Lyresh, from California’s Inland Empire, came to Cast in dire need. She had lost her job and found herself on Skid Row, where a man who pretended to care for her exploited her vulnerability and forced her into sex work. When she asked the police for help, they treated her like a criminal. Eventually someone referred her to Cast’s shelter, where she was met warmly and stayed many months, recovering. Cast’s case management and legal staff helped Lyresh get trained in cosmetology and to get her wrongful charges cleared. Today, Lyresh has her own business and speaks with policymakers about human trafficking.
What We Do
Direct Services
Cast provides a comprehensive continuum of care to survivors of human trafficking in Los Angeles County, from 24-hour hotline and crisis response, to long-term services and survivor leadership.
Education & Advocacy
Nationally, we advocate for groundbreaking policies, research human trafficking using our extensive client data, provide training on human trafficking, and empower survivors to become leaders in the anti-trafficking movement.
Our Services
Our services are available to survivors of all forms of human trafficking (labor and sex) in Los Angeles of all ages, ethnicities, gender identities and nationalities. We tailor services to survivors’ individual needs and goals and respect their choices.
Our services are free of charge.
Hotline & Emergency Response
Survivors in crisis – or anyone who is concerned – can call Cast’s 24-hour hotline at 888-KEY-2-FREE (888-539-2373). The hotline provides 24/7 response to victims of human trafficking and serves as a resource to the community for referrals and technical assistance. We use online interpreters so that we can communicate with all survivors. The emergency response team provides immediate, short-term services to ensure the safety and well-being of victims when they first escape their trafficking situation.
Housing
Cast is the only provider of housing dedicated to human trafficking survivors in Los Angeles, offering housing services based on survivors’ needs and choices. Survivors staying at Cast’s emergency shelter, Hummingbird Haven (15 beds), are usually escaping their trafficking situation or are in a crisis; the shelter offers a safe place to sleep, eat, and get counseling. If survivors need more support, Cast’s transitional shelter, Mariposa Haven (12 beds), provides transitional housing and a host of other supports. Both shelters are available to single adults who identify as female or nonbinary. Our Rapid Rehousing Program supports survivors who are ready to move into a permanent home with rental assistance and dedicated case management.
Community Case Management
Our case management program offers a client-centered, trauma-informed approach to helping survivors reach freedom and independence. The program begins with a comprehensive assessment to determine goals and necessary next steps in 13 areas of clients’ lives. Services include basic necessities, safety planning, counseling, medical, education, life skills training, employment, transportation, and applying for benefits. As well as connecting to services, our focus is on creating rapport and providing emotional support to survivors for as long as they need it. We refer clients to our network of hundreds of service providers who have been trained on human trafficking.
Legal Services
Cast staff attorneys empower survivors to assert their legal rights and choose appropriate remedies to rebuild their lives. The legal services program works collaboratively with survivors, community-based organizations, public-interest attorneys and government agencies to ensure survivors of human trafficking are provided with culturally-sensitive, victim-centered legal representation. Services include immigration assistance, victim rights advocacy, criminal defense support, post-conviction relief, civil litigation, and family law.
Youth Program
Survivors who are minors and transition age youth (up to 24 years) have specialized needs. For the first 90 days, youth have 24/7 communication access to their Cast case manager. Other services include monthly group activities and workshops to increase confidence and life skills.
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“Cast’s Housing programs ensure that survivors feel safe for the first time and that they are in control of their own lives. Affordable, safe, and permanent housing is essential for them to flourish and become members of their communities.”
Rebecca Amado Sprigg
Associate Director of Equitable Housing
Our Education & Advocacy
Policy
Using over 25 years of evidence from survivors, we press local, state, national, and global leaders to pass more and better policies to protect survivors and prevent human trafficking. We elevate the lived experiences and expertise of human trafficking survivors to inform reform. We embrace human rights and public health frameworks that address the root causes of trafficking, such as poverty, discrimination, and inequities, while advocating for trauma-informed and community-based solutions.
Research & Evaluation
With the engagement of survivors, Cast conducts original research on human trafficking and evaluates our programs, using comprehensive client data, in order to support advocacy efforts and improve outcomes for survivors. Our current research priorities include survivors’ health and wellbeing, criminalization of survivors, and ethical storytelling.
