My husband is slightly dismayed. Candle wax is dripping onto my kitchen floor. It is in my hair and on my clothes. The girls start making candles on Monday. Are we ready for this?
1900 pounds of wax. Over a $1000 in candle oil fragrances. 3000 glass jars. The Shell marketing team has designed amazing labels.
12 teen trafficking victims will have summer jobs that will change the course of their lives.
Welcome to New Creations….Free the Captives’ summer job program for teen trafficking victims! For most of the girls this is their first legitimate job. Poverty is one of the main reasons of why girls are trafficked in Houston.
New Creations is the most important thing we do for teen trafficking victims. This job program has had the most impact on restoring their lives and giving them hope. Besides earning a stipend, they learn important job skills such as time management and teamwork. They also learn how to budget, write a resume, and interview. Working at New Creations gives them a sense of purpose and restores their self worth.
Currently, we have been incredibly blessed by a church that has donated two classrooms and storage for us to use this summer. We are so thankful for their support! But we are growing, and this is a good problem!
Because New Creations has had such a tremendous impact on rebuilding the girls’ lives, through work and mentoring, we want to expand New Creations. Free the Captives’ three step plan towards becoming self sustaining:
- Take New Creations, a small summer job program, and develop it into a full fledged profitable business. So the first goal is to pay for all the girls and the raw materials and make a profit!
- Next, New Creations’ business proceeds would pay for all the remaining costs of Free the Captives’ programs and services for trafficking victims.
- Lastly, proceeds would go to develop our microfinance loan program for the girls so that they could start their own businesses.
So what is the first step in making all of this happen? How can we change the girls’ lives and impact generations to come? How does Free the Captives become self sustaining and less dependent on public donations?
We need your help in finding the perfect property for Free the Captives and our job program. We are looking for property near 610 between 45 and 59, north of downtown Houston. See map below.
This would be a centralized location that many of the girls could easily access via public transportation.
Property characteristics needed:
- a large warehouse/production facility to make and store the candles and other products that the girls are creating (3000 sq. ft.)
- a house/office that would operate as a drop-in facility and emergency shelter for victims (3200 sq. ft.)
- Drop-in facility: where teen victims can wash their clothes, take a bath, get a hot meal while receiving Free the Captives’ other services such mentoring and tutoring
- Emergency/transition shelter: to help victims transition into longer term housing
- near public transportation – bus or DART
With this property, we can go from a summer part-time job program that hires 12 victims to providing full-time jobs all year long for 40 victims or more. Additionally, we can provide the girls with holistic, wrap around services in a centralized location that range from washing their clothes to counseling to shelter.
How can you help?
- Help us find the perfect property. Put this on your prayer list. Connect us with your best real estate agent to find this unique piece of property. Talk to your friends about it. Ideally, it would be great to have this property donated.
- Help us develop New Creations into a full fledged, profitable business. Lend us your business acumen. How do we turn a small business into one that fully sustains a nonprofit?
- Are you a natural born salesperson? Join our New Creations’ Sales Team! We need people to open doors for us at Whole Foods and HEB as well as help us sell the candles at local craft markets and fairs.
- Donate online at www.FreetheCaptivesHouston.com or mail your donation to Free the Captives, 2211 Rayford Rd, Suite 111-418, Spring, TX 77386.
- Pray. We start New Creations on June 15. Pray for the girls and our staff. Pray for a great and productive summer that restores and rebuilds the girls’ lives!
If you can help in anyway, email us at info@freethecaptiveshouston.com. Thank you for your support!
Blessings,
Julie Waters, JD
Founder and Director, Free the Captives