YouTube interview (March 2025) describing Jasmine Grace Outreach’s program for women recovering from exploitation, addiction, and trauma. The outreach uses a trauma-informed, compassionate model: an initial stabilization (described as a first 30-day ‘blackout’ period), practical help (IDs, birth certificates, insurance), basic self-care and routine rebuilding (sleep, eating, laundry, exercise), survivor-focused curricula and spiritual resources (Bible study and material from the staff member’s memoir/journal), and layered therapeutic work as clients progress. Staff with lived experience support residents; many clients present co-occurring needs (addiction + trauma, pregnancy/abortion trauma). The setting is a rural New Hampshire home where safety, boundaries, and paced unpacking of trauma are emphasized.
So we've touched on this a little bit, but I want to do a deeper dive into it. Jasmine, because you're working with women that usually are needing to do work on both sides of recovery. On the one hand, they've got their own addiction issues, whether to drugs or sex or the acting out behaviors that because of how their brain has been shaped. But on the other hand, they've got tons and tons of trauma and being exploited and abused. So they're both working on what's been done to them, but also unraveling the choices that they've made. So, so how do you help someone through that unique circumstance?
Oh, it's messy. This work is very messy. And it's very like, everyone makes fun of me. I use that word. It's like we just meet them where they're at, right? And we get to walk alongside and it's through that compassionate lens, trauma, informed care. And they're in charge of their recovery process. Right? They come into the home and it's kind of what they go through, like this four phase or these milestones. Right? Let's just get a dustbill row. A lot of these women come in with no IDs, no health insurance, they can't find their birth certificate, Social Security counts, like all these basic things have to be met. So we just work on that. We let them come in for the first 30 days and kind of like do this stabilization period where it's like a blackout where they don't talk to anybody on the outside. They kind of just rest. When I say that, I don't mean you take naps all day. If you need a nap, okay? But it's just letting the body come down and just stop because you've been out there hustling and running for years and it's just so much. You just have to take a breath and relax and learn the rhythm of regular life. And it can be very boring, too. In our house specifically, is out in the middle of a sticks. It's funny, in New Hampshire we always say, like, the girls are on their way and they're like, where are you guys taking me? To get a little nervous.
Is this a real place? What is this?
Yes, and it's just in the sticks and it's ice Alpha. And so just to come and to relax. And so like start moving your body slowly and getting your stuff in the ducks in a row, like I said. And then we start like safety, self care, boundaries, coping skills. Like, we kind of build on that. Like, we give them tools for the toolbox that they're going to need later. You know, start to eat regular, start to move a little bit, work out pain as a regular eating schedule, start to clean your room, do your laundry, like all these basic things. And then as it goes on, it gets deeper and deeper and deeper. We use a few resources that are geared specifically towards survivors of exploitation to really have those genuine conversations. We use my book, which is pretty cool. I managed to write a book somewhere in here which is really neat because it was all based on my old journal entries while I was being trafficked. And through active addiction, I managed to keep the journalist. And then I was able to turn that into a book many years later and then put present day reflections to show who I am today and how I recovered and what God has done to me. So it's pretty empower, pretty powerful. So we do use basic survivor curriculum for women, but we also obviously are using the Bible and we're using other resources and we haven't yet been able to start authentically you, but that is on our list. And we're waiting for the women just to get a little bit further along in their foundation built so they can unpack that. Also abortion. Many of the women come in with all types of trauma from abortions. And so we have certain Bible studies to talk about that, but we're not going to talk about that at the first jump, you know, in the first two months, we're going to build it up.
That is so good. I'm like just feeling all of the things, especially the fact that you were able to. I mean, what I thought of when you said, oh, I was keeping a journal, even actively in my addiction, and I'm like, okay, that's his God was like, pause. I need you to write this down. I have a plan for this. You're going to help so many people through this. And it just gives me goosebumps to your story. It's so good and what you're doing for the women. And I know it seems like this is kind of an off question, but just watching the video on your website about your crew, I mean, it's so cool to see that you have several women on your staff. I don't know if all of them are, but they, they have the history. So you, they just have this, you have this whole team of, we've been there and we're going to be here for you.
Yeah, well, I appreciate what you said about meeting them where they're at because sometimes when we see something in an amplified form, we're able to take it into our story. And I think for a lot of our listeners, hopefully for a lot of them, they weren't sex trafficked, but they can see I'm in a situation where I have both been traumatized or exploited or abused, and however that happened, and I have issues of my own to work on. And sometimes the question is like, well, where do I start and do I do it all at once? And I think that advice of just where are you at? What do you need right now? What is your most basic need? Because sometimes it is the trauma from a spouse, it is the trauma of abuse. And it's like there is just such a need for safety and to call, as you said, like, calm the body, like, that's where you got to start. But maybe other people come and other addictive issues that have developed sometimes because of the trauma need to get under control so that you can do the trauma work. And every story is different and everyone's a little different. But I, I think if we have that heart to just say, where are you at? Where should we start? And let's start there and let's, let's take a positive step. Let's get some momentum going. And maybe we're not doing that other part right now, but at the right time, we'll get there. And that might be encouragement to someone listening today.
