SWHT Special Guest Survivor Advocate Dan Emr

 This podcast episode features Dan Emr, founder and executive director of Worthwhile, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping survivors of human trafficking rebuild their lives. Dan shares how he left a successful engineering career after learning about human trafficking and feeling called to make a difference. 

The discussion focuses on Worthwhile's holistic approach to survivor care, which includes: 

·        Community outreach and trauma education through the Worth It program. 

·        Long-term housing where survivors can safely heal and rebuild their lives. 

·        Employment opportunities through Worthwhile's thrift stores, helping survivors gain job skills and financial independence. 

·        Prevention programs in schools, including the Words of Worth initiative, which teaches children about their value, healthy relationships, and recognizing unsafe behavior. 

Dan shares several powerful success stories of survivors who overcame addiction, homelessness, trauma, and exploitation to reunite with their families, build careers, and regain hope. He emphasizes that healing is a long-term journey and that addressing trauma, building healthy relationships, and restoring a person's sense of worth are essential to lasting recovery. 

The episode concludes with information on how listeners can support Worthwhile through volunteering, financial donations, school partnerships, and awareness initiatives, while encouraging communities to play an active role in preventing human trafficking and supporting survivors. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome back to the secret world of human trafficking. I'm your host, David J. Story. I'm also the author of the Omega book series. And today we have a special guest. Let's go ahead and hear what they have to say. I want to welcome today Dan Emmer. Go ahead and give us a little idea about who you are and your background.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yeah. Thank you, David. It's uh it's a pleasure to join you. And thanks for pronouncing that weird last name correctly, because that's like just something I've had to live with. But you you said it right. I appreciate that. But yeah, I'm Dan Emmer.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah. I'm the founder and executive director of uh organization called Worthwhile, uh, our website's worthwhile.org. And we serve survivors of human trafficking. And so, you know, this today I'd love to share with you kind of how I got into where I am, because I think oftentimes people are like, well, who who's who's in called to do this work, or who should be doing this work? And I'm just like anybody else, you know, I often share with people when I speak at conferences, I'm the least qualified person there. And so, you know, my background is not in social work, is not in in in trauma therapy, but it's something I felt called to do. And uh yeah, an interesting life path to get me to where I am today and things along the way that kind of helped steer me. Um, but happy to share that with you today.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Okay. Well, uh, tell us a little bit uh about your history and and then uh go into you know what does worthwhile do.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah. So I am my history, you know, part of a lot of times people ask, well, how did you get into this? And uh the reality is I wasn't seeking this out. I um was more or less pursuing the American dream, right? Which is uh go get a really good job. So I was working for an engineering firm out of out of s out of college, married at the time, you know, with two young kids, and uh pursuing that American dream of, you know, get a good job, make lots of money, buy lots of stuff, and then you'll be happy, at least is what we're told. And so instead, for me, like I started going down that path, but I I learned about human trafficking yeah, back in 2010. And I was I was just kind of stunned to realize that people were being exploited, and uh ultimately led me to to quit my job, which you know, you can only imagine my wife was thrilled when I came home and said, Hey, this job that's afforded us a house in Florida, a house in Pennsylvania, you know, you could stay home and raise our two kids, that's gone now. So I I kid, she was not thrilled, it was more like, wow, we've been talking about this, but you actually did it. But the reality is I I felt called to do something like this. And yeah, the reason partly in that too is um a lot of times people say, well, that was crazy. And I would say, yeah, from the world standpoint, that career move was not a great career move, right? From the world standpoint, it's like you know, you you're making good money to leaving that, willingly leaving that to making no money. Um, but then I also share with people I kind of had in my my back had this card in my back pocket to play, which was my upbringing. And that was really my parents, you know, they set the set the bar high in the sense of you know, growing up as a kid outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I hit the lottery, you know, as a kid. I we had 18 acres of land, we had ponds, I could go fishing, fishing for catfish and and bass. We had an in-ground pool, we had dirt bikes to go riding around, you know, and I had it zip lined, all these things. I was the youngest of four. And one day my parents just called us in. And my, you know, my dad he worked for Prudential Financial. Uh, my mom is an ICU nurse, and they uh called us in at age 12, you know, me with my three older siblings, they shared, you know, all this stuff's fun, and we're glad we can have you, you know, enjoy this, but it's not really what's important. And then they began to kind of explain to uh my siblings and I how they felt called to leave behind what they had to go and help a country that was now free. And so at the age of 12, I saw my parents give up everything and uh we moved to Ukraine. And so I grew up from the age of 12 to 18 in Ukraine. And when they first explained this to me, all I was accustomed to is every year we'd go to the white sandy beaches of Cancun, Mexico. So my 12-year-old mind, I'm like, sure, sign me up. We're gonna go to the white sandy beaches of Ukraine. I was a little mis mistaken on that because it was not quite that way. But we instead grew up on, I grew up on a uh a dirt street, which