A Survivor’s Story: From Silence to Safety (Part 1)
In October 2024 I picked up the phone and told law enforcement that I had been sex trafficked as a minor and repeatedly sexually assaulted between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. I did not make that call because I was ready. I made it because I was on the verge of ending my life and I wanted someone to know why. Twenty years of silence, one phone call. Then I lost everything.
A state human trafficking investigation opened with my name on it and my entire life inside it. Two decades of trauma I had kept underwater came up all at once. I stopped sleeping. I stopped eating. I lost my job. I lost my housing. I was hospitalized. I was doing the hardest thing I had ever done from inside a life that had already collapsed. It felt like the end of the road. Not a bad stretch, not a hard year. The end. I was out of ideas and out of places to look. I thought I was out of time.
There are very few programs in this country operating at the caliber of Covered Colorado and there wasn't one in my state, so I left my state. I left my kids behind, which is the hardest thing I have ever done, because they are my whole world and being their mother is the truest thing about me. I arrived in July 2025 with two suitcases and no idea what I was walking into.
The moment I came through the door something in me let go. My nervous system went quiet. The hypervigilance I had been running on since I was fourteen, the thing underneath every job, every relationship, every ordinary Tuesday of my adult life, set itself down and stopped. I was thirty-seven years old and it was the first time I had ever felt safe.
Sarah's story is a powerful reminder of what safety can make possible. Sometimes, the first step isn't knowing exactly where the road will lead. Sometimes, it is simply reaching a place where you can finally stop, breathe, and begin.
Sarah will be joining us as the guest speaker at Covered Colorado’s Lighting the Way Fall Fundraiser on September 26, 2026. She will share more of her story and what came next after those six months at Covered Colorado.
Join us for Lighting the Way Fall Fundraiser!
Continue reading Sarah’s story in Part 2: What Became Possible by SUBSCRIBING HERE.