A Southwest Florida non-profit is working hard to rehabilitate and reclaim the lives of local youths who have fallen into the dark world of trafficking.

Wings of Shelter Int’l, Inc. operates three Safe Houses in different areas of the region for female minors rescued from domestic sex trafficking.

The Christian-based organization’s goal is to help these children through a “victim-centered, non-punitive approach.”

Wings of Shelter is licensed through the state of Florida Department of Children & Families Services, foster care and is vetted through FBI, ICE, Homeland Security, and the Witness Protection Program. They offer free trainings and presentations on human trafficking, prevention, and awareness across the state of Florida and beyond.

According to the Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking, Florida ranks as the third-highest state for human trafficking cases and second for labor trafficking cases. Half of all human trafficking victims in Florida are minors, according to Florida Health.

There are currently Wings of Shelter Safe House locations in Lehigh and Estero. The non-profit had a location in Fort Myers, and is working to get another operating soon. Wings of Shelter is always looking to add additional Safe House locations.

Director of Business Development for Wings of Shelter and Cape Coral resident, Karen Gaston, said oftentimes minors that are trafficked are already in the “system” — either foster care or for juvenile crimes.

“What happens is, that population of girls go in and out of the foster care program,” Gaston said. “They get put in a foster home. They don’t like it. They run away. They’re trafficked and abused. They pop up back in the system in another foster care. It happens all the time.”

Using resource tools and in speaking with the girls, authorities determine if they’ve been trafficked.

If that has occurred, that’s where Wings of Shelter comes in.

Residents of the program receive trauma-focused mental health counseling, medical care, private schooling, tutoring, the opportunity to pursue extracurricular hobbies, part-time jobs and re-socialization through a volunteer big sister program.

“There’s a lot of counseling that the girls have to go through, because the trauma that they go through compounds post traumatic stress,” Gaston said. “We just try to love them and have them heal from abuse. You can’t imagine the stories you hear.”

Gaston said the houses are kept small in terms of number of occupants at one time. A heavily vetted husband and wife are hired to watch over the girls during the week at the Safe House, while care staff come in on the weekends to take over. Each child has their own bedroom.

Wings of Shelter has provided services to children as young as 11, and residents can stay until they turn 18.

“Part of our goal is to help them get to a place to be able to support themselves,” Gaston said. “They can stay for us as long as it takes until they age out. But that isn’t typically what happens. They usually stay for a year-and-a-half to two years.

“We give them the option to stay with us as long as possible.”

Gaston added that most of these children who end up in the foster care program have families that are unable, for a myriad of reasons, to take care of them. A lot of the time families themselves are at the root of the trafficking.

“These kids are not living a normal life,” she said. “And a lot of times we’re finding out the parents are trafficking the children.

“In this day and age, what’s happening is called ‘survival sex.’ Mom can’t pay the light bill so there’s somebody next door that will pay her to abuse her children, and she knows she can pay the light bill, the mortgage, and maybe the water next month. And she does it one time, and then she does it five times, and then it becomes very lucrative. We’re seeing a lot more of that.”

Residents do take part in schooling in a private setting through the program, as Gaston said being acclimated into a normal school setting can be quite the challenge.

“They’re still ‘working’ in their mind for quite a bit until you can get them out of the mindset that they are not a ‘prostitute,’ that they are a child,” Gaston said. “They are so brainwashed from the traffickers, they believe that’s what they’re supposed to be doing.”

Gaston said there’s a saying in her line of work called “five times five times five.”

“If these girls are sold five times per day, five days per week, for five years, this child has now been sex trafficked 6,500 times in her life,” she said.

Wings of Shelter has served the area for 16 years, and was started by Lowell and Sally Senitz. The husband and wife had previously done missions in Romania, parts of Africa, and other locations, doing work with children.

The Senitz moved to Estero, and upon recognizing that domestic child sex trafficking was a reality in their backyard, they worked to open the first Safe House for victims in Florida.

The organization continues to push to grow the number of Safe Houses for youth that desperately need it.

Gaston often speaks around the state on human trafficking, including Wednesday night at Florida Gulf Coast University.

She said there are certain signs to look for that could reveal if a child is being trafficked or not.

“One of the easiest ways to spot kids that are being trafficked, is they don’t make eye contact,” Gaston said. “They may be bruised, have burns, or scars. And they’ll avoid conversation. The reason for that is they get severely beaten if they talk or communicate with anybody outside what they call ‘the life.’ They teach these girls to get online and work with themselves.”

Gaston said the girls typically are in love with the trafficker, usually having been groomed from a young age, which makes protecting them difficult.

“The girls are so afraid of these guys because of what they’ve told them,” Gaston said, such as threats of violence. “These girls are in fear years and years after they’ve been perpetrated.”

In some scenarios, girls that want to get out of being trafficked become recruiters to their trafficker.

Gaston also brought up “sextortion” as well, which is where a minor may be blackmailed by an individual for explicit images by an adult posing online as a youth.

There are even instances where a minor may sneak out of the home to go meet someone they believe is of similar age, but turns out to be an adult.

Wings of Shelter is always hiring weekend care staff, teachers/tutors, and have internships with local colleges.

Gaston said having a Safe House location in Cape Coral would be a great benefit to the program, and that she would even train those that would be interested in providing that space.

For more information on Wings of Shelter Int’l Inc., visit wingsofshelter.org.