is often oftentimes a muddy street because it was, you know, not paved. And at the end of, you know, the road about 500 feet from my house was a meat processing factory. So that only you know smelled wonderful on hot summer days. But I I look at what my parents did, and what I saw in their own life is when you invest in people, you you reap the benefits of that. You find purpose, you find a calling, and you are able to find fulfillment in what your life is really meant for. And so, you know, flash forward many years later, I had started down my own career path, and I was it was really I was sitting in church, and uh this young couple came in and was shared about human trafficking and the work they were doing. And uh they were doing this work in Cambodia, and I just I just sat there, I could not imagine that people were being exploited, people were being uh treated as if they were a commodity to be exchanged as a product. And it really just it was a burden on my heart. And I remember I went right up to that couple afterwards, they were a young couple, and I just said, I want to help you however I can. And they had started their work uh in Cambodia under this this other organization, and they were helping, you know, these women by giving them employment through making apparel, making clothing. So I pulled my brother in on this, and we gave them like an order for 2,500 shirts uh so they'd have employment for the ladies, they'd also have income. Uh, but at the ninth hour, that whole organization shut down, not to the fault of the young couple, but the organization shut down. Then I was left with that decision, like what do I do? And so, you know, a lot of times it's kind of you feel like we often will say, I can't, you know, I can't make this step, I can't make this commitment, I can't make this change because either it's the timing's not right, I have young kids, you know, there's no money in it. All these reasons, and and and the biggest one of all, which I've already shared, like we're not qualified, right? And the reality is like, and and I don't know your story or your audience, but for me, again, you know, faith is a part of this. And I'm like, I feel like oftentimes there's a factor where the qualified aren't always called, but the called become qualified. And I feel like that was kind of my scenario. And so back in 2012, we launched Worthwhile, first working in India, kind of replicating that model that they had done in Cambodia. And we we called ourselves Worthwhile Wear at that time and provided employment. So I built a factory. I kind of took my engineering background and helped you outfit a facility to be a sewing factory and we could train up and help women that were girls that were exploited get out of those situations. And then as we started that, you know, shortly thereafter, within months, I started recognizing this is an issue in the United States. It's not just an over there thing. It's it's happening where where we live, where I live. And so I, you know, really made a commitment to to provide a solution. And so, you know, here we are almost 15 years later. I'm what started with with an employee of one, myself, working in my basement, you know, about a hundred hours a week. Again, my love, my wife loved that too. But just trying to make this organization get up and running, you know, it required a lot of time. But um, you know, started as one employee today. We have about 130 employees in the U.S. And we offer a rather holistic approach and and addressing the needs of survivors of trafficking and exploitation. And then I can share more about that, but you know, the the reality of the part of this story that I want to drive home is just I I look back now, and yes, it was a bad career move from the world standpoint of you know making money to no money, but from a self-point of view, from from myself, finding purpose and seeing lives change has made it all worthwhile.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Oh well, t tell us a little bit about your program that you have in Worthwhile.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yeah, so we we set out, like I shared in India initially, and then we we said, okay, there's a need here. And you know, I think sometimes we are tempted to kind of react when we hear stuff. And a lot of times, even you know, myself could be guilty of this, but organizational founders and leaders can be propelled forward with passion. Um, but we have to be cautious because sometimes passion, we let it steer us as well and steer you every which way. Um, but we we really need to seek guidance before we move forward with that passion. Let the passion be the fuel, not the steering wheel. And so the steering wheel for me, you know, was seeking counsel from from others in this field of work with a lot of you know uh recovery centers, domestic violence shelters, because what we were finding is in talking with survivors, they would say, I didn't know where to go. You know, I had an addiction, so I went to a recovery center. I I got out of that situation and I was homeless, so I went to a homeless shelter. And so in talking with survivors and talking with these other organizations, we said, let's be really mindful in how we build an approach and really a holistic approach. And so today, you know, from day one of me working in my basement to where we are today, we have uh a variety of different programs addressing the individual as a whole. And the way we do that is we first engage with them where they're at. And so recognizing that oftentimes a survivor of sexual exploitation will likely also have a history of someone exploiting them, we said we need to meet them where they're where they're at, and we do that through our outreach program called Worth It. And Worth It is a program that we've been operating since 2018, and that's something where we go out into the community, we offer a nine-week program where individuals that are, you know, going to these recovery centers, going to domestic violence shelters. Our team goes into about 180 different social service agencies and provides education on what human trafficking looks like to the staff, but then they also work with the clients. And then the clients refer into our worth it program for that nine-week period where we do a deep dive on trauma because so often we see individuals going into these different programs in our communities and they're you know being served kind