Safe house for victims of sex-trafficking to open

by Mollie Rushmeyer

news@thenewsleaders.com

With an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people sexually exploited each day in Minnestoa, according to service organization Breaking Free, CeCe Terloux, a long-time advocate of forced-prostitution victims, felt the timing was right to open a shelter and transitional home called Terebinth Refuge, to benefit not only the greater St. Cloud area but much of the state.

“I’ve always had a heart for women and girls – and this issue,” said Terloux, the executive director of Terebinth Refuge.

Terebinth Refuge is a 501 c(3) non-profit. The safe house is tentatively scheduled to open in early spring 2017 with the motto, “Shelter. Healing. Rest. Growth.” These will be accomplished through short-term shelter beds where sexually exploited women over the age of 18 can stay anywhere from a few days to 90 days, long-term transitional housing, healing care (both physical and emotional), a restful environment, and growth in education, life skills and job-seeking skills.

For 24 years, Terloux worked for the Heartland Girl’s Ranch in Benson. While there, she served young girls under the age of 18 who were escaping a life of sex trafficking. Through her work, she saw the issue as not only a “big-city problem” but its prevalence and devastation in every small town across Minnesota and in particular the rural areas surrounding St. Cloud.

“St. Cloud is a training ground for the women,” Terloux shared. “There aren’t many resources here for them (the victims), so pimps feel safer than in a bigger city like Minneapolis. The crowd here is less rough, and they use that to break in the women and girls before shipping them to other areas.”

Waite Park Chief of Police Dave Bentrud, a 25-year law-enforcement veteran, and also a Terebinth Refuge board member, added, “For a long time, the traffickers flew under the radar in this area.”

It wasn’t until five years ago, when the BCA found a missing female juvenile involved in forced prostitution at a Waite Park motel that Bentrud said eyes were opened to just what a significant problem trafficking had become in this area.

“I took it personal(ly),” Bentrud said, adding his first thought was, “Not in my city.”

Since then, task forces in the area have made stings on potential “johns” (people attempting to hire a prostitute) as seen in a recent four-man arrest on Nov. 3 last year. Typically the men come from a 50- to 60-mile radius around St. Cloud.

Both Terloux and Bentrud have seen a true need for the over-18 age group. Places like the Heartland Girl’s Ranch and Safe Harbor shelters are unable to house anyone over the age of 18. And while there are a couple of programs in the Twin Cities, they are not always available in an emergency and because they are in the metro area, tend to fill fast.

“Often the regular shelters don’t want them (the sex-trafficking victims),” Terloux said, saying the shelters aren’t equipped to handle the high level of trauma the women have been through, and they don’t want them recruiting other women to bring back to the pimps. Many times, this leaves the women with nowhere to go but back to the traffickers who have abused them.

“This is a significant problem,” Bentrud said. “We’re looking at getting more investigator time to work on this full time. We need more education for the public and for law enforcement on how to deal with this. We also need to build up victim support, like the Terebinth Refuge. This area really needs safe places for the victims to go.”

With all of that in mind, Terloux says she prayerfully went forward with plans to create a safe house for exploited women over 18, with short- and long-term housing and the inclusive approach she always envisioned.

“It’s so important,” Terloux said, “that we know all aspects as to how to work with this population. We want to be holistic, address all the issues that go with this.”

She said her past foster daughter, who is a survivor of human trafficking, will be on staff to assist when the police call with a woman who has been taken out of a trafficking situation, and she will also be at the house, available to talk with the residents while they stay at Terebinth Refuge.

“It’s crucial to have survivors on staff,” she said. “They can see it through a victim’s eyes the way no one else can.”

Many of the women have had little to no schooling or job experience and have a criminal background because they were coerced into taking the blame for the pimps’ crimes. Add in the brainwashing from the traffickers to ensure the women feel as though they are incapable of doing anything other than prostitution, and Terloux says, it’s near impossible for the women to start fresh and leave this life for good.

That’s why she will make connections with area businesses to provide the residents with internships while they stay in long-term transitional housing. It would not take place right away, but when they’re ready. Grants will pay the business and then also pay the women for their work. Terloux hopes to see businesses pull together to give the women a chance and help them learn skills to better themselves.

While for safety and privacy reasons, the exact location cannot be disclosed, a property has been found that would suit the needs for Terebinth Refuge, though the plans have not been finalized.

As for the name, Terloux says it’s from the Old Testament Terebinth trees, and means strong roots. The trees were places of significance and resting places of shelter, of which the new property has many.

To make the much-needed safe house a reality, the Terebinth Refuge board and Terloux are asking the area churches, individuals and businesses to consider charitable donations.

To donate, call CeCe Terloux at 320-204-4881 or send a check made payable to “Terebinth Refuge” to P.O. Box 5035, St. Cloud, Minn. 56302.

For more information, visit www.terebinthrefuge.org or e-mail CeCe Terloux at cece@terebinthrefuge.org.