“Latisha's House offers survivors an opportunity to not just receive a warm bed and hot meal, but a therapeutic environment where they can start to dream again and feel supported in achieving those dreams,” she added. “With no-certified safe house programs in Hampton Roads, we are grateful to be able to have this resource up the peninsula.”

More information on Latisha's House and the Safe House Project can before found on the program's online platforms.