Survivor Leadership
Alabaster Jar Project's mission is to empower survivors of trafficking, but perhaps what sets us apart from other organizations is our goal to someday be fully survivor-led and operated. We firmly believe that the best person to help new survivors is someone who has overcome exploitation themselves and is now settled on their path in recovery. As it stands, 70% of our staff are survivors themselves.
We have received feedback from many Grace House Residents that seeing survivors in professional roles all throughout their recovery team makes one more confident in their own recovery. As you can imagine, it is inspiring to see someone overcome what you are working through and go on to have careers and happy lives. Grace House Residents can truly believe that recovery is possible, as they see many diferent examples in their day-to-day program.
Being survivor-led does not come without its own share of challenges. Most survivors come into recovery with complex PTSD, an invisible illness that can cause panic attacks, intrusive memories, paranoia, hypervigilance, and stress management issues. What is worse is that many survivors have never had positive employment experiences, which can leave them exposed to more vulnerabilities than other young professionals may experience. However, it is clear to us that being a survivor of exploitation also brings its own set of strengths! Survivor leaders at AJP are all resilient problem-solvers, who are particularly empathetic to the needs of new survivors. We take their strengths as professionals and build upon them with careful supervision and 40 hours of required training provided by the Office for Victims of Crime, a nationally recognized organization. The end result is that we provide a clear pathway out of exploitation, not just for those served at Grace House, but for those serving Grace House, and hopefully many more to come.
We believe in survivor employment so strongly that we have been working hard at creating a social enterprise where survivors at Grace House can gain positive employment history and experience while they are mastering their recovery. This program focus is small, but growing. You can shop our line of bath and body products at: alabasterjarproject.org/shop Empowering survivors takes many helping hands and a variety of areas of expertise. We are very proud of our team of survivor professionals! Not only do they make our organization unique-they make it stronger. To support survivor employment, please visit our website.
