Brooke Crowder is the "mind" behind the Refuge. After working with survivors internationally, she came to Austin in 2010 and was amazed to find no organization that was focused on child survivors. "I kept saying, 'why are we not doing this?'" she told CBN News, "and then it became 'why am I not doing this?'"

Crowder says there's many reasons that more places of care don't exist. "It's just an issue we don't really want to talk about," she said, "It's dark. It's hard to hear about."

It's also complicated with survivors having to process trauma that is comparable to PTSD. "It's a pretty complex response that's required," said Crowder, "It's also quite costly and there's really not a model out there that people can say 'ok, we'll build this here.'"

The Refuge model keeps the price down. It builds strategic partnerships with those already helping young people. "We're not bearing the cost of our on-site charter school—the University of Texas is doing that," explains Crowder, "We're not bearing the cost of the medical care. We're partnering with a federally qualified health care clinic."

Each survivor at the Refuge will received a customized care plan provided by a staff that's committed to Christ. Cottage chapels will be offered for survivors to have personal time to reflect and pray but the Refuge says it will not force religious beliefs on anyone and will welcome all survivors, regardless of their faith background.

Providing Safety and Community

Crowder hopes the 50-acre rural setting outside of Austin will provide both a sense of safety and a feeling of community that will take away any desire to run. McKinley wishes she would have had such an option. Her first trafficking experience came in elementary school. Later as a teenager, a retired police officer exploited her. "I completely trusted him," said McKinley, "I also desired a father figure so bad that I didn't question anything even though I was afraid."

McKinley and Crowder hope the Refuge will give those in their care the ability and desire to re-learn the very basics of human relationships. Their biggest goal: helping victims release their shame and understand how to trust again.

"The type of people who buy young adults and children are doctors, police officers, lawyers, teachers," explained McKinley. "Can you can imagine trying to process hundreds of rapes? Hundreds of rapes because these girls are being raped 10, 15 times a day, six to seven days a week. Some of them for years. It's a lot. And that's why it takes so much. That's why so many people don't take this on. They don't build places like this because it's hard."

If the Refuge can get it right in Austin, it would like to replicate its model in other cities in Texas and other states, in an attempt to provide care for the thousands of children who so desperately need it.

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