Group Therapy, Recovery, and Mentoring Groups

The Hope Project’s Group Therapy, Recovery & Mentoring Groups provide trauma-informed, wrap-around healing supports for girls and women who have survived sex trafficking—as well as targeted prevention for highly vulnerable youth—in Muskegon, Newaygo, and Oceana Counties. Funding will sustain and strengthen five integrated components: (1) Recovery/Life Skills Group, a weekly, coach-facilitated series with rotating experts (financial literacy, health, benefits navigation, dental/medical access) that builds coping skills and stability; (2) Equine-Assisted Therapy for youth and adults, adding a second therapist to ensure safe ratios and maximize therapeutic gains; (3) a Parent Support Group for caregivers of trafficked youth, offering education, peer connection, and coping strategies with an advocate facilitator and on-call clinician; (4) Clinical Group Supervision for advocates and the mentoring coordinator to mitigate secondary trauma and improve case practice; and (5) the Think Tank Survivor Advisory Board, a compensated, therapist-facilitated panel of four survivors who guide policies, program design, and participant experience. Light meals and refreshments are provided at all groups to reduce barriers and foster a welcoming environment.

All services are delivered through a holistic, survivor-informed model that addresses physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual domains. Core supports (transportation via vans, gas cards, bus passes; childcare during groups; hygiene/self-care pantry; showers and laundry; recovery coaching; housing linkages including Rays of Hope) remove practical barriers so participants can consistently engage in healing and stabilization.

Alignment with United Way mission/priorities

The program directly advances Healthy Families/Individuals → Healthy Lifestyles by increasing access to mental and social services for survivors and ALICE-threshold families whose basic needs and stability are undermined by trafficking-related trauma, housing insecurity, and poverty. By pairing evidence-informed groups, counseling access, and practical supports with transportation and childcare, we help participants reduce depression/anxiety, strengthen life skills, and maintain employment and housing—contributing to United Way’s bold goal of more families meeting basic needs and to the mission of building thriving communities through collaborative, cross-sector action.