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Charity Challenge spotlight: Care and recovery center helps child victims of sex trafficking rebuild their lives

The girls living at Freedom Place are able to enjoy amenities such as a swimming pool, a covered basketball court, a small lake with canoes and even a stable with horses to groom.

Freedom Place / Facebook

Houston's a city of great giving and the CultureMap Charity Challenge aims to highlight that. CultureMap selected 12 deserving nonprofits to compete for a grand prize as they all raise awareness for worthy causes. Today: Freedom Place.

Freedom Place is a Christian-oriented care and recovery center for underage female victims of domestic child sex trafficking. It is the first long-term, comprehensive care facility in Texas for underage victims of domestic child sex trafficking and is one of only five such facilities in the country. The organization's mission is to offer a successful path to freedom for American children who have suffered as victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

When a girl arrives at Freedom Place, she is immediately placed on her personal path toward healing and a team of on-site medical, mental health and education professionals begin a comprehensive evaluation and prepare a personalized plan of care for each girl.

Girls spend approximately one year in Freedom Place's recovery program. The organization exhausts every opportunity to successfully reunite her with immediate family or relatives, if necessary. If that isn't an option, Freedom Place will arrange foster care within their network of Christian families, and if she is approaching 18, they will help her transition to successful independent living.

Surrounded by forest, the tranquil setting of Freedom Place's 110-acre campus provides a caring environment for the girls to begin their healing process. The girls living at Freedom Place enjoy amenities such as a swimming pool, a covered basketball court, a small lake with canoes and even a stable with horses to groom.

Since beginning in 1992 with foster care, new services and programs continue to develop and expand to help fulfill the organization's mission of helping kids and strengthening families.

Vote now for Freedom Place — or one of the other worthy local nonprofits — in the CultureMap Charity Challenge.

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Charity Challenge Winner

Organization with a special mission wins 2016 CultureMap Charity Challenge

Courtesy photo

Freedom Place is the first long-term, comprehensive care facility in Texas for underage victims of domestic child sex trafficking, and is one of only five such facilities in the country.

The votes have been calculated and the results of the third CultureMap Charity Challenge — a two-week online contest in which readers were asked to recognize the good work of a dozen local non-profit organizations — are in.

Garnering 30 percent of the more than 17,000 total votes, Freedom Place is the 2016 grand prize recipient and will receive an exclusive promotion and advertising package from CultureMap valued at $10,000.

Freedom Place is a Christian-oriented care and recovery center for underage female victims of domestic child sex trafficking. It's the first long-term, comprehensive care facility in Texas for underage victims of domestic child sex trafficking, and is one of only five such facilities in the country.

The organization's mission is to offer a successful path to freedom for American children who have suffered as victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

“The benefit of the CultureMap Charity Challenge has been huge. It’s helped unite and unify us for a movement we believe is great,” Debi Tengler, national development director of Arrow Child & Family Ministries, told CultureMap. “It’s been exciting to see our national organization, donors and the community step up and root for us.”

K9s4COPS came in a close second with 28 percent of the votes. Founded in 2010 by Kristi Schiller, K9s4COPS is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to ensure that every law enforcement agency be provided a well-trained K9 to accompany officers on duty, ready for action.

The other worthy local the charities that took in this year's challenge are:

You can read about each charity in the CultureMap Charity Challenge special series.

Freedom Place is the first long-term, comprehensive care facility in Texas for underage victims of domestic child sex trafficking, and is one of only five such facilities in the country.

Houston, Freedom Place, January 2016, girl with horse

Courtesy photo

Freedom Place is the first long-term, comprehensive care facility in Texas for underage victims of domestic child sex trafficking, and is one of only five such facilities in the country.

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