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Growth in a Pandemic: 2020 End of Year Update

Happy Holidays, Friends!

We’ve finally made it through 2020! And while the threat of COVID-19 still looms over 2021, by the grace of our Lord we have come through 2020 on the bright side and in a position of growth. We have big plans for next year and our mission can’t go forward without your generosity. 

Our Mission Looking Forward

As in years past, our mission for 2021 remains the same. We are still planning on building Alabama’s first crisis and therapeutic center for child victims of human trafficking. This is our core mission and it will be unchanging until the Lord moves us into the field of caring for these children. At that time, our mission will be to bring joy to children who so desperately need it, while at the same time being sure they hear and have access to the Word of God and the message of Jesus Christ.

We have been very active in our online advocacy this year. We brought on four volunteer professionals in marketing, advertising, web development, and project management. They have helped to rebuild our branding strategy, manage our social media presence, organize our task workload, and complete our brand new website. With all of these advances in administration, we now have the ability to centralize our regular updates and resources, and focus on telling stories from our mission in an attractive way that generates more interest. Our hope and prayer is that this renewed interest in our mission will expand our donor base and see our mission come through successfully.

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Future Plans

We made great strides and God opened and shut many doors over the course of 2020. We remain hopeful that our prayers for acceptable land and facility funds will come to us.

We looked at several properties over the course of 2020, none of which panned out. But going forward in 2021, we have our eyes set on the Shelby County area, where our main offices are located. We feel called to this area and trust that the Lord will bring us land and hope for the children.

That hasn’t stopped us from building out concrete plans for administration and a full 9-step onboarding process for the children. We have worked closely with DHR and other industry professionals to ensure our programs, as well as our training and staffing practices, are up to par. Through this successful and positive relationship with Alabama DHR, we are confident future children will be well served. 

Training Expansions

Our training sessions in our community have been an overwhelming success this year. All in all, we served over 2,500 people at 16 different venues.

  • The Church at Brook Hills
  • The Church at Brook Hills Foster Training – to small group foster families
  • Save Life Tuscaloosa
  • The Truth About Sex-Trafficking 2 Part Online Sessions
  • Church of the Highlands Small Group Curriculum – Winter and Summer Semesters
  • Lifeline Children’s Services
  • Indian Springs School
  • Alabama Association of Paralegals
  • The Chamber of commerce/Trussville
  • And many other one-off training sessions

In 2020, we were able to reach Probate Judges, teachers, students, government employees, DHR professionals, healthcare professionals, Chambers of commerce, church congregations and small groups, as well as many various individuals through zoom meetings across the state.

We also spoke about the truth of human trafficking on the Behind the Mike Podcast and Breitbart Radio, which allowed us to expand our voice to markets outside of Alabama.

We hope to see this trend in expanding our voice continue into 2021!

Financial Growth

This year saw the biggest growth yet for our organization in all areas including in our Investing in Hope campaign for property and housing, training, advocating, staff, events, our board and operations.

Goals For The Future

In 2021 we pray that our “Investing in Hope” campaign for land and housing will be complete so we can start building a beautiful home for these precious children.

Our specific needs are:

  • 1 Million for Property and Facility Investment
  • $300,000 – The First Next Steps Therapeutic Cottage Investment
  • $350,000 Staffing and Operation Investment

Blanket Fort Hope exists to bring these children home, please join us in 2021 to fulfill the mission that God has laid before us all. Thank you for your prayers, generosity and support in 2020. I look forward to breaking ground with you all in 2021.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Love, Alexa James, CEO, Blanket Fort Hope