Training
To help end human trafficking and protect survivors, Cast’s Training and Technical Assistance programs teach and promote human trafficking prevention, identification and responses to a variety of audiences across the US. We provide free online courses, materials and technical assistance to legal and social service professionals working with survivors, as well as dedicated training on human trafficking of youth.
Survivor Leadership
To create lasting change, the movement to end human trafficking must be informed by those with lived experience. However, survivors of human trafficking face barriers to movement work. Cast’s Survivor Leadership Program includes the Los Angeles-based Resilient Voices and National Survivor Network (NSN), which develop, equip, and empower survivors engaged in advocacy, education, peer-to-peer mentorship, prevention, and policy work. The NSN also educates other organizations on how to meaningfully engage with survivor leaders, in order to build an anti-trafficking movement led by survivors.
Film & Media
Representations of human trafficking in film and media have misinformed the public and harmed survivors. We want to see authentic representations of human trafficking onscreen. Cast provides script and production consultation and training for industry professionals, for a fee.
As told by survivors
"If it weren’t for Cast, I would have never been able to start my life again and thrive."
"Labor trafficking is not as simple as one might want it to be."
Right after escaping an elder-care facility where she had been forced to work 18 hours a day, sleep on hallway floors, and threatened with arrest if she ran away, Angela Guanzon was met by a Cast social worker who spoke Tagalog, her native language. Angela then spent 18 months at a Cast shelter, and Cast connected her to English classes and vocational training. Now working as a medical biller and coder, Angela has also been supported by Cast to become a human trafficking advocate, testifying before Congress and elected officials to help change policy. She worked closely to pass SB 477, a California law that regulates the services of foreign labor contractors.
"If it weren’t for Cast, I would have never been able to start my life again and thrive."
Lyresh, from California’s Inland Empire, came to Cast in dire need. She had lost her job and found herself on Skid Row, where a man who pretended to care for her exploited her vulnerability and forced her into sex work. When she asked the police for help, they treated her like a criminal. Eventually someone referred her to Cast’s shelter, where she was met warmly and stayed many months, recovering. Cast’s case management and legal staff helped Lyresh get trained in cosmetology and to get her wrongful charges cleared. Today, Lyresh has her own business and speaks with policymakers about human trafficking.
"Labor trafficking is not as simple as one might want it to be."
Right after escaping an elder-care facility where she had been forced to work 18 hours a day, sleep on hallway floors, and threatened with arrest if she ran away, Angela Guanzon was met by a Cast social worker who spoke Tagalog, her native language. Angela then spent 18 months at a Cast shelter, and Cast connected her to English classes and vocational training. Now working as a medical biller and coder, Angela has also been supported by Cast to become a human trafficking advocate, testifying before Congress and elected officials to help change policy. She worked closely to pass SB 477, a California law that regulates the services of foreign labor contractors.
"If it weren’t for Cast, I would have never been able to start my life again and thrive."
Lyresh, from California’s Inland Empire, came to Cast in dire need. She had lost her job and found herself on Skid Row, where a man who pretended to care for her exploited her vulnerability and forced her into sex work. When she asked the police for help, they treated her like a criminal. Eventually someone referred her to Cast’s shelter, where she was met warmly and stayed many months, recovering. Cast’s case management and legal staff helped Lyresh get trained in cosmetology and to get her wrongful charges cleared. Today, Lyresh has her own business and speaks with policymakers about human trafficking.
"Labor trafficking is not as simple as one might want it to be."
Right after escaping an elder-care facility where she had been forced to work 18 hours a day, sleep on hallway floors, and threatened with arrest if she ran away, Angela Guanzon was met by a Cast social worker who spoke Tagalog, her native language. Angela then spent 18 months at a Cast shelter, and Cast connected her to English classes and vocational training. Now working as a medical biller and coder, Angela has also been supported by Cast to become a human trafficking advocate, testifying before Congress and elected officials to help change policy. She worked closely to pass SB 477, a California law that regulates the services of foreign labor contractors.