By Sharon Bayus | President & CEO
Great news! Thanks to each of you, Innovative Alternatives, Inc. has met 20% of the total goal for our first project as well as 100% of the local challenge which makes us a partner of Global Giving! Our projects will go live around the world on July 1, 2014! We will not only have the ability to fund this project for the remainder of the match needed on the fiscal year 2013-14 Victim Assistance Program grant, but for every year hereafter to ensure that abused children have the assistance they need to heal from sexual and physical abuse and subsequently succeed in life!
Normally, IA has the honor of working with these couragious children only after their abuse has occurred, but recently, we had the priviledge of actually preventing a kidnapping that would have led an 18 year-old girl straight the bondage of a human trafficking ring! Here is her Mother's letter to our agency and now, you have become a part of this important work!
To Whom It May Concern,
I have been a client with Innovative Alternatives for about a year now. I was going there for help concerning a medical malpractice issue I am involved in.
A few weeks ago, I had another issue surface concerning my 18 year old daughter. Our family went on a spring break trip to Southern California. My daughter was targeted by a human trafficking ring on the plane ride to Los Angeles. They began the luring process while we were in California. She even vanished at one point on the trip, right off Hollywood Blvd.! Later, investigators theorize she was lured away and drugged. We are still not sure how she escaped, she is still unwilling to talk about it.
It wasn't until we returned back home to Texas that I discovered that she was a potential victim of human trafficking. The human traffickers had put a young "French model" on the job of luring her. I spent countless hours researching and investigating on my own to try to compile enough evidence to present to my daughter. I needed to show her that the French guy was not who he said he was. I made several calls to human trafficking hotlines and human trafficking nonprofit groups. None offered any real support. Law enforcement wasn't much help at that point either. The FBI even told me it just sounded as if I didn’t approve of my daughter’s new boyfriend!
I went to my regular counseling session at Innovative Alternatives and relayed my current dilemma concerning my daughter to my counselor, Sharon Bayus. She and the office staff sprang into action immediately and offered more help and support than I had received from the countless 'help lines' I had contacted in the days prior. Within a couple of hours they were able to help me gain a few compelling pieces of information against the human trafficking group. We then planned an intervention for the following evening per their suggestion.
Sharon Bayus from came to a friend's house and led the intervention with my daughter, our family and her friends. Overall, it was very successful. Together, we were able to convince my daughter she was in danger and saved her from becoming a victim.
I do not know that my daughter would still be with us today had Innovative Alternatives not stepped up and helped. I am so grateful for everyone who helped. These people truly have a passion to make a difference and change lives. When my daughter gets ready to talk about what happened to her, IA also has a ‘Victim Assistance Counseling Program’ that will provide free services to her to help her heal emotionally from whatever she has been through, but at least it is not the nightmare it could have become for all of us!
Always Grateful,
Christina (Last name withheld for confidentiality)
Thank you so much for supporting our work and making it possible for Christina to keep her daughter away from certain emotional, mental and spiritual destruction, as well as sexual slavery. You have also made this partnership with Global Giving possible for our agency with your faith and financial investment in Innovative Alternatives, Inc.
Don't forget, you can continue to make a difference by sharing our project with your own networks of family, friends and colleagues. If you have ever thought of becoming a volunteer, this is your chance to help us meet the rest of our match for this year, and if possible, get a jump on the $60,000 match for next year, in order to keep the $240,000 worth of Victim of Crime Act funding coming into IA from the Governor's Office of the Criminal Justice Division of the State of Texas which primarily funds this work! Many blessings to you for your heart for our kids!
We can't thank you enough!
Sharon Bayus, MA, LPC-S
President & CEO
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