From Hailey Virusso, Preble Street Director of Anti-Trafficking Services:
Closing out a federal grant is both a tumultuous and grounding experience. In the flurry of contingency planning, documentation, and endings are also the stories of resilience, of healing, of love.
At Preble Street, love is the difference – love for the journey, love during pain, love at the end. In three years, our Anti-Trafficking program has borne witness to great love: families reunited locally and across borders, college degrees attained, survivors signing their first leases, and most importantly, the feeling of safety within their body and heart.
Every day we stand alongside survivors as they fall in love with themselves, with their strength, their grit, their unnecessary resilience. We believe in the power of love, and the doors love can open. We believe in the power of community and how communities can rise together and thrive. We believe in the power of collective action, our voices demanding change to end this form of structural violence. This day is sad, but it does not mean our work is over – it means that we need to endure this moment of duress to be sure that we answer the call of the next survivor seeking to leave, seeking to make change, seeking to be heard.
Much like survivors, who have survived before our program and will survive after us – our program will survive this but we believe in much more than surviving. Maine’s commitment to supporting survivors of trafficking must be prioritized and we will not stop advocating for solutions that keep all of our community members safe.
Take action
Supportive housing works – let’s protect it!
TAKE ACTION: More than 1,200 people in Maine could potentially lose their housing over the next year and be forced out onto the street. The impacts to communities across the state would be devastating. Please contact your members of Congress to tell them that HUD funding must prioritize permanent supportive housing! Senator Susan CollinsWashington D.C. (202) 224-2523Portland, ME (207)
A brighter Maine – 3 top legislative victories
This month, the 132nd Maine Legislative session came to an end, and we are so proud of all that was accomplished to make our state better for our most vulnerable neighbors! Preble Street’s Advocacy team and our partners spent many days in the halls of the State House to ensure that the voices, needs, and
Maine can make a difference for trafficking survivors
UPDATE APRIL 6, 2026: URGENT ACTION! Maine survivors of human trafficking, some as young as 13-years-old, are being forced to wait for services due to a lack of funding. Using the template below, please contact the Appropriations and Financial Affairs committee (AFA@legislature.maine.gov) TODAY and tell them to provide $317,000 in one-time funding to support survivors of