of at the surface level. Like the things that are easy to see are the things that we address. And that that's not to fault that that's good, we should provide housing, food, you know, uh other services, recovery from addiction. But a lot of times we see people in these repeating patterns because the trauma has never been addressed. So Worth it does a deep dive on addressing trauma, how it affects our bodies, how it physically affects us in a negative way, how it affects our minds and how we think of ourselves and how we see the world. Um, and we spend time just recognizing that we we all have a form of trauma, trauma, and it's we try to destigmatize it and have those open dialogues through the worth it program. So we do that, we also then connect them to resources through the worth it program. So wherever they're living, you know, we we run this in the greater Philadelphia area in multiple counties, and we say these are resources available to you, and we invite those social service providers to come in and do a training on uh a topic that they're proficient in and experts in, and then also extend their their services to those individuals. And then lastly, one of the things that's most important is we try to build relationships. So where we host these worth it programs, they're oftentimes we incorporate volunteers or our volunteer groups providing meals, transportation, and we encourage those participants in the worth it program to connect with those individuals because you know if we're being realistic here, like when we want to see someone really heal and uh become whole again, uh programming is great, but it it really accounts for maybe 20% of that change. The other 80% is through healthy people and healthy relationships. So worth it kind of does all those things, and we serve women uh that have been exploited and trafficked that are 18 and over. We serve men that have also also been trafficked, and also understanding that there's a form of prevention in this too, because I think we all can recognize that hurt people hurt people. That's a common expression, but it's also a reality. And so we work with men that have been exploited, that have been trafficked, but they also in turn, in their hurt, have then exploited others, and so helping them recognize that. And we've had many men that have gone through that program and say, I see people differently. I I didn't realize the hurt I was causing. And then we also offer worth it to youth. So for for adolescents and helping them recognize that they're not alone in their healing journey. So we do that. We also offer long-term housing. So we offer the housing on two properties, and the housing program is called the well, and it's this uh program where they really can for two years build a new foundation uh under their feet because so often what we heard from survivors is like we we need more time. I needed a safe space. And so we're we're fortunate that outside of Philadelphia, we have a housing program on 82 acres of land where we can offer that safe space. They can really uh learn life skills, they can work on their trauma and trauma through counseling sessions, uh, through group sessions, different um therapies, somatic yoga, things like that. And then we also have the opportunity for them to transfer into a secondary home, which is independent living. So they can really put into practice the things they've learned during year one. And so we offer that, and in addition to that, so we're talking holistic, right? So we connect with them in the community, provides stability and state housing. The other part though, too, is something that oftentimes is missed, and we're so glad that we can offer this, is that sustainable part? So if you help someone and you provide them housing and trauma recovery, that's wonderful, and you should continue to do that. However, when someone's in those programs and they leave, right, they're they're left often to figure out, well, how do I now sustain myself? So one of the things we also offer through our worthwhile thrift stores is we offer employment. And these aren't like your traditional thrift stores. They don't they don't smell, they're not ugly, they're not messy, they're aesthetically pleasing, they're you know, 30,000, 40,000 square feet in size, so they're like the size of a Target or a Walmart. And it's where survivors can learn employable skills. And you know, so often you'll have individuals that are coming through our programs and and they'll like, hey, I I I've never had a job, like a real job, or I haven't worked in a long, long time. And so having a safe space for them to kind of refine those skills or learn them for the first time is really important. And uh, I remember one survivor, she she came into my office at one of our stores. I had my my my office, and she came in and just ripping mad and was cussing me out using really colorful language and saying, You're stealing from me. And and I'm like sitting there, kind of like, what's going on? And so I stopped there. I said, Well, number one, let's just get this point across. If if this was a real world scenario, you're now fire. And she her eyes got real wide. She's like, Really? I go, Yes, like what you just did is a fireable offense. And I said, So let's try this again. And and so and she took it upon herself. She actually walked out of my office and walked back in as if like a reset was taking place. And she's she proceeds to say, Okay, I have a question. I got my first paycheck, and there's money missing, and I don't know why. I said, Okay, that's a fair question. So let me look at your first paycheck. And I look at it with and I go, you know, it it it feels like someone's stealing from me. Those are called taxes, it's not us, that's the government. So it was a very good learning curve for her to take that in. But you know, she was able to learn from that experience. She was right, she was right to begin with. Yeah. It said it was just she was blaming the wrong person. She was right.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Someone was stealing from her.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was it was great for her though to learn that. And then that's sort of funny, but yeah, that that's that's what it felt like for her. So we that the the employment piece, yeah. The employment piece helps though in learning those those those skills and needs.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

