Human trafficking survivors, volunteers give back to other women through street outreach

A vicious cycle of human trafficking, addiction, and homelessness is plaguing women on Columbus streets. But some people are making it their mission to change that.

Since 2014 a non-profit group called Shining Starz has been devoted to providing immediate relief for women and meeting them where they are through street outreach.

As a survivor-led organization, women know firsthand how difficult it can be to access basic hygiene items and food.

Every Sunday, volunteers ride along with a trained driver to hand out hygiene bags, meals, and clothing to women on Sullivant Avenue and in the Linden area.

The meals are provided by volunteers and include a nutritious main course, vegetables, side dishes, fruit, chips, sweet treat, and bottled water.

On a recent Sunday, Kristin Cashman worked with a handful of women in her kitchen to put together a lasagna meal, and packed coats, gloves, scarves, and other clothing in bags to give out. The volunteers loaded up a red SUV and hit the streets in an area some call “The Bottoms.”

Barb Davis sat in the passenger seat calling out to women as they rolled down Sullivant Avenue and surrounding roads to see if they needed a bag.

“I was one of the girls who would get a bag,” Davis said. “For me, I was so grateful. I know I got a change of clothes. I would have a warm coat. For me, it's a way to give back because these girls out here are me.”

Davis said she walked the streets for 37 years.

“Most people tend to think that it is a choice,” she said. “They made that choice, they chose that lifestyle. And I can guarantee you not one single woman out here chose to do this. I was snatched by my first trafficker when I was 13. And within three hours he had me doing drugs, because it is a way of control.”

“Once these women are addicted they have to have it. And that gives the trafficker power over them.”

Cashman said the more people that they can get engaged the better.

“A lot of people if it doesn't happen in my backyard so it doesn't exist,” Cashman said. “We are there for the women, to let them know they are not forgotten, there is hope, that we can offer them a way out.”

The women stopped numerous times to give out bags and kind words.

“The girls won't have jackets on,” Cashman said. “Some of them won't have shoes on. They might have a bikini on. No underwear, so we are giving them all of those necessities.”

One of the women who said she is an addict said people stereotype them.

“If you haven't walked in someone's shoes you can't understand unless you have been through it,” she said.

“We are addicts,” she said. “And being an addict led us down the road of prostitution. None of us woke up one day and said oh I want to walk down Sullivant Avenue, the streets of the west side and sell my body.”

As night fell, the volunteers spotted an active police investigation about 100 yards from the CPD substation on Sullivant Avenue. The women learn one of their Shining Starz lost her life there, her body discovered in an abandoned car in a parking lot. But instead of dwelling on the darkness, they will look for light next Sunday.

Davis said she wants women to know they can overcome their addiction.

“My mission is to come out here and give them, supply them with what they need,” Davis said. “And let them know they are loved and they matter. And if they ever want a way out, we are here.”

For details on how to support the Shining Starz organization, click here.