Hear From a Survivor, How Ashlee Found Herself at Dahlia’s Hope

Cherstyn Stockwell & Ashlee

“I thought of trafficking as being like the movies, getting kidnapped and taken hostage. In my situation, it was someone I knew and, unfortunately, became too comfortable with. I had no idea it was classified as trafficking.

I knew it was a bad situation. It was horrible, and it did get to the point where I knew I had to get away, but it was hard for me to get away from him. It’s hard to understand the pull they can have on you. Then to have someone tell me what it really was–trafficking–was really hard to accept.

I was seeing a therapist, Kelly, who works with Dahlia’s Hope. She knew everything about my story and I trusted her and if she told me this is what I needed, then I believed her.

We were at a snowboarding activity, and I thought I was the only one who had a situation like mine. But then I met another lady who had almost an identical story, and then at a gala, I met another one, and I realized ‘So it's not just me.’ It was amazing to be able to see and talk to women who had been through the same thing, and they knew exactly how I felt.

I had watched my confidence and positivity completely go away, and then to came to Dahlia’s Hope and was able to find that value in myself again.

There was a time when we went to Thanksgiving Point to the Tulip Festival. Before Dahlia’s Hope, I might have just thought ‘Oh, that’s a pretty flower.’ But it was amazing, because I thought, ‘These flowers have been through the rain, through the storm, and they started so small, but they were still able to rise above and become beautiful.’ And I knew no matter the storm that we've been through or what it took to grow that seed, we can survive it.

I survived it. That’s why I stay involved with Dahlia’s Hope and just keep paying it forward.”

Ashlee, Survivor