Sincere, Survivor
“I wanted to be somebody important.”
Sincere grew up in poverty in a single-parent home in Pittsburg, PA. He knew his father—but his father wasn’t present, and didn’t provide support for the family. He recalls seeing his peers with the stability of a house to come home to and having basic needs met. It wasn’t just material things that Sincere lacked, but an environment that made him feel loved.
When Sincere was 17, he began dating a woman who was engaging in the sex trade —and when she suggested he do it, too, as a way to earn the money he lacked and provide for his own needs, he heeded her “advice.”
““I ended up moving away from home and we were just using that as a means to support... I was saying to myself that I wanted to be somebody important. I just had to figure things out. And I wanted to catch up to everybody. I always felt behind my peers because they had resources and a house to come home to and insurance and cars and stuff. So at 17, [my goal was] trying to make up for everything that I didn’t have afforded to me in my younger days.””
Sincere was trading sex for a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear—and a feeling of belonging, and being loved.
“There isn’t a lot of protection for me.”
At 24, after finding himself stranded alone in Miami, Sincere came to Seattle with the help of a friend. When the pandemic hit, Sincere’s situation got worse, and he was trying to figure things out—trying to figure out how to survive.
““There aren’t many resources, being a man, honestly. Being a man, you’re vilified—because I’ve gotten into some legal shit from the state and stuff—and once you’ve been there—there isn’t a lot of protection for me. There isn’t a lot [of support] out there for men in general. It’s especially hard for Black men.” ”
Sincere, a Black man, was caught in a world that often uses dehumanizing labels like “criminal” or “thug” for individuals who look like him even while he was being sexually exploited. Sincere was staying at a shelter but didn’t have access to food stamps, had no health insurance, and in his search for help he started “shooting shots in the dark.” One of those shots was at REST.
““When I first heard about REST, I thought it was just gonna be another one of those things that didn’t go my way. Things never seem to go my way, so I was really surprised that I was able to do this workshop program here, and find connections for my job…””
“I got a team behind me.”
Sincere rapidly got involved with REST. He enrolled in—and graduated from—the REST Economic and Leadership Empowerment Academy and moved into the REST House, one of the very few housing programs for male survivors of human trafficking in the country. Then with REST walking alongside him in a supportive role, he got a job with one of REST’s business partners, a local non-profit that hires survivors.
Once Sincere began to see opportunities and services move from hypothetical options on paper to tangible real-life support, he began to see a different future.
““Once I got accepted into the REST House community, I was immediately moved to tears. Uncontrollably. I could not stop crying because before I had a place with a shelter—it was just a bunk bed, and that was my world. It was the connections… as they started to materialize, then it really started to click… okay, I can make something of myself.” ”
Sincere is taking steps every day toward freedom, safety, and hope—and he’s doing it with the team at REST helping him overcome challenges, and face barriers that are still very real for him. He’s maintained his job at the local non-profit, earned his driver’s license, and lives in the stable environment of the REST House. He’s still working toward repairing relationships, getting insurance, buying a car, and following in his mother’s footsteps to become a Licensed Nurse Practitioner.
““It’s interesting, with me working at [employer], we used to operate in a position of scarcity, and recently we changed our policies to no longer move in that position of scarcity, but to operate in a position of abundance. So this is a new lesson that I’m learning at work, and it’s so coincidental that it ties into my life, because I’ve always lived in scarcity… and it wasn’t just money and food that was a scarcity, it was a scarcity of everything. A scarcity of personality, a scarcity of comfort, a scarcity of rest, a scarcity of relaxation and mental preparation, or anything. So now, I’m trying to live in abundance of those things. A healthy abundance.” ”
Sincere recognizes how much REST has helped him, but also sees how much he’s helped himself and gives himself credit where credit is due.
““REST gave me the tools. I feel like, for me personally, REST has given me the shovel, and it’s up to me every day to dig and plant the seeds... They put you inside a space that’s safe, and it allows you to really reach for these goals.””
Shortly after doing the interview for his story, Sincere achieved one of his major goals: purchasing a car—and not just any car, his dream car, a red Camaro, which he now uses to commute to his job that he’s maintained for several months.