This Christmas, children who have survived sex trafficking may have more hope thanks to a Shelby County nonprofit.
Blanket Fort Hope, which was founded nearly seven years ago by Alexa James, will soon have a developed 73-acre estate where children and teens will receive restorative therapies and treatments. The new children’s home will be unlike any other in the state and the effort to bring it to Alabama has been a labor of love and faith.
“We’re bringing light into the darkness,” James told 1819 News. “We have been on this journey for seven years, ten months, a few days and cried and laughed a lot. So I think that’s something for people to understand that we’ve worked so hard to build this solid foundation.”
Speaking at the groundbreaking event, City Ministries at Church in Brook Hills pastor Keith Stanley said his church has supported the project because it knows God wants to accomplish things through His people.
RELATED: Blanket Fort Hope gets stamp of approval from AG Steve Marshall
“We care because God cares about us,” said Stanley. “God will always be one who is interested in the … downtrodden. He wants to release those prisoners.”
Blanket Fort Hope Children’s Home groundbreaking. Photo: Andrea Tice.
The treatment offered at the facility is only for underage women as Blanket Fort Hope leaders begin to focus on what law enforcement considers the most immediate need. Pelham Police Sgt. Brad Jordan said he’s seen it first hand. He once came across a young woman who had been trafficked from California to Alabama.
“She was pretty trained to despise me,” Jordan recalled. “Not me personally, but what I represented, and it took us a good 10 to 12 hours of heart to heart before she came to trust me. You can imagine going into the next day. She had one set of clothes, which were definitely not clothes you would normally see in January. During this entire period, as I try to get her to trust me and change the cycle she’s been living in for the past three years, I’ve been calling steadily and what I’m trying to find is someone. A resource that can help me, because what I’m dealing with here, I’m not equipped for it.”
Blanket Fort Hope Children’s Home. Photo: Andrea Tice.
Jordan had to send the teen to an organization in Georgia and he said the outcome wasn’t ideal for her in the end. Jordan said that Blanket Fort Hope will be the answer to those challenges in the future.
“It’s finally here and it’s amazing and I thank God for this opportunity,” Jordan concluded.
From now on, once children in Alabama are rescued, they will have a place to go, James said.
Blanket Fort Hope Children’s Home. Photo: Andrea Tice.
“There is no other place in our state where government officials can place children who have been trafficked,” James added. “…These children are God’s heart and we take that very, very seriously.”
Click here to learn more about Blanket Fort Hope or how you can support the cause.
To contact the author of this story or to comment, please email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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