Purpose/vision

• Host a fringe stage at The Circus House outside Comfest to raise money and awareness to combat human trafficking in Ohio
• Restore a piece of Comfest to its original vision of community building.
• Give Gracehaven platform to highlight important underground issue at event where trafficking could happen (tens of thousands of people)
• Give God’s people in the neighborhood a way to serve together from all different churches
• Raise money by selling water, iced coffee, freeze pops, artsy headbands, popcorn, and cotton candy (in keeping with the circus theme of the host home and booth design). Bands were also slated to play (many of whom are featured on the Gracehaven CD) and a silent art auction was scheduled for Saturday night.

Process

• Things were off to a good start on Friday until one Comfest volunteer, over the period of several hours, by contacting various city officials, was able to get us shut down, first from selling anything and later to get the bands silenced. We were so disappointed and went to bed, ready to come back in the morning to clean everything up.
• In the morning, phones began to ring and e-mails went out announcing the move of God’s hand in the night on behalf of His praying people. At 1:30 AM, after Comfest’s debriefing meeting, the Comfest leaders invited Fritz Harding to a meeting with them. They were appalled at what had happened to us and apologized profusely to us and told us that what we were doing is exactly what they want Comfest to be about. They invited us to come into the park and sell our water at the main entrance in the best spot of the whole festival! And we could have the bands play on our stage acoustically.
• Victory in Jesus! We were back on with our fundraising but inside the park instead of across the street and our human trafficking awareness and petitions were going inside with us. We mobilized the troops and throughout the whole day we had teams of people, including families with their children, manning our water sales station on both sides of the sidewalk along with petitions and a booth on human trafficking. We had a blast and sold all 3500 bottles of water on a sultry 90+ degree day. We got tons of signatures on our petitions and made many new friends among the Comfest crowd.
• The next week, one of the original founders of Comfest stopped by the circus house to again apologize for us being shut down and began to share with us some ideas for next year. He said what we did at the circus house was what they used to do when the festival began and was eager to have us involved on a greater level.

Outcomes

• Several hundred people signed the Gracehaven petition for new trafficking laws
• Lots of indepth conversations with festivalgoers to teach about human trafficking in Ohio
• $500 raised for Gracehaven

Hopes moving forward

• On the next Sunday morning as one of our prayer team thanked the Lord and reveled in His glory that He manifested to us, He gave her this word:

  These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Rev. 3:7-8

  As she inquired about the door that had been opened before us, she knew that it was the door of joining Him in the things that only God can do – not what man can do with God’s help. We’re excited to see what God has in store!

• Initial thoughts include: Joining the Comfest planning committee to serve, influence, and love and hosting a fundraiser next year at Comfest too, maybe with a broader scope.

Thank you for being such an important part of this with you! While we weren’t able to raise as much money as we hoped, we know God used it for His purposes. Blessings to you from the people of God in Victorian Village.

Thank you to JP Morgan Chase for your generosity. Thank you to everyone who braved the confusion of the facebook application maze and voted for us!

Check out the Columbus Dispatch Article

Congratulations to the other 199 organizations who also made it to the top – may God Bless your efforts!

Thank you for being a Gracehaven supporter! You can help Gracehaven earn up to $250,000 Chase Community Giving Grant through Facebook. It’s easy!

Click here for the link to Facebook to
VOTE NOW!

Facebook users:
1. After going to your Facebook home page, type “Chase Community Giving” in the search box.
2. After going to the Chase page, type in “Gracehaven” in the “charity name” box.
3. Click on Gracehaven and vote.
4. Very important!: Invite your friends! Don’t leave this opportunity to chance; do what you can to spread the word to other people you know; call, tweet, linkedin and e-mail them.

We have until July 12 to vote. The 200 grants with the most votes receive money. You can vote for Gracehaven more than once!!

Let’s let the power of Facebook empower Gracehaven to heal and give hope to many young girls!

There is another similar shelter opening in Colorado also in the running that you can also vote for here: Mercy Project, Colorado

Sincerely,

Cathy Treyens

Here is a letter discussing both S.B. 235 and H.B. 493, which will make
human trafficking a felony under Ohio law. For more information on either
bill, please contact me. This letter is based off the letter drafted by
Sen. Fedor’s aide. I delivered 100 or so of these letters to
representatives and senators in the Ohio legislature a couple weeks ago.
Although the legislature will go into recess in June and stay in recess
until September or even as late as November, we can spend all summer having
Ohio constituents sign these letters! Once they come back from recess, we
can all deliver hefty stacks to their office reminding them that these two
important bills are still waiting for passage and that Ohio voters are
still waiting to see human trafficking become a felony under state law! Be
sure that people who sign these letters A) have an Ohio address, B) write
down that Ohio address, C) and, if they’d like, hand-write a person message
in the space provided above the signature line.

Please pass on this letter to any person or organization who’d be
interested in collecting signed letters. it’s very easy to gather letters
like this at fund-raisers and other events. These persons or organizations
can then return signed letters to me or handle delivery themselves. For
instructions on how to deliver these letters to the Ohio legislature (which
involves the tedious task of figuring out which addresses are in which
district and thus which letters go to which legislators) please email me.
It’s important that these letters get to the right senators and
representatives where they will be most effective.

Thank you everyone!

