Building a Future Beyond Trafficking

Marie was a victim of sex trafficking before she turned 13.

“I was stuck in the lifestyle, always wanting to smoke and drink,” she says. “I was not making the right choices. I felt like I had nobody, and I ended up being incarcerated.”

Marie is just one of more than an astounding 325,000 children who are commercially sexually exploited in the United States every year. But there are just 511 beds in the entire country available for residential programs to effectively treat sex trafficked girls. Olive Crest acquired the Hope Refuge Campus in 2022 in response to that massive shortage, specifically to support and provide therapeutic live-in care for girls aged 12 to 18 who have been victims in California.

The 214-acre ranch-style facility in the hills of Santa Barbara – filled with oak woodlands, rolling hills, and stunning ocean views – runs an intensive six-month-minimum, fully California-licensed program providing resources for up to 16 girls to heal and forge a path for a new life. Each girl at the center receives individualized counseling, mental health support, on-site education, and skills in independent living and relationship building. 

The girls are referred by Santa Barbara Social Services or Probation Department as well as 18 different counties in California – and because the girls are reluctant to reveal they’ve been sex trafficked, they are identified by social workers and probation officers trained to look for “red flags” and high-risk behavior. 

“They have been so utterly brainwashed,” explains Sally Cook, who used to work at DreamWorks Animation and co-founded Hope Refuge with her husband. “I can’t think of any worse kind of slavery than an innocent child being exploited this way to the point that she believes she’s not a victim.” 

Without treatment, the girls often either act out or internalize the trauma, landing in a juvenile hall or a psych ward – unable to get the support they need to deal with the damage. But the Hope Refuge Campus provides them with comprehensive early intervention that changes their trajectory for a successful adulthood. 

“At first, they want to run, which is all they know,” says Cook. “But that’s not easy from a remote facility like ours. Eventually they bond with staff and each other, embrace the program, and develop the healthy relationships they’ve been missing.”

That’s what happened for Marie. “Olive Crest has helped me heal as I go through my past trauma,” Marie says. “Just knowing I have a support team behind me lets me know that I’m worthy.”