Organization
For nearly two decades, Crisis Aid International has worked in 11 countries to fight sex trafficking and exploitation. Crisis Aid’s work has grown to include multiple long-term holistic community development programs in both the U.S. and East Africa.
In 2012, Crisis Aid opened its U.S. Refuge safe home to house and provide faith-based counseling and mentorship to trafficked women and girls in St. Louis and began collaborating closely with the St. Louis County Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit. Additionally, Crisis Aid’s Wings of Love and Care ministers to families in St. Louis, Missouri providing food, clothing, hygiene items, and back-to-school supplies.
Partnership #1 (2015)
Crisis Aid had identified that a barrier to retaining girls in their home was the lack of a “home-like” environment. The Brown Sisters issued a challenge grant to new donors to raise the funds to rehabilitate their residential care facilities. They will create a more warm and home-like atmosphere while creating space for therapeutic programs that will increase participant length of stay.
Partnership #2 (2018)
When the agency opened the Refuge Home, they did not expect the growing demand for services. Rather than continue to turn women and girls away, the agency approached Brown Sisters Foundation to help expand the home from 8 to 22 beds. The Foundation provided a challenge grant to raise funding from new and existing donors to cover increased expenses and ensure sustainability.
Partnership #3 (2020)
In 2018, Crisis Aid deepened its partnership with the St. Louis County Police Department by expanding Crisis Aid’s services to include the provision of advocacy, crisis intervention, counseling, education, safety planning, and connections to community resources for trafficking victims and internet/electronics-based crimes against children and their families. These expanded services, called CAPP (Collaborative Advocacy Police Program) are made possible through Crisis Aid staff embedded within the specialized police units that investigate internet/electronics-based crimes against children and sex trafficking.
As young people spend more time online in general due to increased popularity of online gaming, social media, screen time and smartphone usage, Crisis Aid saw increasing requests for victim assistance. In response to this increasing need, CAPP is expanding its program to collaborate with the St. Charles County Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Unit. The Brown Sisters Foundation issued a challenge grant to attract new and increased donations to support this expansion, as well as related services.
Partnership #4 (2022)
Children’s Anti-exploitation Partnership (CAP) is a new collaborative initiative that Crisis Aid International has engaged in that focuses on reaching children at risk for sex trafficking or other forms of child sexual abuse. CAP provides advocacy, resources, and support to children and families identified in internet/electronics-related crimes against children and human trafficking investigations, as well as tools like Internet Safety Education (ISE) programs for parents of children engaged in high-risk sexual activities online to help prevent trafficking or other forms of sexual abuse. The Brown Sisters Foundation issued a challenge grant to support staffing of the CAP program.