I've heard that from other interviews. Yeah, yeah. I've heard that from other interviews I've I've had where you know once they're they're rescued and they're now survivors, they have no skills outside of what they were doing. So I I know some end up having to go back to prostitution in order to support support their stuff. Yeah. Because they don't know or don't have the access to organizations like yourself.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

And that's what we need more of is people like you and organizations like yours to to help these survivors.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, absolutely. And we we see that they they they learn a lot in the skills and and sometimes like even the things that we might overlook, you're like, maybe someone's not you know really interested in working at a thrift store, and we get that. But the reality is too, like they learn to work with maybe they're not most pleasant customers, you know. You know, you're working with people, you're getting accustomed to dealing with the population that they're gonna run to run into in the community. And so the stores also act as really like a beacon in our communities where individuals that are in need, they know they can go there. Our team is equipped to either offer them services we have or redirect them to um a social service provider in their area that would be more suited to help them. Um, it also is a place where our community really shows up in big ways to volunteer and join with us. And we have a variety of ways people can volunteer through our housing program, through our worth of program, and through the stores. And last year alone we had over 2,400 volunteers, which is no small feat to have over 2,400 volunteers that are coming out on a regular. I know you know some nonprofits would be thrilled to have 400 volunteers. And so we really engage the community in that way. And then lastly, one of the things that we we work to do is, you know, is is prevention. And so we do that on uh on the national scale through a couple of different ways. One is we we currently, right now, through uh May through July 30th, every year, we run a program called the Act Challenge, and we call it the Act Challenge because when people learn about trafficking, they want to act, but they often don't know where or how. And so this act challenge is wherever people are in the country, they can go out and log miles. And when they do that, they unlock sponsored dollars. So this act challenge so far where we're at, I think we've unlocked around $60,000. We have about $170,000 to unlock still. So we encourage the community to go out, unlock those dollars. It's a reverse fundraiser. You don't have to raise the funds. We already did that. We have the pledges, you just unlock it. And so what happens though is the community goes out, they invite their neighbor, they give them a postcard, say, hey, I see you walking your dog. Did you know you can unlock a dollar for every mile? And that goes towards restorative care, housing, counseling, other therapies, employment. And so we engage in that that awareness is raised that way. But then the other more important one that I think your audience would be interested in is when we talk with survivors, right? The thing we hear the most is this started for me as a child. I was sexually abused at eight years old, at 10 years old. That left me very vulnerable. And then I was open to further exploitation. And so knowing that and hearing that from thousands of survivors over the years, we said we need to provide a way to help youth kids understand number one, what to look out for, but also that they have worth and they have value. And I remember, you know, so many survivors that I've spoken with, they just said, you know, had someone said something to me, I wouldn't have felt so alone, you know, as a kid. And so the way we address that is we have a national program that we call the words of worth. And what that is, is you know, working with schools, it can be challenging because when you, you know, they they find out that you're an organization that's anti-human trafficking, they go, they might say, Well, that yeah, that that would be helpful for our students to hear about. However, that's too sensitive of a topic, so you can't come into school. And so for about 10 years, I heard that. So I'm like, we got to find a new way. So we essentially kind of found our Trojan horse to get into schools, and this is something that your audience, wherever they're at in the country, they can uh reach out to us and apply for their school to receive this. But our words are worth initiative, what it looks like is the schools uh invite us in, and I'll come and I'll do a talk and an assembly where all the students are present. And um the students hear about their worth uh through kind of six keywords. And uh after the assembly, the students help paint. We have a traveling artist that will go from school to school and he stays there for about two weeks. Um and we we fund this, and the artist will paint alongside the students this beautiful mural. Some of these murals are 50 feet long, some of them are 80 feet long, but they're they're they're big and they're prominent in the school and not just like a flash in the pan, they're there for years to come. And the mural is a bunch of beautiful flowers, and we talk about how you know flower gardens have a variety of flowers and differences, and that is what makes them beautiful, and that's the same for people. The variety and differences of people make us beautiful together. So they paint this big mural of flowers, but then there's a central flower that has uh six petals on it. And this is what I use during the assembly talks. And on that flower, it says in the center of the flower, you are, and then each petal says something different. So it says in the middle, you are, and then one petal says unique. You are enough, you are brave, you are seen, you are heard, and finally you are worthwhile. And each one of those we we spend some times talking through those things, and especially on the brave one, you know, sometimes being brave means speaking up when you are affected by someone in a negative way and helping students understand that it's not a matter of the old kind of tool we used or phraseology was, you know, stranger danger. And we'll say, like, you know, recognize that's important too, but it's more important than understand strange behavior danger, because strange behavior can come even from a family member or from a family friend. And then you need to, if something's happened, you know, if someone is having strange behavior, you need to separate yourself from that. Or if that strange behavior has affected the you negatively, then you need to be brave to speak up on your behalf or maybe on the behalf of someone else. And so this school prevention program is one that we've we started last year, and it's been so receptive. And and what happens is it opens the door to allow us to get into these schools to raise that awareness, number one, but then it also is kind of that first step into introducing our worth it for youth curriculum in the schools, which is paired up with their um with their health and ed curriculum. And so we're seeing a lot of impact there. And we did a school a couple of weeks ago, it had twenty two hundred students in it. After the ribbon cutting for the mural and you know, news and media were there to celebrate that. The superintendent from the district was there, you know, everybody kind of cleared out and the principal texted me and said, Hey, after we left there, one of the students came up to me and said, You know, my dad beat me up and kicked me out of the house two weeks ago. And he started to have an open dialogue. And then he's he shared, you know, a couple other students that were using those words of worth in their dialogue and just sharing, like, hey, I'm I feel seen or I haven't feel seen or I haven't felt heard. And that that testimony from that principle is like it's it's actually it's happening, you know, like it's working. And so that's something that we're really excited for, that growth, and and seeing, you know, the community understand rally behind that is is really important. So that's that's how we address it in a holistic approach is really hitting the needs of meeting them where they're at, providing stable housing, providing employment, and even on the prevention side, if we can stop it from ever happening, further exploitation from from happening, then that's the greatest win of all. And that's how we we do this work at Worthwhile.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Well, tell us, you know, your locations, you know, what what areas you're working in, what states?

