THE VISION PROJECT
What is your Life Vision?
History
Transitions was founded as Transitions Cambodia, Inc. by James and Athena Pond in 2007. James and Athena have worked with survivors of sex trafficking since 2005 when they co-established the Agape Restoration Center (ARC), a high-security, long-term aftercare facility in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for Cambodian and Vietnamese victims of sex trafficking between the ages of 8-18.
After this program was established, it became clear there was a critical need for more progressive services for older adolescent victims who needed to acquire adult, independent living skills, innovative therapy, and viable, modern career skills to assist them in leading healthy and productive lives outside of shelter programs.
In 2006, The Pond's developed and opened the first Dream Home in Phnom Penh. Clients there range in age from 13-18 years old and come from rescue organizations, government referrals, law enforcement, and other aftercare shelters.
Transitions has developed a high-quality, results-driven care model that responds to the primary issues facing minor victims of sex trafficking. Our focus on rehabilitation and reintegration offers girls opportunities to heal from the past and acquire life, social and career skills that prepare them to function as healthy, independent adults.
After living in Cambodia for two years, the Pond's returned to the United States in 2007 to establish Transitions as its own 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. While continuing their work in Cambodia, Transitions has been instrumental in helping organizations in Greece, India, Indonesia, and the United States in developing effective aftercare programs.
For more information on the beginnings of Transitions Global, download The Moment That Brought Us Here (pdf)
To read our most recent Annual Report, click here.
Our Model
Transitions has a very unique approach to restoring the lives of girls rescued from sex trafficking. We have created a model of care, which is highly individualized, recognizing the different needs of each girl coming into our care. The result is that girls receive the most holistic care, focused on their specific needs. Each of our programs are designed to work together to ensure girls receive a continuum of care from intake to reintegration; ensuring girls the highest opportunity for success. Transitions has an unprecedented success rate, with girls reintegrated into Cambodian society and not being re-trafficked, re-exploited, or voluntarily engaging in commercial sex.
It's what we would do for our own daughters.
We help girls transition, through the power of a dream, from darkness to light, from victim to survivor to world changer.
Our Core values
Transitions was founded on these four core values that guide all of the work we do in restoring girls' lives.
1. Rescue is a process, not a single event.
Delivery from a life of bondage begins with the heroic and dramatic act of rescue in which a girl is removed from harm's way. The rescue, however, is but the first step on a journey of healing, restoration and empowerment as a girl regains control of her life and once again learns to hope.
2. Freedom without a future is another form of slavery.
Without viable and sustainable career and life skills, a girl rescued from trafficking has few opportunities and little direction. But with these needs addressed she has a restored sense of dignity and a foundation on which to believe in herself and to pursue her dreams.
3. A girl shouldn't continue to carry the wounds of her past.
The goal of aftercare is to restore lives, not patch them up, to help each girl realize a life of substance and meaning. A holistic approach, with a comprehensive focus on individuals, is the only effective response to a girl rescued from trafficking. Every girl is empowered to shed the wounds of her exploitation to live a whole, healthy life, freed from the burden of her exploitation.
4. Giving a girl choices and a dream restores her future.
By first treating her trauma, then creating a nourishing environment that encourages and respects a girl's desires and choices, Transitions builds a bridge to opportunities, programs and systems that give her control over her life and the tools to realize her dreams. Each girl plays a prominent role in shaping and taking responsibility for her future.
".our future will be determined in large part by our dreams and by the struggle to make them real."
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, American Psychologist- See more at: http://transitionsglobal.org/about/#sthash.Apw7WZcI.dpuf
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