Partner Spotlight : Elijah Rising
When Rescue America (then Rescue Houston) started up in 2014, our Founder and CEO, Allison Meier Madrigal, had just come out of the corporate world and was stepping into the anti-sex trafficking landscape. At that time, she thought she would be funding anti-trafficking work… Little did she know, the Lord had a Rescue hotline in mind. Out of obedience, Allison followed the Lord’s voice and plan, but she also told Him that He had a lot of work to do to pull together resources and start up the hotline. One of these resources was the support of Elijah Rising, who we still partner with today!
Elijah Rising, based in Houston, Texas, started up as a prayer initiative just a few years prior. Before the nonprofit had even launched, Elijah Rising consisted of a group of people who met to pray over the human trafficking landscape in Houston, and, like Allison, they had no idea just where the Lord would take them.
As they learned more about the realities of sex trafficking around them, the group began facilitating what they call “Van Tours.” At the time, this was an unofficial drive around the Houston metro area, showing people locations where trafficking was happening. This led to the beginning of their own street outreach and intervention, where they would build relationships with sex trafficking survivors working on the streets, letting them know that there were options for them to get out of the life.
In 2012, the group officially started up the nonprofit organization that is Elijah Rising. After a year of doing street outreach, building relationships with survivors, and sometimes even inviting them into their homes to escape the life, the Elijah Rising team realized they needed a better way for survivors to reach them when they were ready to exit… at the very time that Rescue Houston came onto the scene.
It was undeniably the Lord’s timing.
It didn’t take long for Elijah Rising to recognize the need for a better exit solution for survivors, and they began praying for others to come along and open safe homes, beds, and resources. Again, it didn’t take long for them to realize that they were the answer to their own prayers. Miraculously, someone offered a large piece of land to be used for the restorative care of survivors, and in a short amount of time, the Lord raised up a team of donors to purchase the land and begin renovating the property.
In 2019, Elijah Rising opened their first safe home and program. This is a two-year long program divided into stages based on the survivor’s individual circumstances. The program includes Bible studies, therapy, an Education Center to take life-skills and GED classes, job training, community activities and engagement with business partners in the Houston area that fit their interests and skillsets, and transition into independent living.
The program and staff are ever-evolving to best serve the survivors’ needs during this very important time out of the life and walking through restorative care.
Elijah Rising’s Communications Manager, Becky Gilgour, shared that before working at Elijah Rising, she had treated the problem of sex trafficking as a far removed issue, “like world hunger,” like “this thing that’s happening in this other world. But once you have interacted with someone who has experienced this… knowing them as moms and as people who have dreams and goals… they’ve had to make so many of these very difficult, brave decisions." Now Becky is aware of this injustice that affects so many people. She told us, "There was once a survivor who shared that the fact that she was trafficked is the least interesting thing about her, and it’s true.”
We at Rescue America are incredibly thankful for the partnership we have gotten to have with Elijah Rising, since before we were even Rescue Houston!
Visit elijahrising.org to listen to The Elijah Rising Podcast, visit their virtual Sex Trafficking Museum, join a Van Tour or volunteer in their street outreach, and learn more about the work they are doing to serve survivors of sexual exploitation.
If you or someone you know have been sexually exploited and want out of the life, please call Rescue America’s 24/7 Rescue hotline number at 833.599.FREE.
To report a trafficking tip, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888.373.7888.
Save these numbers on your phone for later reference!
