BREAKING FREE

This is a 14 week, intensive education group that deconstructs prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation as a slave-based system. We discuss the impact prostitution has had on our lives, issues related to addiction and recovery, and recognizing red-flags of unhealthy people. We also offer self-soothing techniques and healing tools. This is survivor-led, closed group, open only to current participants.

This program involves on-going group meetings for women who have successfully completed Sisters of Survival. Topics include relationship issues, building self esteem, money management, healthcare, arts and crafts, etc.

This program offers training to women and girls to prepare them for the job market. It's offered in-houses so women don't feel ashamed for having to explain to yet another stranger why they have missing years on their resume and education history. Breaking Free works with HUBB to develop a customized curriculum and training instructors on the issue of human trafficking to make as smooth a transition as possible.

Breaking Free has two a seventeen unit apartment building located in St. Paul, MN staffed with advocates for continued case management and support. Single women and women with children can reside in this program for as long as they desire. Lack of adequate, safe housing affects sixty percent of Breaking Free's clientele.

A chemical dependency counselor from a local treatment center works closely with women in this group once a week to discuss and deal with chemical addiction issues.

One of the significant gaps in women's services is having on site psychological services and a multidisciplinary service team. Breaking Free is proactive at contracting with a psychologist for all women's programming. In addition, Breaking Free recognizes the importance of establishing a multidisciplinary team including a nutritionist, psychologist, CD counselor, etc.

Working with a nearby local health clinic, women in this group are offered physical examinations, appropriate lab testing, family planning services, and a variety of other essential medical services. As transportation is often a major barrier to health care, women are transported by the clinic's van at no cost. Breaking Free also provides education and information regarding HIV/AIDS and other STDs.

Breaking Free provides an emergency shelter with 4-private bedrooms and is staffed 24/7. This is a place where women and their children are able to stay short-term while they plan next steps. They work closely with their advocate to move toward their next goals in life.

Our drop in shelter is open 9-5, M-F. Women are encouraged to stop in, get a hot meal, clean clothes, take a shower, and a nap in one of our two beds. This is also a time to meet with their advocate, should they choose.

Men Breaking Free is a restorative justice program for people who have, or have tried to, purchase sex from another human. It is a court ordered, all day workshop the third Saturday of the month for first time offenders. Formerly known as "John School," MBF has taken a new approach. Rather than lecture, this is an open discussion where participants gain an increased awareness and understanding of the national, international and local community problem of men purchasing women to try to fulfill their sense of emptiness inside and anger they may feel toward women, as well as what really goes on before and after men purchase sex from women. They hear survivor testimony and learn intrinsic tools that will help them make healthier choices and become men living with integrity who choose not to purchase sex from another human being.