Truist Foundation announced a $225,000 grant to Rethreaded, a nonprofit focused on breaking the cycle of generational trauma for sex trafficking survivors by providing them with employment, career development and supportive services. Rethreaded will use the grant funds to create a training program within the various systems that survivors encounter while in a life of human trafficking, including hospitals, workplaces, nonprofit organizations, and the justice system.
The goal of the training program is to equip system workers with information and tools to better understand and identify survivors to create a faster, less traumatic exit from the life of human trafficking and into new career pathways that sustain their financial needs and allow them to develop marketable job skills.
“Truist Foundation is devoted to partnering with organizations that are making strides to fight the global issue of human trafficking,” said Lynette Bell, president of Truist Foundation. “Rethreaded is doing critical work in Jacksonville to help transition survivors out of human trafficking and connect them to career pathways that lead to financial independence. It is our honor to help these survivors build better lives for themselves in partnership with Rethreaded.”
Truist Financial Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers, Truist Financial North Florida Regional President Emily Dawkins and Truist Foundation Director of Governance Renee Villanueva recently met with Rethreaded Founder and CEO Kristin Keen and Rethreaded President and COO Jason Jones to make the grant, discuss its impact and tour Rethreaded’s facilities.
“This grant will have a ripple effect in touching the lives of survivors, their families and our community as a whole,” said Keen. “Truist Foundation’s investment is a catalyst for change and together we can create more opportunities for women to reclaim their lives, find their voice and thrive.”
This training program builds on Rethreaded’s Survivor Development Program, which connects human trafficking survivors to careers in fields such as retail, finance and fundraising, and provides them with professional training and access to a trauma-informed professional community. Rethreaded serves 300 individuals annually, and 85 percent of survivors who engage with Rethreaded never return to human trafficking.
According to Rethreaded, Florida ranks third in the U.S. for reported cases of human trafficking and Jacksonville ranks 48th of all cities in the U.S. Rethreaded’s mission is to harness the power of business, time, and community to create choice for 500 survivors of human trafficking by 2033, and Truist Foundation seeks to be an active supporter of that mission.