Victims Are Helped

Victims of the Adult Entertainment Industry are Helped by Citizens for Community Values’ Victim Assistance Program

By Carol Wiley, Director
Citizens for Community Values

Citizens for Community Values’ Victim Assistance Program has helped 47 victims leave the sex-oriented business and gain control of their lives by providing financial assistance s, weekly counseling with a professional, physical and dental healthcare, food and clothing for the victims and their families, and special activities including a weekly Bible Study. Each victim coming into the program is assigned to a mature, Godly woman to be her mentor. The role each mentor plays is as diverse as the needs of the woman she mentors. Most importantly the mentor is a role model of God’s love and normalcy for one who has only experienced chaos.

Normal for most victims is a very dysfunctional family and abuse. Forty-three of the women helped by CCV were sexually abused before age 10. All have experienced mental, emotional, and verbal abuse, and many have experienced physical abuse. This does not take away their responsibility for their choices, but it does greatly affect their ability to make wise choices.

One universal characteristic in the victims is decisions are made with a survival mentality with no consideration of the damage to themselves or of future consequences. This leads them into a downward spiral that can lead to death if someone doesn’t intervene and help them understand the love of Christ and the difference between living and surviving. A good example is one victim’s story.

“I am a 37-year old woman. At the age of ten days, I was left with a great aunt and uncle. My mother was emotionally unstable, in and out of treatment centers and group homes. Her children spent time with her, with relatives, and in foster care. I never knew my father and was told that I was the product of rape by my mom’s foster father. From age seven, I was in several foster homes. At 13, I began a long cycle of drinking and drugging, hanging with gangs and frequent incarceration.

“At age 16, the state of California (CA) declared me legally responsible for my self and I soon became engaged in prostitution. At 18, I moved in with an ex-Marine who was selling drugs. My son was born in 1981. I was still prostituting and someone told me there was an easier, safer way to make money—topless dancing. I left my son’s father to “advance my career” with a pimp. I was totally committed to adult entertainment—prostitution and topless dancing. When that fell apart, I relocated to North Carolina with my son and his father. We lived in extreme poverty and I fell in with a group who followed mailmen and stole government checks. I went back to CA without my son, returned to adult entertainment and began heavy heroin use.

“In 1986, my child’s father was killed. I returned to NC and the Feds caught up with me. I was sent to prison, was paroled, lost parole and received a longer sentence due to repeated drug use. In 1989, I moved to Memphis to be near my great aunt. She was one of the few positive people in my life and we had remained close through the years. I thought it was a chance for me to get away from the bad stuff and make a new start.

“My attempts at self-rehabilitation failed again. I lived with an alcoholic man, taking five years of physical and emotional abuse. I moved in with another in-and-out of jail man who used drugs. My sleeping dragon of drug addiction woke. I went back to the topless clubs, and prostitution and all that goes with it.

“I had money—to travel, to buy anything I wanted, to take care of people—and still I wanted more. I thought heroin would give me what I wanted. I had money, drugs, and all the material things money could buy, but I had no son, no family, no love, and no real happiness. I had no purpose in life except addictions. I was soul sick….”

To shorten a long story, this is where CCV’s Victim Assistance Program stepped in. This woman, who now knows Christ, has broken the downward spiral and is on the road to life. What a blessing to participate with God as He sets captives free. If you would like to help in this ministry contact me by email, carol@ccvmemphis.org or call me at 685-1493.