About Us
The Switch: Who We Are
The Switch National Anti-Trafficking Network provides solutions to stop one of the greatest human rights challenges of our times: human trafficking. We serve victims of sex-trafficking and sexual abuse as they work to become SurThrivers, survivors who can, and will to thrive in whatever they do.
The Switch: Victims to Surthrivers
The Switch invests directly in victims of sex-trafficking, giving them the support they need to make the Switch from victims to Surthrivers.Through education and entrepreneurship, we create a path towards economic empowerment for victims, giving them the tools they need to thrive within their communities, to have healthy, loving, and empowering relationships and families, to advocate for themselves and others through the abolition of human trafficking.
What is a Surthriver?
SurThriver: [noun]
- A person who survives an event in which others have not: She develops resiliency, healthy coping skills, self-respect, and hope for the future, despite experiencing the unimaginable.
- A person who succeeds in regaining her dignity and life: She makes the switch from victim to survivor to advocate against the exploitative system of human trafficking.
- A blended word describing a Survivor who thrives in their healing process: The Switch’s term for a victim who can, and will, change their own life and the world.
Examples: A SurThriver overcomes challenges with dignity and style. They have transitioned from victim to survivor, to thriver. They are advocates for social justice, voices for the voiceless, and conquerors over addictions, blames and shames. They believe in their ability to positively shape the world for themselves and others and to end human trafficking.
The Switch: Isolation to Community
The Switch also invests in communities: moving away from shame and isolation of victims to community care and responsibility for survivors. Through providing resources to victims and preventing further harm and trafficking through advocacy programs, we are working to switch the narrative: from isolated individuals that treat prostitution as a victimless crime, to communities that actively work to prevent human trafficking.
The Switch: It Happens Here
Sex trafficking happens in the United States, across major cities, and around major events. In 2019, there were 8,248 instances of reported sex trafficking across the United States, and 14,597 reported victims and survivors of sex trafficking nationwide. The average age of a victim of sex trafficking is 17 years old, and the majority of sex trafficking survivors are girls and young women.
The Switch: It Takes All of Us
“We rise by lifting others”
-Robert Ingersoll
To change the future of those exploited within our communities, we must work together to put victims on the path to freedom, hope, and restoration. As a collective, we must switch the perception of communities who believe prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation are victimless crimes and that human trafficking is a crime only impacting other countries. We must rise, as a community, to meet the needs of those victimized, and ensure that we dismantle this modern day system of slavery. It can, and will be done. (Get involved link)
Our Mission & Vision
The mission of the Switch Anti-Trafficking Network is to switch the plight of marginalized girls and women who have been victimized by human trafficking, and put them on a path towards reconciliation, redemption, and restoration.
We envision a world where human trafficking ceases to exist, where all girls and women are able to live, grow and thrive. We believe that we can create a world where every girl and young woman can, and will, succeed without the threat of violence or oppression.
The SWITCH uses a holistic, four-pronged approach to support SurTHRIVERS:
- Education: We provide robust entrepreneurial education and support to survivors, allowing them to carve out meaningful lives in any way that they choose.
- Advocacy: We advocate for the health and wellbeing of survivors in our community, centering their needs in everything that we do.
- Prevention: We partner with like-minded organizations to educate communities about sex trafficking, and how to prevent further victimization.
- SurThriver Support: We give survivors the support systems that they need to thrive.