Children of the Immaculate Heart

Children of the Immaculate Heart is a Catholic 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in San Diego, California. Our mission is to serve survivors of human trafficking and share with them the healing love of Christ. We seek to fulfill this mission primarily through aftercare services for survivors. We provide housing and case management for adult survivors of human trafficking, and we are opening a residential treatment facility for minors who have been trafficked. Through a Christ-centered atmosphere, family environment, and focus on holistic healing, we work toward the restoration of the dignity and identity of those who have been victimized by human trafficking.

Our History

Children of the Immaculate Heart was founded in 2013 and currently provides housing and rehabilitation for two trafficked women and their children. Since they have begun working with us, both have showed emotional improvements and neither of the survivors have returned to a life of trafficking. CIH’s program includes housing, case management, and therapy, and we partner with other organizations to provide medical and psychiatric care. It is our desire that, through God’s grace and our personal, holistic approach, these women will not only survive their trauma, but also thrive as daughters of God in the freedom found in Christ.

Our Mission

Children of the Immaculate Heart was founded to serve survivors of human trafficking and to pray for those still bound by this evil. Our mission, unique among service providers for trafficked persons, seeks to evangelize both the human heart and society as a whole— unique because we see the rise in trafficking as evoked by the widespread use and acceptance of the objectification of women, the breakdown of the family, sexual activity outside of marriage, pornography, abortion, and contraception. It is our goal to bring holistic healing and new economic opportunities to survivors and to work to bring an end to modern-day slavery.

Our Values

Children of the Immaculate Heart exists to serve survivors of modern day slavery by providing them with rehabilitative opportunities and restoration in Jesus Christ. CIH promotes the dignity of the human person and upholds the goodness and beauty of both the masculine and feminine genius and strives to promote a culture of life. CIH believes that conjugal love and procreation are gifts from God to be shared solely between one man and one woman in marriage for life as established by God in the beginning and raised to the level of a Sacrament by Christ. We believe that all persons are called by God to live chaste lives by virtue of their own dignity and according to their state of life. We believe in the rights of workers to just working conditions, wages, and benefits. CIH opposes all forms of oppression and exploitation, including racism, sexism, pornography, sexual abuse and harassment, and unlawful discrimination. CIH sees the rise in modern-day slavery as evoked by the widespread use and acceptance of the objectification of women, the breakdown of the family, sexual activity outside of marriage, pornography, abortion, and contraception. Because human trafficking arises from these issues, CIH seeks to evangelize both the individual human heart and society as a whole. Children of the Immaculate Heart will provide after care for those who want to get out of prostitution, trafficking, or other forms of sexual exploitation. Such care includes the education, job training, physical, psychological, and spiritual care that are needed in order to live healthy and fulfilling lives in society.

What We Do

We currently serve 11 adult survivors of human trafficking, providing case management, housing, and therapy. We partner with other organizations to provide medical and psychiatric care. We are working toward the opening of a new residential treatment facility, The Refuge, for minor girls who have been trafficked. The program of this group home will include both educational and therapeutic components in a family environment imbued with the love of Jesus Christ. All staff will be trained in trauma-informed care in order to provide our residents with the best professional care available. The facility’s location will be in a safe and undisclosed location in San Diego County, which currently has no long-term homes for trafficked minors.

Our History

Our Mission

Our Values

What We Do

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