The Landing

The Landing currently has 4 main goals that support our overall mission:

1) Increase Identification - The Landing focuses on increasing victim identification through various outreach and intervention techniques in order to connect with victims and provide the support they need.

2) Empower Survivors - Our desire is to empower survivors on their journey. We do this by working with each client to build an individualized action plan to accomplish personal goals. Case managers and survivors work together to develop small action steps and create safety plans to increase the chances of success.

3) Engage Communities - As an organization, The Landing cannot fight human trafficking alone. By engaging communities to join the fight, our goal of serving survivors is exponentially increased. We provide awareness presentations, attend events, conduct outreach to local businesses, and initiate partnerships with churches, law enforcement, service providers, and more! Together we can accomplish much more.

4) Influence Culture - We see human trafficking as a human rights violation, public health crisis, and issue of the heart. Our current culture often helps perpetuate the evil of trafficking, so we believe our culture needs to be positively influenced and changed. This is done through advocating for various laws that will help in the fight against trafficking, as well as helping expose the negative influences that currently exist. We see a need to help accurately educate much of our culture on the topic of human trafficking in order to help change perspectives on demand, victimization, and more.

Our strategies for accomplishing these goals are as follows:

1) Increase Identification - street outreach & intervention, online outreach, continued collaboration with law enforcement, continued and new partnerships with service providers who also serve our population, increased marketing to potential clients & the community as a whole

2) Empower Survivors - continued intensive case management, counseling, the Empowerment Program, the Mentorship Program, classes offered at the drop-in center

3) Engage Communities - awareness presentation to the community, events, partnerships with churches, service projects for volunteers and community groups to get involved, social media

4) Influence Culture - advocating for legislation that has an impact on the human trafficking field, educating professionals about human trafficking, initiating conversations with people in power about the topic and positively influencing perspectives

The Landing has been providing services through the drop-in center for five years on a nationally known hotspot or “track” for prostitution and human trafficking – the Bissonnet Corridor in Southwest Houston. The Landing has served over 700 survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. We believe our growth is due to an increase of outreach to potential victims, current clients spreading the word to other victims, and collaboration with outside organizations. Individuals have been referred to us through The City of Houston’s Anti-Trafficking Office, Ben Taub Hospital, Bee Busy, The Houston Police Department, The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and The District Attorney’s Office.

We are confident that the drop-in center model is successful in identifying and serving victims. The strength of the quality and professional services we offer at the drop-in center lies in the experienced staff and strong partnerships. We have visited over 15 similar drop-in centers around the United States and even one in Australia to learn about their set up, best practices, and failures. This gave us varying perspectives on how to approach the drop-in center model. Our staff has attended numerous conferences and trainings to network with other anti-trafficking leaders to learn how to better serve victims, even though we believe each staff member is well-educated and experienced to effectively serve survivors.

The Landing opened the first and only drop-in center for survivors of human trafficking in Houston. In the past five years of operation, we have served over 700 survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

In 2020 The Landing also launched a Youth Advocacy program to address the need for increased services for minor and youth victims of trafficking in Houston. We provide 24/7 crisis response to youth in crisis throughout Harris and the surrounding counties.