Employment
Joblessness increases the likelihood of relapse.
At REST, we know through over a decade of experience walking alongside survivors that relapse back into the sex trade is more likely for survivors who are unable to secure and maintain a reliable, living-wage job that allows them to sustain housing and meet their own basic needs.
The barriers that survivors face to achieving stable employment are complicated.
Getting a job can be challenging. For many survivors, it may be their first job outside of the sex trade, or they may have a large gap in employment history. Many may face a lack of education or training. On top of that, they may have a criminal history or lack access to their personal identification documents needed during the hiring process.
When a survivor gets a job, it can be hard to maintain. A lack of soft skills that most people learn in their early adulthood employment, such as professional communication, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution can create problems at work. Trauma responses, mental health issues, and substance use can exacerbate these problems. And many of these problems are cyclical—it’s hard to maintain a job without stable housing, and hard to maintain stable housing without a job.
The REST Economic and Leadership Empowerment Academy
In the midst of the pandemic in our last fiscal year, we launched the REST Economic and Leadership Empowerment Academy. The goal of the Academy is to equip survivors to not only obtain but confidently maintain employment.
It consists of four pillars: six weeks of job readiness training, six-week paid internships, employment placement services, and leadership development workshops. Employment placement services and leadership development workshops are available to all REST clients.
With the first full year of the Academy completed, we are thrilled to report to you that:
90 clients accessed employment services
24 of those clients were served through the Academy
36 clients gained employment in the most challenging employment placement year we’ve ever faced
In this Annual Report, you’ll read two stories from REST Academy graduates: Sincere and Ronisha.