Who We Are
Our Team
Breaking Free is committed to diversity and to the empowerment of women. Our staff come from a variety of backgrounds and areas of expertise, and many are themselves survivors.
Our History
It started with WHISPER
(Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt), a pioneering program
of its time working with women in
prostitution before Minnesota communities recognized, let alone acknowledged,
that sex trafficking was keeping our own women and girls enslaved in systems of
abuse and sexual exploitation.
Unfortunately, support for WHISPER waned. But Breaking Free’s founder, Vednita Carter (then WHISPER’s director of women’s services) saw a
need. A survivor herself, she refused to
abandon her mission to help women and girls whose lives had been devastated by
prostitution and sex trafficking. In 1996, Ms. Carter founded Breaking Free, Inc. as a non-profit agency helping women
and girls escape systems of prostitution and sexual exploitation through
advocacy, direct services, housing, and education. Through Ms. Carter’s vision and tireless dedication, Breaking Free has become one of the nation’s leading organizations for working with victims and survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution. Over the last 19 years, Breaking Free has served more than 7,000 clients and reached over 22,000 individuals via street outreach while systematically growing its programming to embrace a full continuum of care.
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