Originally posted by by Sarah Delage, WCSH, on December 8, 2014—
“A local agency has received a grant to open Maine’s first Human Trafficking safe house.
St. Andre Home in Biddeford has traditionally provided shelter and resources to pregnant homeless women.
They received a four hundred thousand dollar grant from the Next Generation Foundation to open a shelter for victims of human trafficking.
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline, calls for help originating from Maine have increased by more than 50%. With the number of sex trafficking victims in Maine on the rise, there is a growing need for services to help them. The staff at St. Andre has been working with law enforcement across the state to identify women who need help.
“They are seeing women all the time,” Diane Madden, Director of Marketing and Development for St. Andre Home said. “They are ready to get out, they just don’t have a place to go. Sadly enough, often times they just end up going to jail and that’s not what we want.”
The safe house will not be in Biddeford. It will be in a remote, undisclosed location in Maine. It will provide shelter as well as specialized programs such as mental health services, substance abuse counseling, and, when victims are ready, life skills and job training.”
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HUMAN RIGHTS SOCIETY 