Local sex trafficking survivor safe house Anew is poised to expand its resources through a multi-phase development after receiving a donation of land in Gainesville this year.

The Christian-based nonprofit announced the donation of more than 10 acres in an email in February, with plans to build more safe housing for women healing from sex trafficking and a Creator’s Space where they will learn leadership and entrepreneurial skills as they make products to sell to the community.

Anew’s founder and Executive Director Alison Ungaro told Mainstreet she’s excited to expand upon what North Central Florida’s only safe home already offers.

“Our vision has always been that Alachua County would become a hub of healing and restoration for survivors of human trafficking, and this donated land absolutely helps push us towards that vision,” she said.

The gifted property came after what the organization said took nearly seven years of praying, planning and seeking God for his vision and timing. Anew is based in Gainesville but does not disclose any of its physical locations, including the new land, to protect the women it serves.

Ungaro said the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, had been involved with Anew since its founding in 2012, always with an interest in giving the land to the ministry. Now, years later, she said Anew is reaping the impact of that one connection.

“It’s so beautiful to see what the power of community is capable of,” Ungaro said.

The new land seeks to multiply the organization’s impact by expanding the resources available to women currently in Anew’s residential and non-residential programs, as well as graduates.

Ungaro said every safe bed Anew will add opens lifelines to the estimated 200,000 survivors of human trafficking statewide, as Florida currently only offers around 100 safe beds, including the six currently at Anew.

She said the Creator’s Space will serve as a pipeline from restoration to employment, a transition that can be challenging for women who come through Anew.

On top of lacking the confidence and skills needed to keep a job, Ungaro said many survivors carry criminal backgrounds as their traffickers engaged them in illegal activity. Although Anew works on record expungement, the process can take a year or longer to complete. Ungaro said the Creator’s Space will provide women with safe and supportive opportunities to begin their employment journeys in the meantime.

“What we’re hoping to develop is a space where survivors can create products that are environmentally conscious, that are things that ordinary people like you and me enjoy having in our home,” she said. “Survivors will not only learn product production, but also leadership skills and entrepreneurial skills that will end up with livable wage opportunities and things of that nature.”

Ungaro said Anew is still in the “dreaming stage,” planning the products that trafficking survivors will make.

But initial ideas include coffee roasting, soap production, dried flower arrangements and jewelry making. The donated land will also provide space for women at Anew to engage with pet therapy and to plant gardens.

Ungaro said enclosing the property and renovating a building already on it is expected to cost around $200,000. She said Anew is waiting to see if it will receive grants to help with the renovation and that an architect and contractor had already reached out to do the work.

Anew’s second annual Free to Fly Trail 5K race on April 25 at San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park will also raise money for the project. Ungaro said she’s hoping to surpass last year’s inaugural 200 participants with 300 or more.

Ultimately, Ungaro said she can’t wait to see how the community rallies around Anew’s new opportunity for growth, just as it always has.

“We will need more volunteers, we will need more staff,” Ungaro said. “One of my dreams is to see our community of folks in the building industry come alongside us in this vision and to help us get to the finish line, to be able to open the doors of a safe home of this kind.”