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah. So our our primary location is in the Philadelphia area. I'm in Pennsylvania. And so we s we have several offices in the greater Philadelphia area. And so that's where we offer our outreach program. But one of the things that we love is our outreach program, Worth It, is designed to be used by other organizations. So other organizations can say, hey, we we want to run our own worth it program. We offer it completely for free. We provide the curriculum and we provide the training. And even during the first week, we can send someone out to help you kick off your first session of Worth It. And then that's something that other organizations around the country can run on their own after that. And it has the support of our team to keep that going. The school-based initiative that's you know, in in other schools around the country, Indiana, Oklahoma. We've had, I think last year we had 36 states or areas that applied for words of worth. So our limitation is we have one artist right now, is that's one limitation, the other is funding. So since we we we kind of foot the bill on that, that's where we you know ask the community to step up and we get supporters that help fund that. And so that's really, you know, any anywhere again, you know, in the country where there's a need uh and we can accommodate it, you know, as far as manpower and and cost, we can do that. So, you know, it's not just a here in our area thing, although a lot of our focus is in our area because that's where we have the majority of our staff. We we really aim to work with other organizations and bolster their services through our Worth it program, or aim to scale up prevention in schools by working with our community who's really they're sounding the call and saying, hey, we need this in our school. We know that stuff's happening here. And so that's a broad reaching in that regard too. So yeah, that's that's kind of where our footprint is, is mainly in the Philly area directly serving clients here, but then also more broadly speaking, the prevention through the schools and then the expansion of the Worth It program through other partner agencies running it on their own. And what we see is great impact. You know, we we've had survivors share time and time again how it's really the first time they've ever talked about their trauma. You know, we we run this program in prisons as well. And I was in one of our prison settings. Um I'll be at one of our male groups uh at in prison next week, but our team's running it all all the time, multiple times a week in different prison systems. But, you know, I I asked this group of women at one of the sessions, and I said, you know, who here has felt like, you know, there's been a time in your life where you kind of got on track, you were doing well, things are going the right way. And they, you know, they all raised their hands. I said, Great, that's great. We can all reflect back on those moments. I said, then how many of you feel like you got off track? And every single one of them raised their hands. And and of course they raised their hands because they're all in prison. So obviously it went off track to wind up where they're at. And uh, you know, I said, Well, why do we think that is? Yeah. And so they they kind of like didn't know how to answer why that happened. And I said, Well, you know, that's where we then start to talk about trauma. And so we uh we really help individuals understand how trauma is an effect on on so much of their their life story, the direction they're on and the path they're on. And so we want them to recognize it and then begin to work on that. And and one of the things we do too is we try to help our our our community understand what that looks like. I think so often people will see a person looks just like they look. They look fine, they look put together, maybe. But trauma is kind of an ugly thing in the sense that it it not only causes physical harm and emotional, but it it's it's a mental state as well, where you have this internal dialogue of self-doubt, of devaluing of self. And so, you know, we we created uh a couple of years ago a short film. If you go to our website, worthwhile.org, and go to our resource page, there's there's two videos. And one video is called The Voice of Trauma, and that's for a lot of individuals that maybe haven't worked with trauma survivors, and it's to help us understand that even though someone might look good on the outside, there's an internal battle going on on the inside. And that's short, it's only 90 seconds long, but that short film I think does a good job of that. Actually, I was speaking at a conference in in North Carolina about two months ago, and and someone came up to me and said, Hey, you shared that video uh last year, and we now are using it in our trainings for the law enforcement to help them recognize it or think a little bit differently, like even though someone looks normal, recognize that they might be working through some significant trauma. And so that is a resource that we offer for our community. And and then also on that resource page at worthwhile.org is the response to that. So the first video is called The Voice of Trauma, and the second video is called A Voice of Freedom, and it's a spoken word poem that a survivor that uh wrote, and Christina is just a you know a phenomenal woman. She's a mom, she's a college grad, she's a spoken word artist, and uh, we put her poem to this animation, and that really represents like the power of being heard. Um, and that's why that's one of those six words of worth is because so often trauma silences us, it overrides us with this negative talk, and it's important to know that uh you can overcome that. And that's one of the things we love is we're really a lot of times when working with trafficking organizations, they might highlight the bad, the ugly, you know, bondage, you know, they showed dark ropes, chainings, all those things. And although that may be part of the story for for some trafficking survivors, it's not what we focus on. We focus on the hope, the reality that healing can happen and that we see healing happen. And, you know, hearing from survivors that, you know, I was affected, yes, by traffic, but I'm not reduced by it. I'm not less than because of it. And that's where that real power comes in, that real healing happens.