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Mitch Davidson

Mitch Davidson

Loan Officer
Movement Mortgage
NMLS ID # 1801433
84 Coxe Ave, Ste 1A & 1B, Asheville, NC 28801
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Movement grants $10,000 to help sex trafficking survivors

By: Movement Staff
February 22, 2017

For the second time in as many months, Eric Lee's daughter was gone.

The 15-year-old girl had already run away from home once, disappearing for an entire weekend.

This time, she vanished for nearly a week. 

Movement grants $10,000 to help sex trafficking survivors
Eric Lee

"It's a father's nightmare," says Lee, a Movement Mortgage market leader in Scottsdale, Ariz. He scoured the city for his daughter, haunted by statistics that identify Arizona as a hotbed for human trafficking. He worried she would meet the wrong person and be lost to him forever.

“Those four days she was gone were the worst days of my life,” Lee says. “Thank God nothing happened.”

The girl was found safe at the mall. That was two years ago. Today, Lee's daughter is 17 and about to graduate high school. And though Lee says things are "95 percent better," the prospect that he could have lost his daughter to human traffickers still troubles him.

That's why he asked the Movement Foundation to give $10,000 to Where Hope Lives, a Phoenix-based nonprofit that rescues human sex trafficking survivors and provides them with housing, food and medical care.

Movement grants $10,000 to help sex trafficking survivors
Where Hope Lives operates within the Phoenix Dream Center, a nonprofit that provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to the homeless and downtrodden. The group's clients live in “dream rooms” that are customized to meet their needs. Photo courtesy of Where Hope Lives.

Where Hope Lives is the February winner of the Movement 10k Giveaway, an ongoing campaign to give $10,000 to organizations, nonprofits and charities significant to Movement employees. Movement team members submit a 30-second video nomination explaining how an organization brings life, light and hope to those in need. A committee picks a winner each month.

Since its founding in 2008, Where Hope Lives has sheltered more than 400 female victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation between the ages of 14 and 26, says Brian Steele, executive director of the Phoenix Dream Center, which runs Where Hope Lives.

Today, the nonprofit shelters 40 to 50 women at a time and places them in a four-phase program that helps them heal after their ordeals until they can confidently reenter the community. It also offers classes focusing on anger management, parenting and substance abuse recovery.

"It's all about building a new foundation from where they were before," says program director Konstance Smith.

Movement grants $10,000 to help sex trafficking survivors
Clients at Where Hope Lives after graduating from the nonprofit's four-phase recovery program. Photo courtesy of Where Hope Lives.

Data from a 2016 Arizona State University study shows that 17 is the average age of youth entering the sex trade in that state. Studies differ but several suggest the age of entry nationwide is between 13 and 15.

"There's a misconception that people get involved in prostitution and it's their choice," Smith says. "For almost every single person involved, it wasn't their choice. It was either force or coercion that got them there."

Federal funds cover about 15 percent of Where Hope Lives' operating costs. The rest come from donations. Steele and Smith hope to use the Movement grant to either help construct new rooms or bolster the therapeutic counseling their clients need to recover emotionally.

Smith says a grant like Movement's can help the women get out and enjoy fun activities, such as a trip to the water park or a sporting event.

Author: Movement Staff

The Market Update is a weekly commentary compiled by a group of Movement Mortgage capital markets analysts with decades of combined expertise in the financial field. Movement's staff helps take complicated economic topics and turn them into a useful, easy to understand analysis to help you make the best decisions for your financial future.

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Mitch Davidson
Mitch Davidson
Loan Officer
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84 Coxe Ave, Ste 1A & 1B, Asheville, NC 28801
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NMLS # 1801433

State License #AL-90927, AZ, FL-LO83854, GA-1801433, NC-I-186399, SC-MLO-1801433, TN-1801433, VA-MLO-71954VA