Community Advocacy
“I answered a call from a woman in tears. She was assaulted and robbed the night before and needed help. She said, ‘You have texted me on all of my numbers and when this happened, I knew I could call you.’ I met with her that day and am meeting with her again this afternoon.
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Case Management
The Community Advocacy program provides assistance to people involved in or exiting the sex trade throughout the King County area. Advocates provide consistent relationships and case management to help individuals of all ages and genders identify their needs, access resources, build a community of support, and reach the goals that are most important to them.
REST advocates help clients achieve hundreds of self-identified goals every year—including housing, employment, education, health, reunification with children, and many other goals that lead to self-sufficiency.
Last fiscal year, our survivors accomplished 784 self-identified goals.
Outreach
The REST Outreach Coordinator engages survivors in four primary ways: through text messages, going to the streets in King County, sharing resources with community partners, and following up with first-time hotline callers.
In our last fiscal year, we sent 2,613 texts to phone numbers advertising sexual services online through Freedom Signal—a software developed out of a partnership between REST, Microsoft Hackathon volunteers, and The Lantern Project. Each text message contains an offer of services and a message of hope for its recipients.
Our Street Outreach team goes to the streets about four times a month, visiting places where people are known to be exploited. By offering non-judgmental relationships, hygiene items, and information about our services, we convey, "You are seen, and we care."