KEN TUCK Y N O N P R O F I T W ORKING TO OP EN S TATE’ S F IR S T SH ELTER FO R SE X U A L L Y TRAF F ICKED & EXP LOITED CH ILD R E N Writer / Noelle Tennis Gulden Photography Provided
When Cara Starns chose to attend a session on child victims of human trafficking during a regional conference last year, she had no idea it would alter the course of her life. “It just so happens that I was sitting next to a child trafficking detective from the state during the session,” Starns says. When the presenter revealed that Kentucky had no shelter specifically and solely designed to serve sexually exploited and trafficked children, Starns says, “the detective elbowed me and said, ‘Did you hear that?’” Even though human trafficking had been at the center of her career from the very beginning, Starns, who had recently returned home to Kentucky to develop a Refuge for Women site in Louisville, was shocked to hear that no shelters existed
in Kentucky for trafficked children — especially since the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services reports that there have been 787 reported incidents of child sex trafficking in Kentucky since 2013, involving 949 alleged victims. Still, Starns says, “my first reaction was, ‘What does this have to do with me?’” As far as she was concerned, her work had not changed. It was still to open a Refuge for Women site in Louisville. Before long, however, that elbow nudge from the detective turned into an internal nudge Starns couldn’t ignore. She spent six months conducting research on what it would take for Refuge for Women to open a children’s shelter in Kentucky. Her conclusion was clear, if not disappointing. “I determined that a shelter for sexually exploited and trafficked children would have to be its own thing,” Starns says. “Refuge for Women couldn’t do it.”
When Starns presented her research findings to the national board of Refuge for Women, she thought it was the end of the matter, an inquiry she would ultimately put behind her. Instead, “they told me that if I wanted to take it on, they would support me,” she says. This was the second nudge, which was quickly followed by a third. “A family foundation called and told us they would provide seed funding if we decided to move ahead with the project,” Starns says. Despite all these nudges, Starns knew she was up against tough odds. Several other groups had tried to open shelters for sexually exploited and trafficked children in the past, and each attempt had failed. She had no reason to believe her efforts would be any different than previous ones. Starns decided to continue moving forward, however, and others soon decided to join her.
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