Of the fewer than 100 safe home beds available in the state of Florida for survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation, six of them belong to Anew Florida in Gainesville. 

Formerly known as Created Gainesville, Anew is a non-profit, Christian-based organization working to help female survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation heal through survivor care, outreach, awareness and prevention programs. 

On June 1, Anew will celebrate its 13th anniversary. Since its founding, the organization has provided care to almost 4,000 recovering women. 

The organization’s founder and executive director Alison Ungaro said that while the anniversary occasion will be small, reflecting on the testimony of survivors who healed through Anew will be a great celebration. 

“We aren’t having an in-person event, but we will be sharing a whole bunch of great stories and reflecting on how far God has brought our little grassroots organization since June 2012 at my dining room table,” Ungaro said.  

The idea for Anew started back in 2011 after Ungaro wanted to understand more about the realities of human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking, in her area of North Central Florida. 

According to Anew’s website, Florida is ranked as the third highest state in the nation for reported sex trafficking cases. Around 88% of all reported victims in the U.S. are recruited using the internet. 

Ungaro said Gainesville isn’t immune to trafficking just because it’s a college town and might have less strip clubs and street prostitution than larger cities. 

Being located next to I-75, she said traffickers can easily relocate victims through multiple states. She also said that 500 to 800 sex ads are published online every 24 hours between Gainesville and Ocala.  

Because most trafficking happens behind closed doors of homes and motels, Ungaro said law enforcement has a harder time identifying and recovering victims. In 2024, the Alachua County Sherrif’s Office had five reported sex trafficking cases. 

“I think what’s hidden in plain sight is this dark underbelly of our community,” Ungaro said. “40% of cases involve a family member trafficking their child. If you think about the normalization that occurs if this is happening in a young person’s family, how difficult it is to report and how it could take several years to even identify as a victim.” 

When she stumbled across a radio interview with Created, a sex trafficking recovery organization based out of Tampa, Ungaro reached out in hopes of learning more about the training and mentorship needed for working with survivors. 

After Ungaro shadowed Created’s programs, from street and club outreach to residential care, the organization’s executive director asked if she would be interested in starting a branch of Created in Gainesville with programs specific to the city’s needs. 

Ungaro said yes, and started hosting a small, weekly breakfast with trafficking survivors in her home as Created Gainesville, now known as Anew.  

She said the breakfasts and every program since have been built using survivor input and aim to provide something for everyone at any part of the recovery journey. 

“Survivors, their needs are complex,” she said. “It’s physical, emotional, spiritual, relational…a lot of women come into our programs and maybe haven’t completed school, or had the opportunity to learn certain skills that would be beneficial for a career. Our programs provide all of those opportunities in addition to mental health care, physical health care, dental health care, sobriety support and case management.” 

Ungaro said Anew’s structured programs can care for up to six residential and 10 non-residential survivors at one time for a duration of 18 to 24 months. But she said every healing journey is different. 

Some of their residents may have done residential programs elsewhere but are looking for additional support. Others will transition from Anew’s residential program into non-residential for after-care, which Ungaro said helps keep staff connected to survivors and allow them a gradual transition. 

Survivors can also join the community participation program. The option allowing participants to be involved in Anew’s operations is less structured and can be for graduates of Anew’s programs, anyone interested in learning more about the programs or needing limited support for however long they see beneficial. 

So far, Ungaro said 100% of Anew’s graduates have not returned to the dangers they previously endured in trafficking.  

She said providing survivors with the choice to take their healing into their own hands and more than one option to do so at their own pace is vital to this success. 

“We have one woman who we’d been involved in her life for nearly 13 years before we ever had any formal programs and she still participates in our community participation,” Ungaro said. “She gets to pour into survivors who are newer in their journey and share her own experiences, which are just so empowering for women who are maybe looking at the journey ahead with fear and uncertainty.” 

Because of Created Gainesville’s work to prevent sex trafficking and restore survivors, the Gainesville City Commission recognized the organization during a January 2024 regular meeting and declared January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month. 

But with the U.S. having only enough safe beds to serve 10% of its human trafficking victims, and zero beds in Alachua County or its 13 surrounding counties, Ungaro said Created Gainesville quickly outgrew the amount of in-state and nationwide referrals it received. 

In order to communicate that the organization served survivors beyond its immediate community, Ungaro said the team embarked on a journey of deep prayer for a name change. It wasn’t until last year that they landed on their favorite idea. 

“[Anew] actually came from this piece of scripture in Isaiah 41:18 and 19 that talks about God breathing new life in rivers and deserts,” she said. “That’s what we do. We are literally in kind of barren land in terms of resources for this population and feel like God has placed us here to breathe hope and to provide opportunities for survivors who may have thought that there wasn’t anything for them.” 

Ungaro said the name change not only provided clarity of mission to the individuals, families, churches and businesses who provide 90% of Anew’s financial support, it built trust with survivors going through the programs. 

Since the women who come through Anew are on average first trafficked between 11 and 17-years-old, Ungaro also said Anew’s mission of survivor outreach and raising awareness of trafficking dangers is critical for preventing it from happening at all. 

Anew’s survivor outreach includes initiatives like the Freedom to Fly 5k connecting survivors with the community and distributing “love bags” in areas most known for trafficking. The bags are filled with toiletries, snacks and notes aiming to communicate to a woman she is seen and cared for and connected to resources that can help.  

Community members can also host “freedom parties” for educational outreach. When someone signs up to host a party, Anew mails them a kit with printed materials of anti-sex trafficking information and ways for people to get involved with the organization. 

However they can help, Ungaro challenges everyone to do something to help curb sex trafficking and help survivors heal. 

“I think my challenge to our community is that everyone can do something,” Ungaro said. “It doesn’t have to be big. But all of us doing something even small together, collectively, can change a person’s life and even change generations to come.” 

Click here to learn more ways to help survivors at Anew through prayer, volunteering, donating, shopping Amazon wish lists or attending upcoming events.