Ark of Freedom Alliance and Project Gold Align to Expand Human Trafficking Services to LGBTQ+ Youth

By Nathan Earl & Stephen Ferrante

Kristi House, in partnership with Ark of Freedom Alliance (AFA), was awarded a major three year grant from the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Kristi House’s program for sex trafficked girls, Project GOLD, will partner with AFA to expand services to males, LGBTQ+ individuals, and labor trafficking survivors in this new initiative, called Project TEAM (Trafficking & Exploitation Advancing the Movement).

Established in 2018, AFA is a nonprofit organization addressing violence and exploitation, as well as sex and labor trafficking in males and LGBTQ+ identifying youth and young adults. Their work involves outreach, case management, housing linkages, and community mobilization in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. AFA operates out of the FLITE Center of Broward County and Quest Workspaces Fort Lauderdale.

Kristi House operates Project GOLD, the first and longest-running program in Miami-Dade County, dedicated to child sex trafficking. The program is based at the Project GOLD Drop-In Center, the first such site in Florida developed exclusively for underage girls overcoming trafficking.

Together this partnership combines the means and expertise to expand and enhance services to young trafficking victims for whom services are currently scarce or highly limited. The goal is to provide the wraparound services needed to facilitate survivors’ stability and resilience, and end their exploitation and trauma. Domestic trafficking victims up to 24 years old will be served by Project TEAM.

“This project, and our partnership with Ark of Freedom Alliance, will enable us to provide the much needed, specialized services to trafficked males and LGBTQ+ individuals in our community,” CEO Amanda Altman said. “We are very excited to be forging on this path as we know of the tremendous needs of trafficking victims, particularly for these highly vulnerable populations.”

AFA’s CEO Nathan Earl expressed adding, “…awe and gratitude at this historic partnership between true counter-trafficking pioneers against some of the worst injustices that exist in the form of human slavery through labor and sexual exploitation. This alliance provides the resources needed to identify and assist historically underidentified male and LGBTQ+ victims.”

To learn more, please contact:

• Call (954) 778-2871 • FLITE Center of Broward County 5201 NW 33rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 • Screening, referral, and intake Eric Hendrix, Project TEAM Case Manager, at Eric.Hendrix@AOfAlliance.org Aytia Tarpley, Project TEAM Survivor-Mentor, at Aytia. Tarpley@AOfAlliance.org • Volunteering and financial support Nathan Earl, CEO, at Nathan.Earl@AOfAlliance.org