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Great. How does someone get involved in your organization?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, we love we love volunteers as I already shared, and we encourage people to get involved. Um, and there's a variety of ways to do it. Again, if you're not in the Philadelphia area where you can't get involved directly with us through our stores, through our housing program, our outreach program, um, that act challenge is something that people can do, or they can get involved through the school initiative, the words of worth initiative. And that's that's found on our website too, under Worth It for Youth. At the bottom of that page is the words of worth. And so we we encourage the community to recommend schools, send send that information our way and and connect us to the school principals or or faculty. And that's one way to get involved. And then, you know, the other way, and this is kind of what you hear from a lot of nonprofits, but is is through financial contributions. Those go 100% of the gifts given go directly to the programs. Um, and that's another thing that I love is that because we have our stores, we are you know financially viable in the sense that we cover our overhead, we cover even our programming through that, but we have a lot of growth right now. And so when donors give, when organizations or businesses give, it goes to funding the programs directly. So those those funds have direct impact. And so people can get involved that way. And that's something where we encourage you know people to say, hey, I I I I'd love to give, but I don't know where it's going, or how much is it used to pay Dan's salary or you know, or marketing, or like well, none of it goes towards that. It doesn't touch you know any of that admin side. And so that's that's a powerful way that people can get involved and give and make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Great. Tell me some maybe some uh success stories that you the results from your organization and and helping survivors.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah. Do we have three or four hours yet we can do on this podcast? No, but we I'll I'll I have a whatever it takes. Yeah, no, I have a few. Um, yeah, I think for for what I love is when I you know I get to share how all of our programs work together. Um and one of these girls, uh women that I'll I'll call her Janet, it's not a real name, but um, her story, you know, is is powerful. She she shared um at her graduation from our programs how she came to be there. And she said, I remember very clearly I was you know, north north of us is this place called the Pocono Mountains. And she's like, I was I had gotten away from my trafficker, all I had was a clothes on my back, I was struggling with addiction. I was walking down the side of the road in the pouring rain. And she's like, I didn't know what to do or where to go. And I I just looked up to the sky and said, bro, help me. And I love that, like I guess she was she was referring to God, I guess, but she used the name bro, and I'm like, that works too. And she said, then after that, you know, I uh I was able to find my way to a recovery center, and the recovery center referred me to Worthwhile's Worth It program. And then she went through our worth it program and from there applied into our and got into our housing program. Then while in our housing program was able to get employment through our stores, while at our stores built up her savings account, I think she graduated with around $10,000 in savings. She was able to then use that as a as a kind of a launch pad to get her career job. And uh, you know, she she was sharing all this at our at her graduation from our programs and her and her mom and dad were there, right? And her dad, he he, you know, he was kind of like the a little bit on the stoic side, not a real talker, not emotional. But he he he got up and said, I just want to say something. And I was kind of surprised because he got up to say something, he's and he's just he's weeping, he's crying, this tough guy, you know, and he says, I never thought we'd have our daughter back as he's hugging her, and they both are in each other's arms crying. And here is restoration at its fullest level, a family restored, a woman restored. I mean, she's still, you know, that's three years ago, still successful in her in her journey. And and that's just one of the stories, you know. Uh I I think of another survivor that came into our program, and some successes are as big as that, is what I just shared about Janet. But another one, um, I'll call her Andrea, again, not a real name, but she came into our program and very quickly we started seeing uh she was in our housing program. Uh, it was challenging because the rooms, you know, they're shared, it's two two per room. And she was we were having a hard time getting a roommate to stay with her because she would always have the lights on, 24-7, even when she's sleeping. And we came to understand that through her, you know, her counseling and and working with our team, the reason for that was because when she was trafficked, her trafficker kept her in a basement. And not just in a basement, but in a basement, the lights off. And so when she escaped that, she had such a terror and fear of darkness that she couldn't be in darkness. And uh, she over time got more and more comfortable to where then she could sleep with the lights off. And that to me is a victory, you know. And I think it's it's also a testament to what we do in our work because you know, I think we we think sometimes we're in a battle, right, of light versus darkness. And and we might even mistakenly say they're equal in power, but the reality is the beauty is light is one of those pervasive things. It's something that can go into a dark space, and darkness really has no power, it's just it's the absence of light. And so what we really work to do is help these individuals that we serve, you know, women, men, youth, understand that we shine that light, that they have value and worth, and that begins to grow inside them. There's