New Friends New Life

For over 24 years, NFNL has upheld the mission of restoring and empowering formerly trafficked and sexually exploited women, teen girls, and their children. By providing access to mental healthcare, education, job training, interim financial aid, and spiritual support, NFNL helps women and their children overcome backgrounds of abuse, addiction, poverty, and limited opportunities.

Through our services, NFNL seeks to help more women and girls not only recover from histories of abuse and complex trauma, but gain the mental, tangible, and financial skills and resources to become independent members of our community and support their families. By addressing needs of adult and teen survivors, vulnerable girls, and their young children, we seek to break systemic cycles of poverty, abuse, and lack of resources that fuel the trafficking industry, creating accessible pathways out of further exploitation. Additionally, through widespread community advocacy engaging policy-makers, law enforcement, and other service providers in anti-trafficking efforts, we seek to create more informed advocates across industries who can attack sex trafficking from every angle and further support survivors’ needs. By maintaining services to help survivors heal and become independent and empowering a wide range of community members with knowledge and resources to advocate, we will realize our vision of a community where sex trafficking no longer thrives.

NFNL provides direct services to restore and empower survivors, including:
• Women’s Program helping adult survivors mentally recover from histories of abuse and exploitation and gain the skills and experience needed to support themselves independently.
• Youth Resource Center (YRC) restoring high-risk, exploited, and trafficked girls ages 12 – 24 through trauma-informed care. As a drop-in facility, the YRC provides counseling, case management, and guidance from Youth Mentors, adult graduates of our Women's Program, to help girls recover and reroute their life trajectories away from future exploitation.
• Adult Resource Center (ARC) provides technology access, basic computer and life-skills training, and vocational and job readiness preparation opportunities.
• Employment Partnership Program helps members transition into conventional employment, and partners with business in the North Texas area to transition members into entry-level, livable wage jobs with the goal of advancement and skill-building.
• Childcare Programming so mothers can attend educational classes, with capacity to facilitate children’s therapy when needed to help children of members who have PTSD from witnessing or being victims of abuse and exploitation.
- Recently debuted this September is our on-site Legal Advocacy Clinic as part of the new NFNL Legal Barrier Removal Project, providing our women, 70% of whom have a criminal record from acts they were forced to carry out while being exploited, with legal aid to help review criminal histories, create a legal action plan, lead cases on behalf of members, and maintain a Legal Advocacy Fund helping with fees associated with clearing criminal histories.

New Friends New Life actively engages in community education and advocacy through:
• The manKINDness™ Project, an interactive learning experience tailored for young men in middle school, high school, and college. Developed with input from clinical psychologists and child development experts, manKINDness workshops create open dialogues around valuing and respecting girls and women and educate young men on the harmful effects of derogatory language, disrespectful actions, viewing pornography, and other habits which fuel the exploitation and violence against women in the trafficking industry.
• The Men’s Advocacy Group (MAG), led by Dallas’ distinguished business and community leaders in partnership with New Friends New Life staff, who desire to be an active part of the solution to sex trafficking and exploitation. The Men’s Advocacy Group mobilizes local men to promote awareness and act against the sex trafficking and exploitation of women, girls, and children.
• Sex Trafficking Awareness Excursions, sponsored by MAG members, are guided educational charter bus tours exposing the reality of sex trafficking in Dallas. Attendees make firsthand observations of possible sex trafficking and exploitation activity while discussing real trafficking cases worked by Dallas Law enforcement.

NFNL has 24 years of experience providing evidence-based mental healthcare, safety, economic security, and more to help women and girls reach their full potential. NFNL addresses the full spectrum of challenges faced by women and girls who have been sexually trafficked or exploited, meeting basic needs like access to food and shelter, supporting mental recovery from significant trauma, and teaching skills for economic security and long-term employment. We help survivors become full participants in their own lives and in society.

NFNL remains committed to using intentional, evidence-based tools like Dialectal Behavior Therapy and “Skills to Pay the Bills” curricula to help members overcome trauma and learn effective financial skills. We maintain a self-paced program model to ensure all women see long-term success. While 100% of direct programming serves women and girls due to the nature of the trafficking industry, we do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression, or any other protected characteristic, and members are aware of our non-discrimination policies and their rights as clients. We may defer a member from our program is if she displays clear and present danger to herself or others, has cognitive levels requiring 24/7 assistance, or needs inpatient treatment for substance abuse; in those cases we would connect her to treatment rather than turning her away from our doors.

By addressing the entire spectrum of needs for survivors and girls who are vulnerable to becoming trafficked and ensuring each member achieves long-term, sustainable employment, NFNL breaks the systemic hold of sex trafficking on its victims. As we provide our members with the tools to support themselves, we lower their risk of returning to the sex trade out of financial desperation or emotional coercion. NFNL members become empowered through mental recovery and skill-building, realizing their worth and ability to contribute to society. Many members have become empowered advocates in the anti-trafficking sector and several work at our Youth Resource Center to educate and support vulnerable girls and prevent future trafficking. We also advocate for policies affecting our members, participating in round-table discussions on legislation like the Abolish Human Trafficking Act and hosting the Office of the Governor for signing bills impacting trafficking in Texas. The sustainable growth we foster in members, preventative work we facilitate with vulnerable youth, and advocacy for long-term change make us uniquely capable for the services we provide.

For 24 years, thousands of women, girls, and their children have received restorative services, education, and skills training needed to become successful and avoid future exploitation. Recent accomplishments at New Friends New Life include:

1. Opening the Youth Resource Center in 2018 in partnership with The Office of the Governor; the YRC is now the only teen drop-in center of its kind in Dallas and one of less than ten in the state of Texas.
2. Serving 240 adult women in the first year of our newly reformatted, four-phase Women's Program, experiencing a 90% growth in new membership.
3. Hosted Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the summer of 2019 to sign five bills into law, including three specifically targeting sex trafficking, both cracking down on traffickers and supporting survivors and service agencies.

As we move forward, we will continue operating under our strategic pillars of Empower, Educate, Eradicate, and Expand. An immediate goal at NFNL is to continue expanding our capacity to serve more women, girls, and children after seeing dramatic program growth in 2019. This expansion will not only allow us to serve more survivors, but meet our goals of continuing to Empower all women and girls who walk through our doors to live the independent lives they deserve. Regarding the goals of Educate and Eradicate, we are creating more strategic partnerships across industries to further address the prevention of trafficking. Recent partnerships include American Airlines and G6 Hospitality, covering two of the main industries directly affected by human trafficking. NFNL will engage directly with staff from these entities through training staff to recognize the warning signs of human trafficking and how to safely proceed, as well as utilizing their national networks to spread information, empowering everyday people to join us in taking a Stand for Her to end human trafficking.