Olive Crest Hope Refuge

When it comes to sex trafficking, everyone wants to talk about rescue – the dramatic swooping in and saving of teenage girls from the clutches of men who are abusing them. But that’s merely the beginning of the girls’ road to recovery. 

“Olive Crest Hope Refuge Campus focuses on what happens next,” said Sally Cook, co-founder of the facility in the hills of Santa Barbara that provides the necessary resources for healing and reentry into society.

“Hope Refuge exists because rescue is only the beginning,” said Cook. After having attended an event where she learned about both the magnitude of trafficking in the state, and the lack of facilities to support the girls who have suffered from the experience, she essentially left a Hollywood career – which included time at DreamWorks Animation – to create Hope Refuge. “Hope Refuge is not an emergency shelter. Once a child is recovered from trafficking, where does she go to heal, rebuild trust, return to school, and learn she has value beyond what was done to her? How does the family heal and build for a brighter future? Hope Refuge Campus was created to answer those questions.” 

The answer at the Hope Refuge Campus is a residential healing environment designed specifically for girls who have experienced trafficking and exploitation “because true healing requires safety, time, specialized care, and unwavering relationships,” Cook said. 

The 214-acre ranch-style mountaintop facility near Santa Barbara encompasses oak woodlands, rolling hills, and stunning ocean views, but these features, however glorious, are not just aesthetic baubles. The safe, peaceful, and nurturing environment is essential to the girls’ recovery.

“Being at Olive Crest is an opportunity for them to fully decompress and detox off the life that they’ve been in and the grooming they’ve experienced, in just such a setting where they’re safe physically and they’re safe emotionally,” Cook said. “Nobody has access to this site except those who are part of the programs. And being as remote as we are, it makes it hard for the girls to run away, which is often the first reaction. 

“The first month at Olive Crest is difficult because the girls are still in fight or flight mode, with the sex trafficking victims accustomed to fighting their way through things that they don’t trust. But given where we are, they can’t go off. They stay onsite and get the real decompression time, which is also a time to bond very healthily with healthy adults and the other girls,” explained Cook. “That’s when they’ll start to embrace the program, embrace therapy and their rehabilitation. They start to re-wire, realizing there are people they can trust.”

Those programs, led by experienced, trauma-informed personnel, provide intensive care and support for the girls – a maximum of 16 at a time – for a minimum of six months, providing enough space, time, and professional support for the 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. 

One of the more effective opportunities is working with other survivors of trafficking who are now leading happy, productive lives, Cook said. 

“It’s a very important part of recovery to have a survivor-led program where other survivors who are now mature and leading in the community run a program here with our girls,” she said. “They’re the ones who can really highlight the ‘game’ that they got caught up in and share about their own situation and their recovery, speaking from experience.”

Olive Crest consistently evaluates the success of the programs – ones that are specifically designed around the highly complex level of trauma associated with having been groomed – using clinical assessment for adolescents to make sure they’re reaching the goals, Cooks said. 

“Has therapy worked? That’s what we’re constantly looking at. Are we dealing with the trauma? If you don’t fully address the trauma, their behaviors will continue. They will not stop. For sex-trafficked minors it’s all about taking a thoughtful time out and experiencing authentic, grounded love. Sexual abuse has a very deep impact on the soul and the body. So we’re looking at their mental health and their progress in education. How are they communicating? How are they feeling about themselves? How are they feeling about others?” 

Olive Crest’s program has proved very successful, as indicated by the testimony and video clips on their website and the numbers of “graduates” integrating back into society. 

“When our girls leave here, they’ve got options, they’ve got hope, they’ve got a future,” Cook said.  

Visit www.olivecrest.org/santa-barbara.