NEWS
Recent Coverage on Our Programs and Organization
Non-profits being hurt by coronavirus distancing, so they're getting creative
11Alive
March 27, 2020
COVID-19 UPDATES
March 27, 2020
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Replacing Homelessness with Hope
AG US Missions
February 20, 2020
A heroin overdose helped Austin B. Chumbley realize he needed to change. The 23-year-old man had been homeless in Atlanta for months. He abused drugs every day. Friends wouldn’t let him stay the night with them anymore. “I was a guy who was literally on my way to the coffin,” he says. “I had hit rock bottom.” A week after his overdose, Chumbley followed a friend’s recommendation and walked into the Atlanta Dream Center to meet with....
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Statement From CEO
February 20, 2020
Former Employee Arrested
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Delta, Gate City Brewing Co. team to curb human trafficking
11Alive
January 10, 2020
ROSWELL, GA — For a small craft brewery, having a major airline sell your beer on its flights is a great business opportunity. For Gate City Brewing Company in Roswell, they also see it as an opportunity to share an important message about human trafficking. Gate City began brewing and selling Freedom Fighter IPA last year, with the can featuring facts about human trafficking in Georgia, as well as...
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Organization opening new Columbus shelter Monday for human trafficking survivors
10tv | WBNS
December 06, 2019
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ninety-eight percent of women caught in the sex trade were sexually abused as girls, according to those who study the problem. In an effort to find a way out, a group of Columbus women decided to act. That's how Out of Darkness Columbus started. The program began in Atlanta and Columbus is its first chapter outside of that city. The emergency shelter, which is
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Atlanta woman celebrates 12 years in recovery, credits the Atlanta Dream Center
11Alive
August 29, 2019
ATLANTA — Twelve years ago, Vickey Boyles arrived at the Atlanta Dream Center with a bloody head and a broken spirit. “I came from Alabama from a family that only bonds with alcohol, anger and aggressiveness," she said. "I came to Atlanta to escape that lifestyle and while trying to deal with those pains, I found a way to comfort those pains through drug abuse." Boyles told 11Alive that...
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13 sex trafficking statistics that explain the enormity of the global sex trade
USA TODAY
July 29, 2019
Sex trafficking is a massive, worldwide problem that can take many forms. One of the most prolific: America’s multibillion-dollar illicit massage industry. The prominence of illegal parlors and their ties to sex trafficking drew national attention in February with the arrest of New England Patriots owner...
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Decatur’s Downtown Ambassador program on hold
June 17, 2019
Decatur’s Downtown Development Authority has decided to hold off on a pilot program that would place pairs of downtown ambassadors on patrol around the square and help mediate conflicts between people who are homeless and local business employees and customers. “We have gone back to the drawing board on that,” Shirley Baylis, Downtown Program Manager, told the DDA board at its regular meeting on Friday. “The police [department] expressed some...
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Roswell Rotary and End Human Trafficking Now on how the 'power of one' energized a movement
Marietta Daily Journal
March 7, 2019
Roswell Rotarian Dave McCleary works to keep the momentum to end human trafficking, not only going, but going strong. McCleary spoke in front of Roswell Rotary on March 7 to give an update on efforts on End Human Trafficking Now and the 'Power of One.' "We will move to make a mark that can never be erased, to stop human trafficking," said Dave McCleary. In one moment, he recalled...
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Atlanta churches work to combat sex trafficking during Super Bowl, help exploited victims
Christian Post
February 01, 2019
As football fans travel to Atlanta this weekend to cheer on the Rams or Patriots at Super Bowl LIII, some local churches will be actively working to combat sex trafficking, which can spike around sporting events. According to groups like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, major sporting events like...
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Sex trafficking at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta: Advocates, players fight against exploitation
USA TODAY
January 30, 2019
Sierra Thompson was 18 when she was flown to Houston by a man she met on Instagram. The man had flaunted a flashy lifestyle of fancy cars, expensive jewelry and designer clothes. Their first day together consisted of conversation, drugs and sex. On the second day, she says, the man lured her to a small Houston strip club to dance for money. So began a three-year ordeal of being sold to strangers for sex in cities around the country – including Honolulu during the 2016 NFL Pro Bowl. "A messed-up person messed me up," Thompson says. She eventually broke away from her pimp and returned to...
