About Our Services
Our customized programs are designed to provide complete support for survivors of Human Trafficking, Exploitation, and Prostitution.
Practice Makes Purpose Curriculum
All Dorothy’s House participants follow Practice Makes Purpose. This curriculum helps individuals understand and apply universal concepts that shape decision-making. Practice Makes Purpose takes a holistic approach and incorporates foundational lessons around self-care, emotion regulation, beliefs, values, relationships, identity, and more. Rather than addressing isolated aspects of life, it connects eight universal principles to every area of daily life, equipping participants with lifelong tools to build the futures they want.
The curriculum is particularly useful to individuals with significant trauma, addiction, and patterns of unhealthy relationships. It guides each participant to examine his/her past to understand how it led to the present. Then it empowers every participant to choose a new path and take ownership of the future. Practice Makes Purpose includes thorough assessments that pinpoint areas of need and measure growth and progress over time.
The assessments are paired with goal-setting tools that help participants establish what they’re working toward, and break big goals down into manageable, weekly tasks. Practice Makes Purpose begins with the end in mind. It coaches participants to imagine the change they want, and then take the necessary steps to achieve and sustain that change.
Our Program
Crisis Services: We support women in need by providing immediate safety and stability. During the crisis services phase, we help survivors regain their footing by offering them a warm, secure place to sleep and the guidance needed to plan their next steps. Our team assists with urgent needs such as stabilization, medication management, obtaining identification, securing health insurance, applying for SNAP benefits, and determining the best path forward.
Recovery: The Recovery phase provides participants a safe place to explore the decisions that created vulnerability in their lives and help them change in those areas. They can focus entirely on their challenges and build the tools that will help them manage their trauma triggers for the rest of their lives.
At the Recovery House, care coaches walk alongside each survivor through all aspects of her individualized program, including the Practice Makes Purpose curriculum. The curriculum, with assessment tools entwined, generally takes about nine months for a survivor to move through to build a better life for herself. Dorothy’s House works with each participant to determine the ideal length of her residential treatment.
During this Recovery phase, a participant can expect to build safety, participate in addiction treatment, improve physical and mental health, and engage in a variety of life and job skills with a focus on PATTERNS of self-care.
Front Porch: Front Porch is the final stage where participants move into independent subsidized housing and establish their independence in the community. With continued support from our staff, they put their newly established skills to the test in real-life situations.
We work with survivors of human trafficking to regain custody of their minor children. Once a participant moves into her apartment, There she may be able to reside with her children. This does not apply to the Crisis or Recovery phases.
Programming and services are unique to the needs of each individual and include, but are not limited to:
- Access to addiction treatment
- Access to traditional therapy and medication management
- Non-traditional therapeutic programming (writer’s workshop, music, art and crafts)
- Life-skills coaching
- Nutrition and wellness
- Access to ongoing education
- Job skills training
- Legal aid
- Financial literacy training
- Mentorships and relational skills training
- Recreational activities (bike riding, knitting, sewing, music lessons, etc.)