Freedom a la Cart hosted its third annual EmpowHER event at the Southern Theater Wednesday where they held a Women Empowering Change: Learning Through the Lens of a Sex Trafficking Survivor conversation with Cyntoia Brown. Credit: Becca Duncan | LTV Producer

Columbus ranks No. 9 in the nation for the most human trafficking incidents based on its population, and Freedom a la Cart wants to spread awareness within the community. 

Freedom a la Cart — an organization to “empower survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation to build lives of freedom and self-sufficiency” — hosted its third-annual EmpowHER event at the Southern Theatre Wednesday where it held a “Women Empowering Change: Learning Through the Lens of a Sex Trafficking Survivor” conversation with activist and trafficking survivor Cyntoia Brown.

Paula Haines, CEO of Freedom a la Cart, said the event and the organization work to support survivors of human and sex trafficking while also giving survivors a place to share their stories.

“We do our workforce development program and then have a long-term continuing care to raise up leaders and help them find their voice, and then also be there as a safety net when things get rough and help pick them up and keep them strong,” Haines said.

According to the Freedom a la Cart website, Ohio has the fifth-most reported cases of human trafficking of any state, and cases are still on the rise as human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry worldwide.

According to the Human Trafficking Hotline website, over 1,000 calls were registered from Ohio to the hotline in 2021.

Haines said Ohio State students are able to help the organization’s cause by coming to the Freedom a la Cart Café + Bakery to support both the fight against trafficking and the survivors who work there.

“We’re close to campus,” Haines said. “If they would come down and support the business and know that through purchasing a cup of coffee and a pastry, they are supporting the cause, I think that speaks volumes.”

According to its website, the Freedom a la Cart Café + Bakery is located at 123 E. Spring St. 

The organization has supported Ohio State Unchained’s Fashion show, and Haines has spoken to the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Scholars program about social enterprise in the past, according to a statement from the Freedom team. Ohio State’s Enlighten has also done a variety of volunteering with Freedom a la Cart, according to the team.

Haines said the organization also has resources and opportunities available for students to help them gain a greater understanding of the impacts trafficking has on communities.

“We at Freedom also offer educational opportunities,” Haines said. “We talk to different student groups on campus. We can come in and do training that are survivor-led so you’re getting that perspective.”

Brown, a national advocate for victims of trafficking and speaker at the EmpowHER event, said at the event people who work with survivors need to remember they should not judge survivors for their past.

“For those of you who come in contact with survivors on a daily basis, I just want to challenge you to view the resilience and the brightness inside of them instead of putting them in a box of what happened to them,” Brown said.

Brown shared her story as a trafficking survivor at the event and said the people who understand these experiences best are other survivors, and they should be considered the experts on the topic.

“I hope that by hearing my own story today, you’ll see that women who survive the darkness are the strongest source of light in the fight against trafficking,” Brown said. “They are the hope. They are the true leaders in the movement, and I challenge you to respect their expertise.”

Brooke Pinkham, a trafficking survivor and Butterfly Resource Manager for Freedom a la Cart, said she hopes people will educate themselves on the “issues taking place in their own backyard” — specifically trafficking and addiction.

“Trafficking is not black and white. It doesn’t look like it does in the movies, and just about anyone is susceptible to it,” Pinkham said.

Pinkham said she is a part of the organization because it gives her the opportunity to work with other survivors and offer them the same level of support the organization gave her.

“My road to a successful life that I can be proud of isn’t as hard as it has to be,” Pinkham said. “They just really meant the world to me and they have been with me along my journey the entire time.”

Pinkham said Freedom helps survivors see what they are capable of and gives them the opportunity to overcome their pasts to create the future they want for themselves.

“Literally anything is possible. Just because you have that past and have those afflictions, it doesn’t define you,” Pinkham said. “That lifestyle does not define me.”