Will Soper was first arrested at the age of eleven, defending himself against the man who was his stepfather. This was not the first time Will had been sexually abused, but it was the first time he fought back and sadly his mother took his stepfather’s side. Despite the toxicity of the family, he was never given any mental health or other counseling and was continually sent back to his mother and stepfather when the foster care system failed him. Will’s abusive upbringing led to a justice involved life, culminating in the sexual assault of a person he knew. Now at 42, Will is finally out of prison and free of parole, but his time served and a personal apology to his victim cannot wipe away his sexual assault charge from his record. In Will’s own words, ‘…all I want to do is just work, even if it means washing dishes, I don’t care…. I can’t go back to jail; I’d rather hold court in the street…’.

Amanda Hall had it all. A flourishing restaurant career as a Regional Training Manager and even her own home. But for Amanda all of that was a facade. Inside she says, ‘I was a mess’. The wrong choice in men, and late nights with friends at the restaurants she trained at, along with rheumatoid arthritis led her from alcohol to cannabis to hard core drugs. As her life story played out, she eventually lost her job, her house and moved back in with her mother while finding financial support on the streets of Ohio, selling drugs. It was a saving grace moment when Amanda sold drugs to an undercover cop, but it would take a couple more arrests, despite the legal support of her parents to finally land her a 2 1/2-year prison sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Listen in as Amanda shares her past and her miraculous journey, behind the wall, that led her to find a second chance at The JBM Packaging Company.

Alicia and Jenna both grew up in middle-class, 2 parent homes. Alicia was a top student and leader in her school. Jenna went to a private school and had a typical teenage life. But while Alicia and Jenna lived 3000 miles apart their stories became intertwined because they both became victims of human trafficking while still in High School. Even worse, the men that trafficked them, were known to them, and their families. For Alicia, it was her high school soccer coach, and for Jenna, it was her boyfriend. You would think in 2024 that being held captive or forced to have sex for money, or be an indentured servant and live in bondage to another person, went the way of slavery, but it hasn’t. One in three runaways in the U.S. becomes trafficked by another human. There is no cookie-cutter version of a human trafficker or the men who pay to have sex with these women. While there are men who are trafficked, it is a relatively small number, but nonetheless, a violent crime, and for those who have been or still are trafficked, fear, shame, and trust are the biggest factors that keep them tied to their traffickers. It takes a village of love, trust, and therapeutic endeavors to return these victims to their families and communities.