Kristi House Opens Homestead Drop-In Center
Site will expand model Project GOLD program to Miami-Dade’s deep south area to serve teen girls overcoming sex trafficking
Kristi House is pleased to announce the opening of a second site for our Project GOLD program. This Drop-In Center is located in Homestead to better serve girls who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and those who are at risk in the southern regions of large Miami-Dade County.
Mirrored after our first very popular and at-capacity Drop-In Center in central Miami, the new Homestead location will provide a home-like setting for girls ages 13 to 18 overcoming sex trafficking. It will provide a dedicated space for engagement and delivery of restorative services, including care management, therapy, advocacy, education support, life skills training, recreation and enrichment programs. It is a place where girls will be empowered to find their strengths in a non-judging, healing environment.
Kristi House’s Project GOLD is the first and longest-running program in large Miami-Dade County dedicated to child sex trafficking. The program began in 2007 and opened the Project GOLD Drop-In Center in 2014, the first such site in Florida developed exclusively for underage girls who have been commercially sexually exploited.
“Our Board and staff made expanding our presence in southern Miami-Dade a priority five years ago and we’ve been steadily adding services, sites and staff since that time,” CEO Amanda Altman said. “We are very happy to finally have a place in Homestead to make Project GOLD more accessible to trafficking victims.”
This three-year program will build upon services to some 600+ girls since Kristi House began its program for sex trafficked children. The program is being supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, with matching support from Ocean Reef Community Foundation, The Batchelor Foundation, Kathleen Kennedy Foundation, and the Key Biscayne Women’s Giving Circle.
Project GOLD and this South Drop-In Center are supported by Award #2020-VM-BX-0007 awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice.
