Center for Safety & Change helps human trafficking victims in New York, New Jersey
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Center for Safety & Change helps victims of human trafficking in New York and New Jersey.
"The knife was impaled in my back and they rushed me to Jacobi Hospital," said Sharon Winston, survivor.
In the summer of 2011, as Sharon Winston was leaving church in Mount Vernon, her then ex-boyfriend tried to kill her and stabbed her with such force the knife broke off in her chest.
Her attacker went to prison but when he got out this past July, authorities told her, she had to move.
"It was a very uncomfortable time and just trying to get me away from the situation because we didn't know at that moment what state of mind he would be in," Winston said.
She is now staying at an undisclosed location with the help of CEO Elizabeth Santiago and her team at the Center for Safety & Change.
The nonprofit opened its doors in 1979, with a hotline and shelter for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.
"Our shelter is a 15-bed shelter and by the end of the day, 11 beds filled, and our hotlines have not stopped running ever since," Santiago said.
Over time, the organization's scope has widened, for more than a decade providing critical services to victims of human trafficking, both sex and labor.
Santiago told Eyewitness News that the most vulnerable group is girls between the ages of 14 and 18, pointing out often times the abuser is not the victim's intimate partner.
Children who have been in the welfare system, foster care, or runaway youth are many times affected.
It can be someone they know who's being trafficked themselves that lures them in.
The organization is the only victim-centered nonprofit in Rockland County, which is considered the hub of trafficking because of its location, sandwiched between New York and New Jersey.
They saw a spike in 2014 after a major event in our area.
"The Super Bowl happens to be the third largest trafficking event. People being coerced, come on we can go to see the Super Bowl, have fun, parties," she said.
After the Super Bowl, a task force was put in place made up of local and federal agencies.
Through partnerships with businesses like Goya's humanitarian arm, Goya Cares, Santiago hopes to break, what for some, seems like an endless cycle of abuse.
"The problem is a societal problem, that has to be addressed," she said. "The more people that know, the fewer people this will happen to and that is the ultimate goal."
To learn more or to get assistance, you can call the center's 24-hour hotline and mobile text, 845-634-3344 and 845-286-4997.
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