With more and more cases of young women and children being trafficked, iCare is taking action. iCare is a nonprofit organization that serves trafficked and exploited women and children and those placed at high risk in Augusta, Georgia. “We use a three-pronged approach - prevention, intervention, and restoration,” says Ginger Amerson, the Executive Director at iCare.
When the women come to iCare, they are offered therapy, case management, clothing, food, connections to medical and dental care, mentoring, transportation, and education advocacy.
iCare’s staff bonds with these women and help guide them on what a healthy relationship looks like. The programs offered to these women are Guard Your Heart, Not A Number, Shine, and Hope For Her Future. In Guard Your Heart, they teach the women about boundaries, and in Not A Number, the girls learn about red flags. Shine is iCare’s five-week soft job skills training program, where they learn how to handle conflict, how to participate in the work environment appropriately, how to set goals, and how to advocate for themselves. “All of the activities we do are performed in a trauma informed environment, and they are therapeutic,” says Ginger.
When these girls go through the programs at iCare, they have the opportunity to earn iCash. The girls can then spend their iCash in the shop at iCare. iCare offers things like diapers, baby wipes, makeup, hair styling tools, brushes, jewelry, shampoos and conditioners, toys, food items, accessories, and many other things. The girls can earn their iCash in numerous ways. It is rewarded by practicing good work ethic, such as showing up on time or not using cell phones during their classes with iCare. The women are also paid an ‘hourly wage’ in iCash for their time spent at iCare classes. Ginger says that they often see these young women come in that don’t have children, but they purchase baby items such as diapers or wipes and give them to other young women in the program that do have children.
After completing these courses, they are awarded a certificate of completion, which brings self-satisfaction to these women. Once they have completed Shine, they are given the opportunity to become a part of the work program at iCare, Hope For Her Future. Hope For Her Future is where the women start making products to sell. They learn how to make sugar scrubs, candles, bath bombs, soaps, and earrings. “We find that to be very therapeutic for them, it’s just really beautiful to watch that happen for them,” says Ginger. “There is a market of people who want to buy their products and that sends a strong message to these girls, that they are making a difference and being valued for their work.”
Ginger and her husband, Walt, co-founded iCare in 2011 and it was officially operating by 2012. “We started with ourselves, a board, and a therapist,” says Ginger. “After volunteering at another organization serving homeless people, we noticed a girl that didn’t fit in with the homeless population,” she says. After talking with the girl, she said that she had run away from home to get away from abuse. In order to have a roof over her head and have food to eat, the girl said she was participating in ‘survival sex’. They started trying to find resources to get her off the street and found that difficult. A juvenile judge told Ginger and her husband that they were seeing more and more of these girls coming across cases. After being told by medical providers and juvenile judges that they should form a nonprofit so these girls could receive the help they need, Ginger and Walt created iCare.
With the Crisis Stabilization Home, iCare allows women to stay with them up to two weeks if they do not have a place to live. This allows the women to be in a calmer environment while the situation is stabilizing, gives the professionals working on the case a chance to investigate, and make long term plans.
Something new iCare is excited about is the Restoration Home. The Restoration Home will be a 24/7 operation and long-term facility. It will be open for the women and their children to live on campus for up to two years while they complete their education, become equipped with the tools they need to deal with their trauma, and be able to have their children with them in the same house. The building for the Restoration Home is complete and now iCare is raising the funds they need to staff the home.
Ginger also warns us of the dangers of social media, saying that 65% of students in Columbia County have said that they have been approached to meet up online. Ginger tells us, “Whatever device you put in your kid’s hands, make sure they see it as a tool for communication with you.” Some things to think about are - what rooms are the device allowed in, where will it charge, and what applications are they allowed to have? A useful tool for parents is the Dirty Dozen list from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Easily found online, parents can view what apps and companies are being monitored by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
If you know someone who is being trafficked, call the Polaris National Human Trafficking Hotline 1(888)373-7888. If you would like to donate items for the iCare Shoppe, contact Jessica at Jessica@i-care4.org. To make a donation for the Restoration Home, email Ginger at Ginger@i-care4.org.