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‘Hidden Dangers’ panel at East Cobb Middle warns students, parents about human trafficking
Marietta Daily Journal
January 17, 2019
EAST COBB — Representatives from organizations looking to snuff out sex trafficking held a panel discussion on the issue at East Cobb Middle School this week. Called “Hidden Dangers,” the event sought to warn students and parents about the threat of human trafficking and alert them to the signs. Social workers, school counselors and anti-sex trafficking activists were among those in attendance, as well as 365 guests, 168 of whom were students. Atlanta consistently ranks among...
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Out of Darkness Provides A Lifeline For Human Trafficking Victims
Independent Women's Forum
January 17, 2019
“I didn’t believe anyone out there could love someone like me.” The young sex trafficking survivor’s comment seared my heart. She had lived a lifetime’s worth of hurt and devastation, addiction and family dysfunction. In her late twenties when I met her, she had turned her life around and was looking at a brighter future. What changed her mind was visits from volunteers for Out of Darkness, an Atlanta-based nonprofit focused on rescuing and restoring women in the sex trade. In jail facing serious charges, she met weekly with
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ATLANTA DREAM CENTER EXPANDING
AG US MISSIONS
August 08, 2018
Atlanta Dream Center founder Paul V. Palmer had never held a check for a quarter million dollars before. But on a Sunday morning last December, another area church handed the Dream Center $274,000 — nearly 80 percent of what it needed to purchase a new women’s crisis safe home. “I felt so inadequate to express my gratitude and awe,” says Palmer, a U.S. missionary with Missionary Church Planters & Developers. “It blew me away.” The grant, from...
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Sex trafficking survivor tells her story to shed light on growing problem
CBS 46
March 15, 2018
With Atlanta being dubbed the “sex trafficking capital of the U.S.”, many city and state officials have come together to tackle the problem. "I moved out of my parent's house abruptly when I moved in with him, so I moved all my things into his hotel room and then a few short hours later I was turning tricks," Alexa Taylor said. Taylor took us on a trip down memory lane, but the stories were dark. Many of them highlighted in this book memoirs of a teen sex trafficked. She said it all began with...
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Atlanta’s Efforts to Curb Human Trafficking Recognized by the World Chamber of Commerce
GLOBAL ATLANTA
May 11, 2017
“Airports are in a unique position to identify perpetrators and victims of sexual trafficking,” Roosevelt Council Jr., the general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told more than 200 attendees at the World Chamber of Commerce Business and Humanitarian Summit held at the Georgia International Convention Center May 4. In the wake of the growing awareness of Atlanta’s role as a hub for trafficking...
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Mercer anti-sex trafficking campaign expanding nationally
The Telegraph
March 27, 2016
While growing up in Perry, Hayley Gray knew little of the sex trafficking trade now thriving along Georgia's interstate corridor. The 21-year-old marketing student at Mercer University once thought the problem was confined to people from other countries. After studying sex slavery and underground prostitution, she now realizes it's more prevalent than...
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The latest weapon in sex trafficking: a rose
11Alive
February 15, 2015
ATLANTA -- How much is a person worth? According to the FBI, sex trafficking is the most profitable illicit business in Atlanta, more than double the profits from drug trafficking. With the stakes so high, one group is taking a stand that every woman and man in this city is priceless. The Out of Darkness program is trying to rescue victims of sex trafficking, one at a time. While you're sleeping, these are the conversations happening on our streets...
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Not for Sale: Groups Fight Atlanta Sex Trafficking
CBN News
March 15, 2012
ATLANTA - More than 5 million people live and work in the Atlanta-metro area. Despite the recession, its economy ranks sixth among the nation's cities. The metro area is also home to a number of Fortune 500 companies and proud of it.But what it's not proud of is the lucrative business of human trafficking that by all accounts appears to be flourishing. The region's top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, is helping to raise the profile of Atlanta's anti-trafficking movement. "A lot of...
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