Tabitha M. Woodruff
co-chair; lobbying committee
Central Ohio Rescue & Restore Coalition

The race kicked-off with Founder and Executive Director of Gracehaven, Dr. Jeff Barrows saying a few words and cutting the gold ribbon. The race route was littered with encouraging messages, written by the 10K E-Team (Encouragement Team) pushing participants to keep running and also reminding  them why they were participating. The finish line was a wonderful time of celebration, with hugs, high-fives and shouts of joy as participants crossed the finished line and accomplished the impossible.

For many, running this 10K seemed impossible. By running, by donating, these individuals are taking a stand against oppression and injustice,

saying that we are going to do something that seems impossible for us, to support you, young girls as young as 13 years old, in doing something that seems impossible for you, coming out of a life of bondage. The money that was donated to Gracehaven will help them open this fall and be able to help young girls receive educational, mentoring, counseling services, shelter, job training, and have an opportunity to hear about the hope that is found in Christ.

Habakkuk 1:5 is the verse that has been on my heart since the planning stages of the 10K. In the first few verses, Habakkuk is complaining about the injustice he sees and asks the Lord what He is going to do about it. The Lord answers in verse 5 and says, “Look at the nations and watch –and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.” The 10K was nominated for an ELLIV award for Best Campus Org. Sponsored Event. The Monday after the race, I received an official envelope from the Ohio Senate. On behalf of the members of the Senate of the 128th General Assembly of Ohio, we are pleased to commend the Cedarville University chapter of International Justice Mission on it’s Possible Impossibilities 10K Run/Walk/Relay, March 27, 2010. It was an official letter honoring IJM and the 10K, signed by the President of the Ohio Senate Bill Harris, Senator Teresa Fedor, and Senator Chris Widner!!! We were all extremely excited! Then, we did a number crunch of those who registered, attended, and how much was raised.

680 Total Registered
594 Came on Race Day
70 New registrations on Race Day
With sponsor money and registration fees, we were able to give $20,123.00 to Gracehaven!! That money will help Gracehaven purchase a new sprinkle system for the safe house!

We still have sponsor money coming in. Also, Bob Evans –Xenia, one of our sponsors, held a Community Fun Night for us on March 27 and 28, with 15% of each ticket that presented a 10K flyer going to Gracehaven.

We are so grateful for all who supported, donated, prayed, and helped out with Possible Impossibilities 10K Run/Walk/Relay. The Lord showed up and showed out and provided exceedingly more than we expected!!

Also, for more info about the 10K and to see race day pictures, visit our website: http://ijm.cedarville.org

Office of Refugee Resettlement Issues State Letter on Requesting Assistance for Child Victims of Trafficking

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued a State Letter, which is guidance to State Refugee Coordinators and other interested parties, regarding the eligibility of potential child victims of trafficking for the benefits and services available to refugees. The State Letter describes the process by which an individual may request eligibility for federally funded assistance for an alien child who may have been subjected to human trafficking.

These documents are available on the ORR website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/policy/stltrs10.htm:

• Interim Assistance Letter – sample
• Eligibility Letter – sample
• Request for Assistance for Child Victims of Human Trafficking – form
• Process for Reconsideration of a Denial of Eligibility

HHS Issues Final Report on Human Trafficking

The HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) recently published a Final Report on its Study of HHS Programs Serving Human Trafficking Victims. The study addressed the following topics: defining human trafficking; characteristics of victims; challenges in identifying victims; outreach strategies; victims’ needs; availability and access to needed services; promising strategies to providing services; and desired outcomes for victims and evidence of achieving those outcomes. For the study, researchers interviewed staff from 117 HHS-funded programs across 11 states.

To view the final report, go to: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/HumanTrafficking/Final/index.shtml.

To view other publications that are part of this study, go to the following link: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/HumanTrafficking/index.shtml).

The Human Trafficking Awareness Group at Ashland University held a small fundraiser for Gracehaven this past week.  In the celebration of Valentine’s Day, our group sold valentine cards with Fair Trade chocolates on the inside.  We thought it would be great if we could support anti-trafficking on two ends of the spectrum: 1) by supporting Fair Trade farmers through purchasing Fair Trade chocolate and 2) by donating all of the revenues to the rehabilitation efforts at Gracehaven.

Our motto for the sale was: send Love, bring Joy, spread Freedom.  The idea behind it was by sending a valentine, the purchaser is sending someone a note of love, which brings joy to the recipient and the $1 donation goes to support bringing freedom to victims of human trafficking.  After two days of selling valentines, we raised a little over $130 for Gracehaven!  We are very pleased with how the sale went. I attached a photo of our table and of some of the wonderful members of HTAG who helped out with the sale.

Thank you to everyone who organized and participated in this, it is truly heartwarming to read about!

~Gracehaven Staff

The Deconstruction Workday planned for Saturday 2/6/2010 has been cancelled due to the weather.

Reschedule dates are: Thursday 2/11/2010 and Saturday 2/13/2010 same carpool locations and time.

Contact: Katie Talbott ktalbott@gracehavenhouse.org

Date: Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
Time: 9:00 pm
Venue:2351 N 4th St Columbus, OH 43202
Featuring: Tin Armor, Iron Lake, Trains Across the Sea, Ruth Welsh
Cost: $5 cover to benefit Gracehaven House
Contact: Devin Braun braundevin@yahoo.com

Thank you to those who have been supporting the work of Gracehaven, especially your prayers! We are where we are today because of the help and support of amazing people like you!