Nonprofit struggling with trafficking in people looking for ranch lands to open in Montana

Billings – a non -profit called Ranch, which focuses on providing a safe space for human trafficking and victims of domestic abuses to recover, look for ranch lands in Montana to expand in the state of treasures.

Nonprofit offers different healing options, which include self-valuation and equine therapy tests.

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Nonprofit fighting against trafficking in people looking for Ranchland to open in Montana

The worthy ranch has been run in Montana as a pilot program in recent years, the founder Heather Estus estimating that 10 survivors participated.

“Our recent program, the pilot, helped 10 survivors at local level,” said Estus. “In the past eight years, the Ranch dignified has probably helped 25-30 at national level.”

Estus also has the program in operation in other places, including California and Las Vegas, and said it has moved to Montana because of the growing need. Since 2015, human trafficking in Montana has increased by almost 2,000%, according to the Montana Justice Department.

“I knew it was needed here, but I don’t think I understood how much it happens in Montana until I moved here and started looking at numbers,” Estus said. “Highways that run directly to borders, reservations, vulnerable population that is here. There are so many factors. It is sad, but our reality is here in our yard.”

Among the 10 survivors who participated in the pilot program is Julia LillethunWhich faced the largest nightmare almost 30 years ago, when it was attacked on Broadwater Avenue in the morning, after completing a paper route.

“My attack happened 27 years ago,” Lillethun said. “I was attacked from the back. I put a lot of a fight, but he could pull me between two business.”

Lillethun said that what has done yet affects it today.

“I was vicious and raped and stabbed several times and I left for the dead,” Lillethun said. “For the longest period, I filled it. I just felt that I walk without purpose.”

Her attack came long before there was worthy ranch, so Lillethun had to try to overcome her trauma on her own. She said it was a revelation when she first participated in therapy.

“You feel seen and heard and you believe,” Lillethun said. “It was so empowered to know that I am not alone and that there were others like me.”

Stories like Lillethun are exactly who hopes Estus can receive help. Its purpose is to open itself in the next year, as long as it can find properties and enough funds to purchase it.

“The purpose is to get that program to work here locally in the next year,” said Estus.

And if everything is planning, it will probably come as a relief for many like Lillethun.

“I needed a goal and helped me identify my basic values,” Lillethun said.