From Survivor to Advocate: Faith's Journey to Creating Hope for Trafficking Survivors

“I had escaped trafficking twice, and it was so difficult. Finding a place to stay as a minor, finding therapy. Aftercare is really important but it's really hard to find resources. I know because I tried. Many places only offer one thing, limit the time they can help, and you have to travel to get there. Piecing it all together just doesn’t work. My vision was to create a place where survivors could work on their healing, where we could all reunite and get to know each other. It’s really tough as a survivor to find friends that understand you, who aren’t going to ask you for your story.

Through a mutual acquaintance, I met Cherstyn and Matt Stockwell and told them about my dream of a place survivors could heal. We created Dahlia’s Hope together to make my vision a reality. Seeing it come true was a feeling of joy, knowing that there were going to be other survivors who were going to have the opportunity to work on their healing.

When it happened and I saw survivors were getting the resources they needed, it was like a dream.

Now that I have graduated from the program, I feel confident sharing how hard it was to find resources and I’m ready to talk about who I really am. I escaped and healed as an Indigenous Mayan who primarily spoke a Mayan dialect, Spanish as a second language, and barely any English. But now my whole life has changed. I have my GED, my own place to live, and I’m married. I am looking forward to helping other men and women who have survived trafficking find hope.

Having “Hope” in the name of the organization was so important because I always had hope. Hope that my life would get better one day. It represents that there is hope out there, and that survivors aren't alone. There is somebody there waiting for them to provide them resources.”

Faith Robles

Trafficking Survivor

Inspiration for Dahlia’s Hope