FEATURE ARTICLE
Education. I did The Forum, and then I did the S.E.L.P. (self-expression leadership training program). In that one-year program, our task was to find something missing in society and create something to fill that gap. I was to become aware of my mission for this area of my life through this class.
I remember in junior high school I had written a paper on “White Slavery, Prostitution”. I never could stand it when people's lives were taken away from them. I was deeply moved and horrified by the Holocaust, not just because I'm Jewish but also because I couldn't believe that people were other people’s property. How could they live with no possibility of choice? How could they live lives that belonged to others? It was the same with slavery. I could not stand the fact that people thought they should have slaves and other people should be their properly. It made me crazy and it still does.
I finished school, received my master's degree from Wayne State University, and became a Special Education teacher for emotionally impaired children. I related to them. I knew what it felt like to be an outsider. I gave up the teaching career that I loved to remain a heroin addict. I was a lost soul.
The ’70s were a loss for me, or so I thought. I got involved with a group of people and together we became drug dealers. Eventually, I got arrested and was facing 20 years in prison. Instead of going to jail, I went into a treatment facility where I got clean and received treatment. I came out of that program wanting to start a new life. My father had been ill and when I left the cocoon of the residential therapeutic community, I took over his business. It wasn't until 1988 that I got clean and sober through the hope of Alcoholics Anonymous and I have continued to live my life as a sober woman since then.
I've always done some sort of self-help work annually. In 2013 I decided to take a class at Landmark
"I was deeply moved and horrified by the Holocaust, not just because I'm Jewish but also because I couldn't believe that people were other people’s property."
At that time, I became attuned to the fact that there was a lot of talk about human trafficking, however, I soon realized that there was not much being done at the grassroots level to help victims. My history, my wanting to help people, specifically women that were being taken advantage of, caused me to see where and how we were lacking and neglecting this disadvantaged population. I came to see that there were very few safe homes for people to heal. People just like me, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a friend, a woman. We were thought of as throw-aways – there are no throw-away people! I was lucky enough to go into treatment for 1 ½ years rather than jail for 20 years!
As I was contemplating the plight of the human trafficked victim for my project, I knew that if we wanted to help people change from extreme trauma and addiction, they needed to be in a long-