Aspire to Autonomy (ASPIRE) Community Mental Health Program (ASPIRE) provides Specialized Trauma-Focused and Person-Centered Mental Health Therapy to individuals who are being trafficked, have been trafficked in the past, or are at high risk of becoming trafficked. While also bringing therapy services into underserved communities to meet the general population’s unmet mental health support needs.

The population benefiting from this program includes those whose voices have been historically and chronically marginalized. The focus population for this program will be survivors of human trafficking.

A trafficking victim considering leaving their captor faces several difficult challenges: overcoming substance use, securing mental health services, and finding shelter. This is before they can even consider building their capacity for self-sufficiency.

Recovering from this type of complex trauma leaves a victim needing mental health services. Trafficking victims often struggle with undiagnosed mental health disorders. These connecting factors create an intersection between human trafficking and mental health. Victims who fall in that intersection go unseen with no support. Additionally, mental health concerns are one of the five risk factors for human trafficking (National Human Trafficking Hotline, 2020).

Additionally, mental healthcare is less accessible to those who are marginalized due to a lack of insurance and expensive care costs (Medical News Today, 2022). This program will benefit marginalized individuals by providing access to mental healthcare in an area that is accessible. Offering therapy at no cost to the community using funds secured through local grants.