Ali's Story
We partner with Pathfinders to support homeless youth at risk of trafficking. Their Youth Advisory Board in Milwaukee, Wisconsin gives survivors a leadership opportunity and chance to give insight into services they believe are the most impactful. Your advocacy & donations during Dressember not only help to provide rescue & aftercare but also to keep at-risk populations from being trafficked in the first place. Learn more about our partnerships here.
At 18, Ali* got an eviction notice. Three days to pay, or her stuff would be put out on the curb and the locks changed.
For Ali, this eviction notice represented facing housing instability again. It represented a painful hit to her credit score that she’d been working to build. It represented the possibility of having to rely again on an exploitative street economy to meet her basic needs. It represented a major potential roadblock in her journey to stability and healing.
Pathfinders has been privileged to know Ali for years. She is an incredibly warm, hilarious, and thoughtful young woman. They first met her as a young teen through street outreach and were able to build a trusting, supportive relationship with her in her neighborhood. Her independence and openness always stood out to the outreach team.
In a time of crisis when she was 16, Ali knew she could turn to Pathfinders’ Youth Shelter and stay there instead of in an unsafe situation. As Ali started to feel more and more comfortable with staff at the Shelter, she began to open up about the exploitation that she had been experiencing related to her housing instability. That’s when she started engaging intensively with Pathfinders’ New Paths Advocates, who provide specialized resources for youth who are experiencing sexual exploitation.
New Paths Advocates stood alongside Ali as she identified needing help navigating the criminal justice system and testifying in court about her experiences. Advocates were there to help with systems coordination, to make sure Ali knew her rights, and sometimes simply to sit in the car for hours and talk about how she was feeling. Ali and her Advocate also started working on her personally identified goals, like learning how to budget, build her credit, and communicate about what she needs with people in her life. She started going on interviews and secured a temporary job that supported her to move into her own independent apartment as she turned 18.
But when that temporary employment ended, and the end of the next month came and went without another job coming through, the eviction notice was placed on Ali’s door.
Thanks to our partnership with Pathfinders, they were able to provide crisis prevention assistance to Ali and individuals like her. The young people that Pathfinders works with rarely have linear stories.
Maintaining stability is difficult, especially for young people who have experienced the significant traumas associated with sexual exploitation. As important as empowering young people to heal and move forward from trauma is, it’s equally essential to provide crisis assistance in difficult moments to help youth maintain a strong foundation of safe, stable housing.
Preventing Ali’s eviction with an emergency rent payment meant that she was able to continue to focus on seeking employment opportunities that would strengthen her platform of stability. And that job was right around the corner - Ali now has an amazing job where her income and transportation are steady.
Her Advocate shares, “I’ve never seen that young lady smile as much as she did when she got that job.” Ali’s continually checking her credit score, working on budgeting, and giving of herself to people around her. Ali is proud of her independence and all of the ways she is building the life she wants for herself.
*Name and photo has been changed to protect the identity of the survivor