Poiema Foundation

WHAT WE DO

Human trafficking is not something that only happens somewhere else. It happens here, in the same communities where we live, work, worship, shop, and raise our families.

Poiema Foundation fights human trafficking through Education, Community Engagement, and Survivor Empowerment.

EDUCATE

Human trafficking can hide in plain sight. Education helps people recognize what they might otherwise miss.

Poiema equips students, teachers, counselors, healthcare professionals, foster parents, law enforcement, churches, and others to understand the realities of human trafficking, recognize warning signs, and know how to respond.

To date, more than 40,000 people have received human trafficking prevention education through Poiema.

ENGAGE

Awareness matters. But awareness must lead to action.

Every Saturday, Poiema volunteers spread out across North Texas distributing posters of missing minors in hotels, convenience stores, transportation hubs, businesses, and other locations throughout the community.

With more than 400 active volunteers across 18 campuses, Poiema reaches hundreds of locations each month, putting the faces of missing children where someone might recognize them.

To date, Poiema has assisted in the recovery of more than 600 children. Tragically, more than half were already victims of sex trafficking or sexual exploitation.

Every poster matters. Every set of eyes matters. Every person willing to pay attention can become part of bringing someone home.

EMPOWER

But rescue is not the end of the story.

For survivors of human trafficking, freedom from exploitation is only the beginning of a much longer journey toward safety, healing, dignity, and independence.

Since opening in 2017, Poiema's Safe House program has served 364 women through residential and non-residential care. Survivors receive safe housing, trauma-informed counseling, practical resources, connections to medical and legal services, and the steady support of people committed to walking alongside them.

Because healing never happens overnight.

It happens through counseling appointments and meals around a table. Through a bedroom where someone finally feels safe enough to sleep. Through routines, relationships, and the growing realization that the people around her are going to keep their word.

WHY IT MATTERS

Human trafficking takes away far more than physical freedom. It damages trust, dignity, relationships, and a survivor's sense of what the future can hold.

That is why safe housing is about much more than putting a roof over someone's head. It is about creating a place where safety becomes predictable, trust can grow, and a survivor has the time and support she needs to begin imagining a life beyond what was done to her.

Your North Texas Giving Day gift helps make that possible. It provides counseling, safe housing, transportation, groceries, medical care, security, household necessities, and the staff who walk alongside survivors throughout their healing.

Restoration takes time. Consistency creates safety. And none of us can do this work alone.

Whether you make a single gift this North Texas Giving Day or become a monthly Restoration Partner, you are stepping into this work with us. Your support helps educate our community, mobilize volunteers to search for the missing, and ensure that when survivors are found, someone is ready to walk with them toward what comes next.

Human trafficking is happening here. But so is the fight against it.

And there is a place for you in that fight.