The numbers are staggering. It’s estimated that between 400,000 to 800,000 children are being sexually exploited each year in the United States. No one denies the devastating impact of this crime on its young victims. The average age of the victims recovered is 14, but according to law enforcement, victims have been recovered as young as 10 years of age. There is a generation of forgotten children at the mercy of those exploiting their bodies for a profit. Unless someone intervenes, unless someone believes in them, they will remain lost and alone.

They need to be rescued. They need a safe place to belong. They need a home.

Too many in our society believe these children have chosen this life. This is a lie.
According to law enforcement organizations, the majority of victims are children who suffered sexual abuse at home and have fled to the streets believing they are safer than their homes. Once on the streets, however, predators prey on their desire for love and a place to belong, sexually exploiting them instead of caring for them. Forced against their will or believing this to be their only option to live, these children become victims, who have not sold their souls, but have had them stolen.

When I look at these children, I wonder who they would have become if their families, and now society, had not failed them.
-Veteran police officer

The need for a home.
While adult perpetrators are receiving stiff jail sentences for their crimes, law enforcement officials are frustrated by the lack of homes and services catering specifically to the unique needs of the underage victims they rescue. Due to this lack of resources, it is common for youth to return to the streets and become what one police officer called “pimp bait”. Out of the staggering number of underage victims of child prostitution in the United States, there are only four homes in the entire country that serve these children’s specific needs and not a single one of them is a Christian home.

The answer: Courage House
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