that that hope again, that recognition that they have value and worth. And so it may be a graduate that goes through all of our programs or one that's just able to turn off the lights. Those are wins, those are victories. And we see stories like that time and time again. And each year we serve you know hundreds of survivors through our programs. And it's something we're we we hear it time and time again that this is the first time I felt seen or or heard. Um, this is the first time I didn't feel alone in my story or shame, or the first time I didn't blame myself for what happened. And that's those are all victories along the way that we we see. And and the reality too is that the healing journey is not a once and done, you kind of brush your hands off, I'm good, I'm healed. It's it's a journey. And we share that with survivors too, is the reality is trauma is something that is is deeply affects us, and it's that it's that negative voice that's within us. And it'll always be there. And that's the the hard part to recognize that it never will fully be silenced or gone. However, through patience and counseling and care and healthy relationships, it can be quieted and it can be put at bay. And so we we see that healing begin to happen where individuals learn to adapt and heal and recover and learn tools to be restored from their trauma. And uh yeah, those are the the things that we see, you know, and those are the things that are so encouraging. And, you know, just today, one of my staff sent me some quotes from some individuals that have gone through our program, and just what they shared, you know, like I I I felt like I was in a safe space with other individuals where I had never experienced a program like this where I've I've for the first time addressed my trauma. And those are the things that we want to keep having happen and keep moving forward. And not only is it impacting that one person, it has a ripple effect. It impact impacts their their community, it impacts their family, as I shared with that about that one with her parents. But another one who's currently in our program, she is reunited with her daughter for the first time in seven years. Um, and she's just ecstatic. Like she's so thrilled because she lost custody while she was um you know serving prison time and also through struggling through addiction, which was brought on through the trafficking. And she's now you know reunited with her her daughter, having conversations with her mother, and she's feeling like she's whole again. And that's just what we want. You know, we want that for for everyone. And and so, you know, we're seeing it happen, and that's what's really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Great. Uh reviews uh some of your programs. You you had you the ones in the schools, you know, you have your your properties. But just give us a brief recap of all the uh all the ways you're you're able to help people.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah. So we we uh seek to to reach survivors where they're at in the community through our worth it program. We we provide that educational resource, and that's in schools, in prisons, in community centers, in recovery centers. Um we also then offer stability, and and that's where they have the option for long-term housing through our housing programs, and that's they build that new foundation. They have again that option for sustainability through employment through our stores, our worthwhile thrift stores, and that's something too that I didn't mention earlier, but the worthwhile thrift is is turning to again another national endeavor where we we offer what's called the Worthwhile Thrift Partner Network. So if you or your listeners know an agency that's serving survivors of trafficking, but doesn't have a means to employ them, and also with like another revenue stream, we can start a worthwhile thrift near that location uh and operate it to help fund that organization and provide employment to the survivors. So we do that. And then the last thing, as you mentioned, was the schools and that prevention piece. So that's again, the idea is holistic and really a holistic approach isn't just the services offered, but listening to the survivors themselves. And so what that also means is sometimes, you know, I feel like there's a miss, a big miss on the parts of organizations and and agencies that are serving because we'll address again the things that we can see. They're hungry, we feed them, they're homeless, we give them shelter, they have trauma, we do counseling. Again, all necessary. But we also get surveys and we we survey those the clients that are going through our our our programs. And one of the things that's always stood out to me is this one question that's asked, is faith important to you? And 75% say yes, it's very important to me. And so I think it's a miss. And I I I would say I can confidently say it is a miss, not think, but it is a miss in that we don't um if we're going to address the whole person, right? And that's 75% of your population saying that's important to me, and we kind of bypass it, that's a disservice. So we we often we we offer that discussion as well. Say, hey, let's talk about it. Like let's if that's important to you, let's help you on that journey as well. And that's that's one thing too, where we find um, because that faith element, it makes us it it makes us recognize that there's something more than us. And a lot of times when you have experienced significant hurt, especially from people maybe that you love, because you know, it's in in our in our uh surveys, you know, we we have the the percentage of 57% have been exploited through family. So familial trafficking is is is the majority, right? It's not the minority. And when you imagine like a caregiver or a parent, someone that should be uh a person you feel safe around is the one that's exploiting you. Well, that's a deep, deep hurt. And so we want them to recognize that they even though they've been hurt from that, that they can they can feel safe again. And so yeah, we we try to help them move past that and heal from that. And so yeah, those are those are things that we're seeing and ways that we help.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

