By Amber Van Schooneveld
Within anti-trafficking nonprofits, staff turnover is an all-too-familiar challenge. Heavy caseloads, budgetary constraints and vicarious trauma lead to burnt-out staff who abandon ship after finding themselves utterly spent. But according to a 2022 study by Institute for Survivor Care, anti-trafficking and survivor care nonprofits don’t have a burnout problem; they have a leadership problem.
“This industry is full of founders who feel called to do this work,” says Kristi Wells, CEO of Safe House Project. “But sometimes they forget that God also brings other people along, and that we, as leaders and founders, don’t have to have all the answers. I think we have a leadership crisis in this field more than a lack of people willing to engage.”
Leadership is in the DNA of Safe House Project, a survivor care nonprofit cofounded by Kristi Wells and Brittany Dunn.
“My dad was the CEO of a billion-dollar company,” says Kristi. “So, I was raised around some of the top CEOs in the world. I spent my spring breaks on leadership retreats with them.”
Brittany, with an MBA from Wellesley University, also has a passion for leadership, something the two have saturated throughout their organization. Within each of Safe House Project’s programs, the leaders are empowered to innovate, collaborate and own their areas of expertise.
“We push for extreme outcomes because everybody in their respective roles has extreme ownership,” says Kristi.
They also operate with extreme candor, regularly having challenging but critical conversations. Their extreme emphasis on leadership has led to extreme results:
“We served 534 survivors in 2023. In the start of 2024, we set the goal together of serving 1,500 survivors. For that to happen, every part of the organization had to be working at full speed,” says Kristi. “And so, when we served 1,529 survivors by the end of New Year’s Eve 2024, it was unbelievable. We’re so proud.”
Kristi and Brittany are intentional in their approach to leadership, ensuring both they and their team receive regular infusions of training and inspiration. In 2024, the two attended the Global Leadership Summit together in South Barrington, IL, where they received the push they needed to take a scary next step.
One of the challenges in the anti-trafficking field is reporting suspected cases of exploitation. The current platforms that exist struggle to keep up with the overwhelming number of cases reported through anonymous tips each year.
The team at Safe House Project experienced this challenge over and over with people needing to be removed from situations of trafficking not able to receive the assistance they needed. Kristi and Brittany knew something needed to change — and they knew they could be part of that change — but tackling such a huge and potentially disruptive project was daunting.
“We were standing on the cusp of doing something really insane and innovative,” says Kristi. “We were scared, thinking, if we do this, there’s no turning back.”
But hearing Craig Groeschel speak at the Summit, giving them “permission to obsess” gave them the courage they needed to leap into their “WHALE” — their “Whole-Hearted All-Encompassing Life Endeavor”:
“Sometimes to change the world, you have to do the hard things,” says Kristi. “Greatness isn’t found in the middle; it’s born in the extremes.”
Kristi and Brittany took the inspiration and training from the Summit and taught mini-sessions to their staff in the fall of 2024. And, thanks in part to the inspiration and practical tools they gained, Safe House Project is launching Simply Report in 2025, a simple, secure app to help people recognize and report human trafficking.
Their prayer is that this app will revolutionize how people respond to trafficking, giving them an easy and approachable way to discreetly report trafficking without putting themselves or others at risk.
They’re already in for the Summit in 2025, and this time they’re bringing the whole team, knowing that they weren’t called to maintain the status quo, but to push the extremes and be a part of ending trafficking.
“The Summit was unbelievable,” says Kristi. “It’s the place you go to get your leadership love tank filled up.”
What is the Whole-Hearted All-Encompassing Life Endeavor God is calling you to? What next steps do you need to take to tackle that challenge? This world needs inspired and equipped leaders like Kristi and Brittany — and like you — to tackle the daunting challenges we face.
If you’d like to dig in to how you can help end trafficking, learn more about Safe House Project and Simply Report.
The post Does anti-trafficking work have a burnout problem — or a leadership problem? appeared first on Global Leadership Network.