Celebrating 2024 and Looking Ahead to 2025!
The following is from our latest e-newsletter.
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As we enjoy the last few weeks of 2024, we are remembering our favourite highlights from the year and taking a moment to reflect on the incredible impact your support has made this year. Thanks to your generosity and the generosity of our larger community, we are able to provide vital programs, housing, and survivor-led initiatives that empower survivors who are rebuilding their lives after human trafficking and exploitation.
Looking ahead to 2025, your continued support will be critical in helping us expand our reach and sustain the essential services survivors rely on. Together, we can ensure that more lives are restored, more voices are amplified, and more individuals find hope and healing.
Thank you for standing with us and believing in the dignity and resilience of survivors. Let’s make 2025 another impactful year, together.
2024 Memorable Moments
We asked survivors living at Nancy's House and Restorations' staff what some of their most memorable moments and highlights from 2024 were.Here's what they have to say!
Thanksgiving meal at Nancy's House.
"Every time we eat together as a group is always fun."
Survivor living at Nancy’s House
At Nancy's House, we are intentional about gathering to share food, stories, and time together. This is a time of nourishment for our bodies and souls! Sharing food and time together is so core to how we do life at Nancy's House that multiple people shared this as a 2024 highlight! A staff also shared,
"Sharing in food - so many of my favourite moments have happened when we’re all (staff and residents) at the table laughing together."
Artwork created at our Survivor Forum: Creative Conversations.
"The Creative Conversations Survivor Forum that we hosted in September was one of the most empowering experiences I’ve had this year. It is a profound gift to gather with our peers and have loud, quiet, honest, emotional, real and silly conversations. Every single one of our peers are powerful and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work on a project designed to honour as many of the nuanced voices, experiences and needs of our community as possible."
Peer Advocate
While participants crafted, Restorations’ Peer Advocates facilitated conversations around their experiences of being cared for as survivors of human trafficking and exploitation. This toolkit will continue being developed in 2025 and will be a truly survivor-led initiative to equip our community to better care for survivors.
Congratulations, Athena, who achieved a major accomplishment and completed her high school credits!
"A memorable moment for me was celebrating a resident finishing her high school credits. This survivor was first supported through our Peer Advocacy program before coming to Nancy's House, and witnessing her growth and being able to celebrate all her hard work, perseverance, and dedication has been so meaningful."
Restorations Staff Member
At Restorations, we place the utmost importance on maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of the survivors we support. To protect their identities, our typical practice is to only post pictures that are non-identifying, ensuring the safety and comfort of our residents. However, we’re excited to share that one of our residents, who is passionate about sharing her story and a 2024 achievement, has requested that we share this picture with you. Athena achieved a major milestone this year: she completed high school!
We have known Athena since 2021 through our Peer Advocacy program until she joined Nancy’s House last year. We are so proud of her perseverance and determination and have been honoured to journey alongside her. Her journey reminds us why we do this work and why your support is so vital. Thank you for empowering survivors to thrive and pursue their dreams.
Horseback riding, a programming activity residents of Nancy's House chose to celebrate a birthday. Programming at Nancy's House is designed to care for survivors' holistic physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
"I really enjoyed going horseback riding to celebrate another resident’s birthday."
Survivor Living at Nancy’s House
At Nancy's House, every achievement—big or small—is a testament to resilience and strength. Celebrating milestones inspires hope, fuels motivation, and reminds survivors of their incredible capacity to rebuild and thrive.
A resident shared:
"It’s just really nice that the staff and other residents go out of their way to ensure we all feel celebrated on our birthdays, graduations, sobriety days. It definitely warms my heart. ♥️"
"My favourite experience with Restorations this year was our staff retreat. It provided a unique opportunity for personal growth, offering therapeutic activities that allowed me to focus on self-care and recharge both mentally and emotionally. This retreat was not just about relaxation; it was about reconnecting with myself and gaining insights into my own well-being. The retreat facilitated genuine team bonding and strengthening."
Restorations Staff Member
The view from our staff retreat where the focus was “Recalibrate.” Using our newly developed strategic planas the foundation of our time together, our team was able to use this time to:
🛶 Pause to rest
🤝 Connect as a team
🧭 Recalibrate to plan for the future
A Peer Advocate staff member also shared:
"[A highlight was] Sharing in meaningful conversations around longterm, actionable wellness as a team while surrounded by nature this summer. I felt hopeful and encouraged and it’s precisely that feeling that I continue to tap into when the reality of using my lived experience in my work feels heavy."
Each staff member was given a copy of a book by Morgan Harper Nichols.