HOST A FREE SUNDAY
FREE Sunday is a powerful opportunity to engage your church in the fight against sex trafficking. Host a FREE Sunday to learn about this great injustice happening in your own neighborhood and around the world; how our partners are responding domestically and globally; and how you can help break the cycle.
An anti-sex trafficking initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church
Pray
Join us as we pray with hope for God to transform our unjust and broken world.
Learn
Learn to identify signs of trafficking and ways to have conversations for prevention.
Give
Your gifts help us break the cycle of sex trafficking domestically and globally.
Act
Act through advocacy with survivors to pursue God’s shalom for our communities.
Globally, an estimated 4.7 million persons are caught in sex trafficking today. Approximately 250,000–350,000 American children and youth are at risk for sex trafficking each year.
People who have been marginalized are also being deemed disposable and thus usable for the demoralizing purposes of those with power and privilege. The exploitation of those targeted through sex trafficking continues to attack the Imago Dei; marring, and harming trafficking victims, the traffickers, and the communities where economies of sexual exploitation flourish.
The Covenant’s core identity as Mission Friends is rooted in its desire to seek to respond to God’s call in Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do good, seek justice, and encourage the oppressed” in our world. As a response to this call, Serve Globally and Love Mercy Do Justice are collaborating through FREE, an anti-sex trafficking initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church that calls the global church to Pray, Learn, Give, and Act to oppose the evil of sex-trafficking both domestically and globally.
Pray
Join us as we pray with hope for God to transform our unjust and broken world. We join in prayer for God’s shalom to move us into action as Spirit-empowered servants of Jesus to reflect God’s kingdom of peace, justice, and freedom across cultures and around the world. Below are various prayer resources that will draw you closer to the cross and instill hope as you pray alongside our courageous and resilient survivors, partners, and advocates.
Week of Prayer 2022
The gift of God’s amazing grace is boundless, both in its beauty and its many dimensions. In our 2022 Week of Prayer guide, our courageous and resilient survivors inspire us to freshly encounter and receive God’s grace.
Lenten Prayer Guide
Six weeks of reflections written by people engaged in the ministry of anti-sex trafficking. We invite you to use these reflections as part of your weekly Lenten discipline to be reminded of God’s grace and love for all of the world that unites and liberates us together.
Find Your Way
Twenty prayer practices created by thoughtful leaders, survivors, and advocates who seek to distill ancient truths into practical disciplines to transform the mission of companies, inspire religious communities, and change the work of non-profits. The hope is that by using these practices formed from a 21st-century community of survivors, you can be more intentional and consider, once again, how your life can broaden with the depth of love.
Free Sunday Litany
Download the prayer litany to use on FREE Sunday. This litany is partially adapted from a compilation of prayers from survivor leaders and advocates of our domestic partner Thistle Farms. Join us in praying for God to transform our broken world.
Learn to identify signs of trafficking and ways to have conversations for prevention.
Learn
Learning is a crucial component in breaking the cycle of trafficking by addressing sexual violence. Our awareness moves us into action thus helping us live out our Christian witness in the broken world. Below are resources to help individuals, small groups, and churches to go deeper in their discipleship and live missionally by learning and engaging in the conversation of anti-sex trafficking.
For Small Groups
A prevention resource for parents and children to educate and dialog to protect children against sexual abuse (a leading cause of trafficking in the United States).
Men Like Jesus
A small group resource for men to be part of the movement of breaking the cycle of sex trafficking.
Engage Training
A 1.5-day training event that equips church members to live missionally by engaging injustice, learning, and moving toward action.
- Email free@covchurch.org to signup for a training or learn more
For Churches
- Request a Speaker: Email free@covchurch.org to have a FREE representative preach at your church
- Biblical Statement
- Biblical Perspectives on Trafficking
Videos
Give to invest in the care and rehabilitation of trafficked children and adults for a brighter future.
Give
Partner with us in breaking the cycle of sex trafficking and creating safer, holistic communities locally and globally. With your gift, you are joining the transformative work of The Evangelical Covenant Church and our partners in loving and serving alongside the vulnerable which is reflective of God’s Kingdom. Thank you for supporting this initiative. May you experience transformation as you engage with this work that is a reminder of our liberation being tied to the liberation of others.
More Ways to Give
FREE is an initiative of Serve Globally and Love Mercy Do Justice of the Evangelical Covenant Church, a registered religious nonprofit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States of America. Contributions to the initiative are tax-deductible to the extent that the law allows.
- Mail check to PO Box 773420, Chicago, IL 60677-3420
- Call (773) 784-3000
- Match a gift
- Donate with stocks
Browse Products
Browse products made lovingly by survivors as a way to sustain themselves and have economic freedom.
Our Partners
As co-workers entrusted with the mission of God we share a commitment to complement the work of our global and domestic partners in seeking to fulfill the common goal and objective of opposing the evil of sex trafficking and effectively serving those impacted by the perils of sex trafficking, abuse of power, poverty and injustice around the world.
Our global and domestic partners are engaged in holistic and transformative work of anti-sex trafficking through prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation that seeks to support survivors and break the supply and demand cycle. Alongside our partners, we hope to mobilize individuals and local churches to strengthen the movement through the power of networking, education, awareness, support, and activism.
We invite you to join us so that together we might see a collective movement toward opposing this evil.
Domestic Partners
Amirah, Inc.
Boston, Massachusetts
Amirah, Inc. exists to provide a refuge for those seeking to break free from exploitation and heal in community on their journey toward lasting hope. Amirah does this work through long-term residential programs, survivor-led outreach programs, and educational/training programs. Our hope for the women who participate in our programs is that they would develop the skills they need in a supportive community environment to find liberation, remain independent, and accomplish the goals she sets for herself.
