Ajay Suresh via Wikimedia Commons

The New Haven-based organization Love146 recently received an $800,000 federal grant for survivor services from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs and Office for Victims of Crime. 

Love146 plans on using the grant to expand its “Supporting Connecticut’s Transition-Age Youth into Adulthood” project, which helps formerly trafficked youth to find employment and build stable, secure lives. 

“We have a motto at Love146, which is that we never close a case,” said Erin Williamson, who serves as chief programs and strategy officer. “The funding is going to go to helping kids navigate the transition into adulthood: helping to make sure that they have stable housing, helping to make sure that they are able to find a job.”

Love146 was founded in 2002 after the group’s co-founders witnessed child trafficking on an undercover visit with investigators to a Southeast Asian brothel. 

To date, Love146 and its affiliates have reached over 80,000 children with their educational and support services worldwide. The organization helps youth with everything from finding jobs to creating an email address.

“We have to be really intentional about making sure that [youths] have this knowledge that, to them, seems secretive,” said Williamson. “We have many youths who don’t know how to use a bank. The idea that you can take a card and go to an ATM machine feels very overwhelming to them.”

Youth often hear about Love146 through adults and mentor figures in their lives — such as guidance counselors, teachers and therapists — and are then referred to the organization for support. 

The grant will go toward initiatives of economic empowerment, including workforce development and adult education, according to the Office of Victims of Crime’s award announcement. 

“This generous funding will have a major impact on the expansion of our programs, so that we can serve more youth,” said Tamarra Clark, director of U.S. survivor care at Love146, at a press conference acknowledging the award.

Marilyn Murray, director of communications at Love146, estimated that the money from this grant will cover roughly three years of operations, and will help the organization to supplement and fill in for government-funded programming. 

She stressed the importance of having both individual and government funding — individual donor support, averaging around $25 per gift, helps to fund incentives and activities for youth. 

“[The grant] seems like it’s such a huge award, but it’s coming in a place where we had a gap in funding, and it’s going to be spread across three different years,” Murray said. “Having private donors means that you can journey with a youth, and they don’t have a services cliff, and that you can fill in gaps that exist around [government funding] and have an ongoing relationship.”

Love146 has offices in Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and the Philippines.