Treasured Vessels Foundation

A nonprofit organization

$68,528 raised by 52 donors

100% complete

$40,000 Goal

Traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion to profit from the exploitation of another person for sex or labor. Traffickers use promises of love, fulfillment of desires, a job, and threats of violence as tools to deceive their victims. Trafficking victims often experience trauma-bonds with the very people who harm them. Traffickers are often family members, using their close proximity and innate trust to take advantage of the victim. Survivors experience deep levels of complex trauma, PTSD, dissociation, severe anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, making it difficult to escape and even harder to assimilate back to a healthy lifestyle after escape.  

Many victims of sex trafficking have tried to flee from their traffickers, yet they were coerced back or felt they had no alternative but to return to this life of pain and trauma. Those who do flee, face a myriad of obstacles to overcome, including homelessness, continued physical and mental abuse, little to no money, gaps in education and employment, often a criminal record, drug dependency, and a lack of supportive friends and family.    

Research by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has shown that the complex mental health needs of trafficking survivors are typically not met with most programs that only offer weekly therapy, GEDs, and life & job skills. Unfortunately, these necessary resources are woefully scarce. 100% of the survivors who have entered our program present with symptoms of dissociation, where the mind escapes the body during repeated trauma. Survivors of trafficking have complex PTSD at a minimum and many present with dissociative identity disorder. TVF is one of the few programs nationwide that will accept the most severe forms of dissociation.  

We are currently in the process of expanding our program by building an additional safe house adjacent to our current home, which will more than double our bed count and expand services to offer a transitional home for those who progress through the early phases of our program.  

 More About TVF:

Treasured Vessels Foundation provides safe communities that restore survivors of sexual exploitation to achieve their true potential. Founded in 2016, TVF uses a holistic and comprehensive approach in mental health therapy, education, physical health, and community to assist survivors of sex trafficking in building an independent and sustainable future.   

TVF’s current and in-progress safe homes in Collin County, Texas are designed to provide a safe and stable environment where women can heal while processing their complex trauma through intensive therapy. Survivors, called Resident Interns, learn relational and healthy coping techniques in therapy, which are critical in learning how to break the trauma response cycles they have learned through exploitation, and build healthy, trusting relationships.    

Treasured Vessels’ safe home program is unmatched with regard to the intensive long-term mental health services offered for survivors. Our supportive programming focuses on developing stability while increasing capacity for greater autonomy and long-term sustainability in the future. TVF wants to help each survivor walk confidently toward their dreams and support them in achieving success. 


Mission

We exist to provide safe communities that restore survivors of sexual exploitation to achieve their true potential

Needs

We need to raise an additional $40,000 to set us up to break ground on our second safe home in the next 90 days.

TVF's Vision:

Double the capacity of our current program by opening a transitional house next door to our current safe home

Build a therapeutic campus on our 5-acre land in Fannin County to serve minors at a large capacity

Develop a model that is replicable throughout Texas and the United States

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Treasured Vessels Foundation

Tax id (EIN)

46-3947870

Guidestar

Causes

Housing, Shelter & Homelessness, Human Trafficking & Exploitation, Women & Girls

Operating Budget

$500,000 - $999,999

Counties Served

Collin, Dallas, Denton

BIPOC Serving

Black or African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American, Other

Address

PO Box 2256
Frisco, TX 75034