Last week, a woman sat across from me and shared her story.

She was shaking as she spoke.

For years, she was held in a situation she could not escape, controlled, used for money, and subjected to ongoing mental and physical abuse. She tried to leave more than once, but without a safe place to go and no one to turn to, she went back, not because she wanted to, but because she felt she had no other choice.

She didn’t know resources existed.
She didn’t know there were people who would help her.
She didn’t know there was a way out.

She had children.

And because she couldn’t keep them in that environment, she lost them.

Three children, separated from their mother, placed into foster care, eventually adopted.
Not because she didn’t love them, but because she didn’t have the support she needed to escape safely.

She also wasn’t being fed properly.
He barely gave her food.

The living conditions were horrible, unsafe, and completely unlivable. The home was dirty, filled with animals that were not being cared for, surrounded by neglect and chaos. No one should ever have to live like that.

She lived like this for years, years of fear, years of silence, years of believing this was her only reality.

Until one person stepped in.

One person saw her.
One person helped her.
And that changed everything.

She did eventually get out, but by then, so much had already been lost.

No one should have to endure what she went through.
No woman should feel trapped with no options.
No child should lose their parent because help wasn’t available in time.

This is why we do what we do.

At Love Foundation, through Project Break the Cycle, we are working to create real, immediate pathways out of crisis, helping women and children escape violence, trauma, and unsafe environments.

But we are thinking bigger, because the need is bigger.

Our goal is to secure land and build something that doesn’t currently exist in our community:

• A safe home for emergency escape
• Followed by small homes for rebuilding, spaces where families can begin again, safely and with support

A place where a woman like her could go the first time she tried to leave, so she never has to go back.

A place where children can stay with their mother instead of entering the system.

A place where cycles are not just interrupted, but broken.

We cannot do this alone.

We are looking to partner with realtors, landowners, builders, and community supporters who believe in this mission, people who understand that changing one life can change generations.

Because the truth is, these children grow up.
And the support we provide today shapes the future we all live in tomorrow.

She gave permission to share her story so others might be saved sooner than she was.

Someone stepped in for her.
Now we are asking, will you help us be that someone for others?