Thistle Farms
Nashville, Tennessee
Thistle Farms operates a 2-year residential recovery facility for sex trafficking survivors. A large component of their holistic healing program is the social justice enterprise that gives the women opportunity to reap economic justice, be employed, and sustain themselves financially. Thistle Farms also facilitates trainings that teach others their model for residential care for traumatized, sex-trafficked women, so the model can be replicated in other locales. While their main facility is located in Tennessee, they have sister facilities in 29 states, Canada, Belize, New Zealand, and Hawaii.
Reclaim13
Chicago, Illinois
Reclaim13 is devoted to ending the cycle of sexual exploitation by working in the areas of healing, prevention, and community engagement throughout the Chicagoland area. Thirteen (13) is the age a child becomes most vulnerable to potential sexual exploitation. Reclam13’s mission is to reclaim the lives of children impacted by childhood abuse and exploitation. They help child sexual abuse victims and sex trafficking survivors find healing through clinically informed residential treatment programs, a safe house for minors, a young adult transitional living program, and a community mentor program. These trauma-informed therapeutic care programs help youth with highly traumatized histories heal and transition into productive futures.
Priceless Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Priceless Alaska is first and foremost a mentorship program. Mentors are the heart and soul of Priceless and have proven the effectiveness of community and relationship for hope and healing. Priceless works with survivors who are currently being trafficked or have been trafficked within the past five years. Faith communities are trained to be mentors to survivors of commercial sex-trafficking. This mentorship ministry mostly takes place in Alaska but the Engage training can be offered to other communities as well.
Naomi’s House
Naomi’s House (NH) operates several programs including a residential care facility with a 15-month program for trafficked women survivors over the age of 18. NH programs are comprehensive services offering hope and healing to women who have suffered from commercial sexual exploitation. Naomi’s House exists because every woman who has suffered from sexual exploitation deserves a new start. NH programs are: Faith-based and rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; Trauma-informed and integrated with expert therapists and staff; Committed to her full healing, believing she is the best advocate for her own care.
New Day for Children
Alamo, California
New Day for Children provides intake services and placement coordination for sex trafficked girls under 18 years of age. New Day for Children places girls in partner residential facilities and boarding schools that offer educational opportunities. They offer case management services to ensure the girls get the holistic care they need. They financially support ancillary services like art therapy, horse therapy, surgery, tutoring, travel for parental/family visitation, as well as other well-rounded care needs.
Global Partners
Hindustani Covenant Church
Hindustani Covenant Church/ Covenant Social Services (HCC/CSS): Inspired by the life of Christ, HCC/CSS envisages a society where people participate in their own empowerment towards a transformed life. In its efforts to combat sex trafficking, they provide holistic services to bring communal transformation by addressing poverty and providing education to prevent victimization of women and children, services for intervention, rehabilitation, and economic empowerment opportunities for survivors.
El Pozo de Vida
El Pozo de Vida is a nonprofit organization that fights against human trafficking and exploitation in Mexico and throughout the Latin American region. We work with a holistic, strategic model that focuses on three main areas: Prevention, Intervention, and Restoration of families, children, women, communities, and other populations that are vulnerable to the crime of human trafficking so that they can experience freedom, new opportunities, and a fresh start in life.
International Justice Mission
End OSEC
Partnering in the area of ending Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC; aka cybersex trafficking): IJM is a global organization that protects the poor from violence throughout the developing world. We partner with local authorities to rescue victims of violence, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors, and strengthen justice systems.
Freely in Hope
Freely in Hope equips survivors and advocates to lead in ending the cycle of sexual violence. Freely in Hope provides a holistic education, leadership development, and storytelling platforms that allow survivors to lead through their rewritten stories. Throughout our community-based programs, sex trafficking prevention is a core component as we serve women who are survivors of sexual violence, women in prostitution, and girls who are most vulnerable to all forms of sexual violence, including human trafficking.
Act through advocacy with survivors to pursue God’s shalom for our communities.
Act
Advocate alongside survivors to bring changes in systems that marginalize people and pursue God’s shalom for our communities.
Covenant Campaigns
Join the movement to bring system changes by mobilizing your church
Host a FREE Sunday: July 30 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. We invite all Covenant Churches to host a FREE Sunday closest to the day or on a day that fits your church calendar better. Contact us if you would like a FREE representative to join you on your FREE Sunday to share, preach and teach from the pulpit or during a special event.
Advocacy Summit: Play a role in advocating for new legislation that will protect women and children from violence at Capitol Hill (date TBD). Contact us for more info.
Mentorship Program
Building community committed to actively supporting survivors
Mentorship programs are powerful relational connections that have proven the effectiveness of community and relationships for hope and healing. In the safety of a new friendship, trust is born and healing can begin and has the best chance of being sustained over the long haul.
Interested in training? Contact free@covchurch.org to build a model for your community
Communion Liturgy
We invite you and your church to participate in the sacrament of communion as a reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus for our freedom and how our liberation is tied to the freedom of others. Order communion wafers made lovingly by our survivor sisters in India as a way to sustain themselves and gain economic freedom.
Act with your Dollars
Buy products made lovingly by survivors to sustain themselves and have economic justice
Need Help?
National Human Trafficking Hotline United States: 1 (888) 373-7888 SMS: 233733 (Text “HELP” or “INFO”)
Looking for support? Please contact us at 773-784-3000 or free@covchurch.org
Contact Us
Free is an anti-sex trafficking initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church that calls people to pray, learn, give, and act.
Questions? Email us at free@covchurch.org
Click here to sign up for updates.
Need Help?
National Human Trafficking Hotline United States: 1 (888) 373-7888 SMS: 233733 (Text “HELP” or “INFO”)
Looking for support? Please contact us at 773-784-3000 or free@covchurch.org
