CTWH forges important partnerships in the community
It’s been an active several months for Catch the Wave of Hope (CTWH) as the nonprofit continues to forge important relationships and collaborations in its mission to prevent the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children through awareness and education, while providing restoration to survivors.
CTWH has joined the SART team (Sexual Assault Response Team) on the Treasure Coast, a part of the Sexual Assault Assistance Program of the Treasure Coast. This team includes victim advocates and other experts in the field.
SART is the first team to respond to sexual assault cases. It exists so that no survivor of sexual violence residing on the Treasure Coast or Okeechobee must go through crisis alone, regardless of age, circumstances, or their decision whether to involve law enforcement. The group is comprised of trained advocates, counselors, and administrators and all communications with staff are confidential.
CTWH is also now part of DCF’s (Department of Children and Families) Sex/Labor Trafficking MDT (Multidisciplinary Team). Sarah Marie Henry, Executive Director of the 501(c)(3), attends meetings at which all parties come together to discuss services, resources, and plans of actions to assist children affected by human trafficking.
Participants include DCF staff, investigators, case managers, therapists, Guardians ad Litem, and other related resources.
Catch the Wave of hope recently completed Certified Facilitator Training in the Monique Burr Foundation’s “Child and Teen Safety Matters,” which is Florida Board of Education-Approved for Schools and meets the state’s mandate for Child Trafficking Prevention Education for students grades K-12.
And, importantly, CTWH is partnering with the Human Trafficking Coalition of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee, Circuit 19, to launch a Resource Listserv for both adult and child survivors of human trafficking. This listserv is an email-based resource that will be used to better identify survivor needs and continue to grow and strengthen partnership between agencies, Law Enforcement, FBI, victim advocates, mental health therapists, attorneys, and many more parties working in the community to meet needs of trafficking survivors.
Catch the Wave of Hope collaborates with other service providers to prevent the duplication of services and to fill gaps in services that are not currently available to survivors. We take a trauma-informed, survivor-centered approach to everything that we do and we build our organization based on feedback from the community and those we serve.
To learn more, visit www.catchthewaveofhope.org.
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