NEWS

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 human trafficking in rebuilding their lives!

Template email:

Dear Senator Rotundo, Representative Gattine, and members of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee,

My name is FILL IN NAME, and I live in TOWN, ME. I’m writing to ask that you please provide $317,000 in one-time funding to support survivors of human trafficking in Maine. Right now, over 30 survivors in our state, some as young as 13 years old, are being forced to wait for services due to an unexplained lapse in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice. This delay has had devastating consequences for the survivors on the growing waitlist. 

One of these survivors is Mary. In fall 2025, she reached out to Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Services (ATS) for intensive case management, housing, and safety planning support to leave her trafficker. The delayed federal funding has left ATS without enough resources, and Mary was put on a waitlist. While staff connected with Mary around basic safety planning and referrals to alternative community-based resources, they did not have the capacity to provide the services she desperately needed at that time. A case management spot finally opened up two weeks ago, but when Preble Street staff reached out to Mary, they found she had recently been arrested. Her probation requirements required that she have a permanent address, and with no other safe place to live, she felt she had no choice but to stay at her trafficker’s home to avoid incarceration. Due to ongoing trafficking and abuse, Mary left her trafficker and was subsequently arrested for violating the terms of probation. ATS has begun working with Mary during her incarceration. Had funding been available, ATS would have had the capacity to support Mary in leaving her trafficker and preventing her arrest. 

Trafficking survivors in Maine urgently need support. Without this one-time funding, more individuals will fall through the cracks.

Since launching in 2013, Preble Street ATS, Maine’s largest dedicated anti-trafficking program serving all 16 counties, has relied on funding from the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime. The program serves over 100 survivors each year, covering rental assistance and relocation fees to help survivors exit their trafficking situations, with caseworkers providing food, clothing, and other basic needs along the way.

Sadly, all of these critical services are severely limited without continued funding. The most recent three-year DOJ grant of $950,000 expired on September 30, and no further federal funding has been released to replace it. While federal funding may finally become available in the second half of this year, it is not guaranteed. Additionally, that funding alone would not be enough for Preble Street to immediately serve every survivor on the waitlist, as almost an entire year will have passed without this essential support in place.

This one-time $317,000 state funding, which received strong bipartisan support in the Maine Senate as LD 2136, An Act to Support Victims of Trafficking in Maine in Response to Federal Funding Cuts, will help meet the urgent needs of trafficking survivors and provide them with the resources that can help them reclaim their lives.

As Hailey Virusso, Director of Anti-Trafficking Services, shared, “We know that every moment is the right moment, and if we don’t pick up the phone, what that could mean for a survivor is that they potentially couldn’t exit a situation, couldn’t get connected to life-saving support.”

Thank you,

NAME

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Why is this funding important?

Trafficking survivors in Maine urgently need support. 

In the coming days, Maine’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee will consider whether to provide $317,000 in one-time funding to support human trafficking survivors in Maine. Due to an unexplained lapse in critical funding from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Services (ATS) has been forced to scale back necessary supports and services for trafficking survivors. This means more than 20 trafficking survivors in Maine are needlessly waiting for help today.

Since launching in 2013, Preble Street ATS, Maine’s largest dedicated anti-trafficking program serving all 16 counties, has relied on funding from the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime. The program serves over 100 survivors each year, covering rental assistance and relocation fees to help survivors exit their trafficking situations, with caseworkers providing food, clothing, and other basic needs along the way.

Sadly, all of these critical services are severely limited without continued funding. The most recent three-year DOJ grant of $950,000 expired on September 30, and no further federal funding has been released to replace it. While federal funding may finally become available in the second half of this year, it is not guaranteed. Additionally, that funding alone would not be enough for Preble Street to immediately serve every survivor on the waitlist, as almost an entire year will have passed without this essential support in place.

This one-time $317,000 state funding, which received strong bipartisan support in the Maine Senate, will help meet the urgent needs of trafficking survivors and provide them with the resources that can help them reclaim their lives.

As Hailey Virusso, Director of Anti-Trafficking Services, shared, “We know that every moment is the right moment, and if we don’t pick up the phone, what that could mean for a survivor is that they potentially couldn’t exit a situation, couldn’t get connected to life-saving support.”

Many thanks to our partners who have written in support of Preble Street ATS, including: