In 2008, a young girl was trafficked in El Dorado Hills before being recovered by law enforcement eight days later.
The young girl's mom and three others, including Ashlie Bryant, were launched on a path of prevention, which led to the creation of the 3Strands Global Foundation in 2010.
The 3Strands Global Foundation is a nonprofit organization in Greater Sacramento with a mission to create a world free from human trafficking through prevention, education and policy.
Bryant, the CEO of the nonprofit, said the focus of 3Strands began with how they can prevent trafficking and ensure communities and schools have the tools to understand what it is.
“How do we address it systemically, at the root causes, so that we can actually look at being there for our clients, as well as for our youth who may be at risk of being trafficked,” she said. “We have a vision of a world free from human trafficking, and our mission is to prevent, empower and unite together to actually end human trafficking.”
Between 2015 to 2020, there were more than 13,000 victims of sex trafficking in Sacramento County. That’s according to a study that was conducted in 2022 by the Sacramento State Institute for Social Research, and several other agencies. Researchers believe that number to be just a fraction of the actual number of victims.
3Strands’ key initiatives include nine prevention education programs, three survivor services programs, policy advocacy, and events.
The organization has a job employment program called Employ + Empower that has been running since 2016. The program supports the clients through case management.
According to Bryant, since 2016, the organization has served close to 1,100 clients, achieving an 82% employment retention rate.
In January 2024, 3Strands opened a 13,000-square-foot empowerment center in Downtown Sacramento for survivors of human trafficking and at-risk youth.
The Table, open five days a week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., provides basic needs, a safe space, case management, and support services free of charge to its clients.
The Table
The Table has a miniature library equipped with self help, fiction and non-fiction books.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
The center offers a diverse range of resources, including employment training, education support, a library, and a clothing boutique.
Clients could use computers, printers, take showers, do laundry, get food, and engage in self-care activities. The facility also includes a kitchen where they occasionally offer cooking classes, a children’s play area, and a mural on the back of the center created by a local artist.
Survivor and leadership advocate Kristi Merrill said The Table allows them to do so much more for clients.
“It’s really allowed us to support clients, but also have a space for community and events,” Merrill said. “We just launched our survivor-led support groups that we're able to host here as well.”
The facility is designed in the shape of a circle, Bryant said, with the intention of always keeping the client at the center.
In one of the rooms in the facility is a technology center equipped with a printer. Sarah Handee, director of survivor services, said clients can look for jobs, print out resumes, or search for life courses.
The technology center within The Table facility in downtown. Clients can use printers for resumes or use it for self help courses.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
“We have some clients that are enrolled in education courses at [places] like CALRegional,” Handee said. “So they'll come into this space and we can have staff that come right alongside and help with their course, or anything that they need along the way, too.”
There’s a wellness room for clients to take a minute to relax. Handee said they could take a nap in the wellness room if they wanted.
“This is one of the most utilized, favorite rooms,” Merrill said. “And sometimes, when they're working on a goal, we will say, ‘If self-care is what you need to do today for that goal, then we're going to meet you where you're at.’ Sometimes they just need to sit back, rest and just be.”
The facility is also equipped with an in-person therapy room, lockers to store all your belongings, and a library. Their boutique offers clothing for women, men, and children.
“We realized is that a lot of our clients didn't have the professional clothes that they needed,” Handee said. “They could come in and get what they needed for interviews, for beyond that, and just feel the way that we see them, and we know that they're going to show up in the world.”
Helping survivors in Sacramento
3Strands began in El Dorado Hills and has since expanded nationwide. Their Survivor Advisory Board has 16 members who all have diverse lived experiences with trafficking.
Merrill said that all the survivors on the board are consultants, and they work together on curriculum, policy, and legislation. “We do panels, we do speaking, we're out in the community,” Merrill said. “So, really external and internal, just to make sure that we're kind of leading that way, and that our voices are heard as survivors. As we grow, I think it's just it's really nice that we all have different backgrounds. We work for different organizations.”
Merrill survived being trafficked in Sacramento in 2012. She took a few years to just heal from that experience, but knew that she wanted to eventually support survivors.
She worked with adults with developmental disabilities in Southern California, before coming to 3Strands. Merrill said it’s sort of a full-circle moment working in the same city she was trafficked.
“I came here and did case management, and it was amazing, but I knew that I wanted to do survivor leadership in a higher, in a different capacity, so that, not only my voice, but other survivors' voices could be at the forefront,” she said. “I love that I get to come back and do this work… I've been able to replace those memories in Sacramento that used to be really daunting to me.”
The mural on the backside of the Table facility created by Shane Grammer for Wide Open Walls. “Blossoms of Reslience” is a tribute to survivors and a call for a future free from human trafficking.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
Handee initially began her journey working with child trafficking victims in Cambodia then moved back to the states and started working in a youth detention center that was run by child and family services in New York.
She said she saw a lot of kids that were trafficking victims. Handee also worked on a federal case where the trafficker was sitting in his house in Florida on house arrest, she said.
“How can I justify these two things happening at the same time, child survivors are sitting in prison and the perpetrator is sitting in his house free?”
Handee said she could not return to Asia as she had planned.
“I have to stay and do something here in my own backyard, and that's what got me to stay in America and continue in this,” she said. “Then I came to California, it was the perfect job. And in this community, it's the same exact work that's being done there. It's my community, it's my family, and it's my life work.”
Another component to 3Strands is policy and legislation. The organization wrote Assembly Bill 1227, which is the Human Trafficking Prevention and Education Act.
“[This is] the first in the 50 states that had a prevention education that was mandated for teachers and counselors,” Bryant said, adding that 13 other states have similar laws now.
Bryant mentioned the organization loves to collaborate with anyone that has a client-centered focus.
“We want to collaborate with our partners in the nonprofit space,” Bryant said. “ We're already collaborating with the [District Attorney’s] office and law enforcement. But, I think collaboration is a big piece of village bridge building who 3Strands is foundationally. In the nonprofit, that doesn't always happen.”
3Strands Global Foundation will host a 10K - 5K kids fun run on Oct. 18, in Folsom. All registrants will receive a T-shirt.
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