When you started this program, did you ever imagine it reaching the point where it is now?

SPEAKER_01 39:10

It's a funny question. You you might be surprised by the answer, but I would say yes, but it took longer than I expected. And I and I tell people, so like I have kind of like a an entrepreneurial mindset, right? And I I love I love building structure and putting good people in place to run it. But if you ever want to choose the hardest form of business to do, it's a nonprofit because there's no profit. You're constantly reinvesting in the people and reinvesting your programs, and so it makes it slower. The process to growth is slower, but I'd say you can't rush a good thing, right? And and good things uh that are worth pursuing are oftentimes hard. So I I I'm glad for where we're at. It's kind of where my goal vision was, you know, 14 and a half years ago was to like let's get to a scale where we can help a lot of people annually. It just took a lot longer, but I guess that's probably on me too, that needing to be patient. But you know, I I've grown too a lot in this role, just being a better husband, a better, better father, because recognizing that we all you know see the world slightly different than the other. We all are affected by different hurts from our past, and we need to be patient with each other. We need to be mindful of that. And when we put others before ourselves, we're all better for it. It sounds almost counterintuitive. We we oftentimes uh live a life of this idea of like if I if I you know again buy stuff for myself or I indulge every desire, I'll be happy. And that's that's the sad, frank reality is when you do that, you're miserable, you know. And it seems counterintuitive. I'm I'm pursuing everything that I want, and yet I'm miserable. And so I encourage people if you want to find purpose, purpose is found in people. Um, and so yeah, I I I love that that's not something I I thought I would learn. So that's one thing I wasn't expecting is to have that shift in mindset. But it's one I'm very grateful for and one that I think is uh innate kind of a core value of who I am now. That when I started out, it was you know led by passion or driven by passion that that kind of drive to help others, but then that you know, in time, I myself have grown in this work. So I'm grateful for that as well. And that was unexpected.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Great. Again, before we leave, uh tell us again how to get in touch with you and your organization.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Yeah. We you know, I'd love for your listeners to be able to reach out, contact us, you know, our website. I I shamelessly plugged it a few times, but I'll plug it again as worthwhile.org, and that's spelled w-o-r-t-h u-h I-l-e.org or g. And you can find you can read about all of our different resources, see videos, testimonials from survivors that have gone through our programs. And so people can get involved there, or they can email us at infoinfo at worthwhile.org. Reach out and say, hey, I have a school I want to I want to get involved with, or hey, I want to get involved in something else that you shared on that podcast. Please reach out. We don't want this just to be a once and done thing. We'll maybe see this as a start to a new relationship with your listening audience.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

That's great. I want to thank you again for for number one, what you do for the community and uh for the survivors. We need uh more organizations and more people like you out there to help with the survivors when they come out of their trauma. Again, thank you, Dan. Yeah, and uh keep up the good great work.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

All right, bye bye. Well, that's it for our show for today. Hope you learned something that will perhaps uh protect uh you and a family member. Follow me on Facebook, go to my website, davidjstory.com, to learn more about the Omega Book Series, my podcast, and my blogs. And always remember, always watch your six and others too.