Staff Spotlight: Bradel Canfield, Project GOLD Program Manager
Kristi House’s Project GOLD has been especially fortunate to have Bradel Canfield on its team. Bradel’s passion is mentoring teens who are at risk or have been exploited, as well as advocating for the rights of foster youth in Florida.
Bradel was naturally drawn to helping Project GOLD girls overcome trafficking three years ago when she began as a volunteer sharing her skills as a yoga instructor, teaching weekly classes for the girls. Having grown up in South Florida within the foster care system and surviving human trafficking, she was a natural mentor. Soon thereafter in 2017, she accepted the first full-time Survivor-Mentor position at Project GOLD, made possible with support from private funders and Voices for Children Foundation.
The girls in the program gravitate to Bradel, who works with them one-on-one and in groups, facilitating open discussions, yoga, journaling, and other activities. She was promoted to Program Manager recently and has hired another full-time survivor “Success Coach” to mentor girls in the program.
Bradel dedicates a day or more each week to the human trafficking division of the Miami Children’s Courthouse, which is known as G.R.A.C.E. Court (Growth Renewed through Acceptance, Change and Empowerment). This unique, specialized court is devoted to the needs of children who have been identified as victims of commercial sexual exploitation and labor trafficking. Within G.R.A.C.E. Court, Bradel serves as an advisor and advocate for teenage victims of sex trafficking and at-risk teens.
Bradel is currently working with leadership to establish protocols and continue to develop Project GOLD to best serve commercially sexually exploited children. Along with a team of other Florida Survivor Leaders, Bradel has been working, grassroots, within the Florida Statewide Survivor Alliance (FSSA), founded to advocate for changes in Florida legislation relating to human trafficking.
As a Prevention Curriculum Group Facilitator for the highly regarded “My Life My Choice” curriculum out of Boston, Bradel leads a weekly Project GOLD group in the program. She is a newly Certified Facilitator for the evidence-based “Not a Number” prevention curriculum that teaches at-risk teens how to keep safe. Bradel represents Kristi House in the South Florida Human Trafficking Task Force. She has made several presentations at major conferences and events in the past two years, lending a strong voice for survivors of trafficking and inspiring Project GOLD girls to pursue their dreams.
