SWOP Behind Bars Advocacy from the Margins

When Burnout Reveals the Truth: What the Anti-Trafficking Field Can No Longer Ignore

Every few years, the anti-trafficking field releases another report diagnosing its own dysfunction. The Safehouse Project’s recent white paper is the latest to outline the emotional toll of the work, the predictable cycles of vicarious trauma, low wages, inconsistent leadership, and the churn that destabilizes survivor support. 
To many in the field, these findings feel revelatory. 
But to sex workers, survivors, and people who have lived inside the systems that claim to “save” us, none of this is new. We have been naming these problems for decades. The core issue is simple: you cannot build trauma-informed services on top of carceral logic, exploitative labor conditions, and structures that burn through staff as quickly as they burn through donors’ goodwill.

Bad Girls of the Bible: Rehab – The “Harlot” Who Saved a Nation

If you’ve ever heard Rehab’s name in church, it almost always comes with a label: Rehab the prostitute. Out of all the things she did, all the roles she played, the one word attached to her forever is her occupation.
She’s remembered as the “harlot of Jericho,” a shady woman living on the city wall, useful only as a prop in Israel’s conquest story. But dig a little deeper, and Rehab turns out not to be a disposable side character at all - she’s a hero, a strategist, and one of only five women named in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).
 

A Season of Solidarity - From Mourning to Movement

As we move toward December 17 - the 22nd Annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers - we remember those we’ve lost and honor the fight that continues.
For many of us, this day is not just a memorial. It’s a reckoning. It’s the reminder that every name read aloud at a vigil represents a life cut short by stigma, criminalization, poverty, and indifference. And yet, even in mourning, we find movement. Grief has always been our catalyst.
This week, as we close our Season of Solidarity campaign, we’re reflecting on the power of remembrance - and how honoring the dead means fighting like hell for the living.
 

Bad Girls of the Bible: Bathsheba – The Silenced Survivor Who Changed History

Say the name Bathsheba, and most people picture a beautiful woman bathing on a rooftop, luring poor King David into sin. She’s been cast for centuries as the biblical seductress - the woman who tempted a man after God’s own heart.
But let’s be clear: Bathsheba didn’t tempt anyone. She didn’t lure anyone. She didn’t even have a choice.
Her story begins as one of survival in the face of royal abuse and historical silencing. But it doesn’t end there. Over time, Bathsheba becomes something the storytellers never wanted you to see: a woman of political power who shaped Israel’s monarchy and secured her son Solomon’s throne.

December 17 SWOP Behind Bars 3

December 17 is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

December 17 SWOP Behind Bars 2

December 17 is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

December 17 SWOP Behind Bars 1

December 17 is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, a global day of remembrance and action. At SWOP Behind Bars, we honor those lost to violence and fight for the safety and dignity of those still with us through our national hotline, reentry programs, and peer-led support networks.

Weekend Hot Takes: The Hunger Games

When the government shuts down, it’s not just offices that close - it’s the safety nets. Millions of people are sitting in their kitchens, staring at empty cabinets and “temporarily unavailable” messages on benefit portals. SNAP, the program that keeps children fed and families barely afloat, has been frozen in bureaucratic limbo once again - no warning, no contingency plan, just silence and shame. When the government stops, hunger doesn’t. It gets meaner. While systems glitch and offices go dark, families find less in their cabinets than yesterday. School lunch programs tighten rules. Food pantries run out before the line moves. And somewhere, someone still insists the “economy is doing fine.”