FAIR Girls

FAIR Girls | National Crime Victim Service Award
Washington, DC

FAIR Girls has made significant strides in the fight against human trafficking since their founding more than 15 years ago. They have provided more than 1,000 girls and young women with client-centered, trauma-informed direct services and life skills to transition from victim to survivor. 

Based in our Nation’s capital, FAIR Girls’ clients come from near and far, and more than 90 percent are U.S. citizens. FAIR Girls’ goal is to deeply impact the lives of trafficking survivors by providing high-quality services that address their individualized needs, while increasing their safety, well-being, empowerment, and self-sufficiency. 

Offering a variety of essential programs, the Vida Home is a vital housing resource for trafficking survivors and symbolizes FAIR Girls’ success. The Vida Home has been the only safe transitional housing option in the Washington, DC, metro area specifically designed for female survivors of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and human trafficking aged 18 to 26. 

Over the years, FAIR Girls has developed a unique survivor-informed housing model, which they call “Survivor-Directed Community Living.” To combat the isolation tactics employed by traffickers and in support of current research suggesting community involvement is a vital and empowering aspect of the recovery process, FAIR Girls’ Vida Home program works to increase survivors’ community connections. 

FAIR Girls’ case management services are instrumental in providing CSEC and trafficking victims support to address immediate safety and basic needs, such as clothing, food, referrals to medical and mental health services, and access to legal advocacy and translation/interpretation services. Services extend to long-term group therapy and ongoing court advocacy. 

FAIR Girls believes in meeting trafficking survivors where they are, listening to their needs and goals, and helping them create an individualized service plan. They seek to provide survivors with options, so survivors are empowered by their right to choose at each step of the process. The FAIR Girls team believes that human trafficking cannot be eradicated without education. 

Last year, FAIR Girls trained 479 students and 1,033 adult community members who interact with victims, including law enforcement, education professionals, health care workers, social services agencies, foster care staff, community service providers, and hospitality professionals, to better identify and work with survivors of trafficking and CSEC in a trauma-informed manner. FAIR Girls’ staff works in local schools to a present Tell Your Friends, a multimedia, trauma- and survivor-informed curriculum on commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking, including risk factors, warning signs, misconceptions, and keeping youth safe.