Danielle’s mom took many precautions to protect her teenage daughter from predators and to keep her daughter away from people and situations that could endanger her safety and well-being. She even went as far as to move the family away from one town to another city.  Yet despite her mom’s efforts, Danielle ended up being trafficked, even by her own boyfriend, whom Danielle met on Facebook.

Danielle shared with us during her interview how her boyfriend had groomed both her and her mom and after gaining their trust, victimized Danielle by becoming her trafficker. Danielle’s intense and harrowing story of being trafficked not just once, but three times, and how traffickers used the absence of her father to connect with her emotionally and then used drugs to control her, puts a face to this crime where statistics can overwhelm us and make us forget that each person who is victimized is a human being with hopes and dreams and needs love just like everyone else.

When Danielle went missing and was being sold for sex by her traffickers, her mom never gave up looking for and trying to get help for her daughter. After realizing that her daughter had been trafficked and the help she would need went beyond drug rehabilitation, Danielle ended up at Debbie Colton’s Oasis of Hope, where she has found faith and hope for her future. She is now in cosmetology school, pursuing the dreams she had as a young girl, dreams that were almost snuffed out by violence, slavery and drugs.

Danielle also shares the story of her journey and the transformation of her life with people in the hopes that they too will experience the healing and hope, regardless of what they have experienced in life, that she believes a relationship with God can bring. Danielle’s story is one of a mother’s unrelenting love, the difference one person like Debbie Colton can make who cares about those who have been preyed upon, and the remarkable courage of a survivor whose losses and trauma will not be the last chapter of her story, but the beginning of what will surely be a life that inspires others to have hope and to pursue their dreams as well.

It was truly a privilege to get to know Danielle – what an inspiring young woman!

While serving as a prosecutor for the Philadelphia DA’s Office, Shea’s calling to devote her life to fight human trafficking started to come into focus when she was exposed to the senseless death of a prostituted person whose body was thrown away in the trash by her pimp. The dehumanization and violence that prostituted persons experience by “johns,” pimp traffickers and society, combined with the repeated cycling through the legal system, hit Shea Rhodes right in the heart and changed her life forever. Surely there must be a way that the legal system can help change the likely ending of the story, from cycling in and out of prison or death, to hope for the future and the fulfillment of dreams.

Shea discovered that the legal system can be used for much good beyond the administration of justice, and she ultimately became an Oversight Committee Member for Project Dawn Court. It is an innovative program that provides rehabilitative services through multi-disciplinary partnerships under close supervision for women with repeat prostitution offenses, and is the first program of its kind in the country. By developing a plan that is customized to each woman’s needs (which may include addiction, PTSD, sexual abuse, or other types of counseling and classes in critical life skills), Project Dawn Court has helped change the ending of the story for many women.

It is clear that Shea has it in her genes to fight for what’s right, and she has combined her brilliant legal mind with her passion for those who are victim survivors of sex trafficking in the work she does with Project Dawn Court, in her recent position as Director of The Villanova Law School Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation (http://cseinstitute.org/) and through her role on the Board of Dawn’s Place aftercare home in Philadelphia.

What a powerful and inspiring way to end this series of film shoots in 2014! Thank you Shea.