Our Story
Free to Thrive was founded after attorney Jamie Beck learned the story of one young girl, Sarah. Our story has grown out of Sarah’s, as we expanded to help countless others just like her.
Our Story
Our founder, Jamie Beck, worked as an attorney at one of San Diego’s largest law firms when she first met Sarah. Sarah was just 16 years old when she was first trafficked by her boyfriend, Darren. Darren manipulated Sarah’s trust and love for him and forced her to have sex with other men. He kept all of the money she earned and made violent threats anytime she refused to sell her body. Darren trapped Sarah into a life of exploitation.
Sarah was arrested in a sting operation - one of the buyers was an undercover cop. She hoped this might be her saving grace, but her situation worsened. Sarah was prosecuted for the crimes that Darren forced her to commit. Her ensuing criminal record added to the list of barriers restricting Sarah’s freedom.
In 2016, California passed the vacatur law and created a method of clearing survivors’ criminal histories. With vacatur, their records could be corrected to represent who they truly are, not what their traffickers made them do. Using this new law, Jamie helped Sarah clear her criminal record so that she could thrive in a life free from her trafficker.
After assisting Sarah, Jamie realized her role in taking on the systemic injustice faced by so many survivors: equipping lawyers with the knowledge and tools to make the promise of this new law a reality for survivors. Free to Thrive was born from this vision.
Today, we provide criminal record clearing services to survivors like Sarah through our legal services pillar.
We also work to increase the identification of victims and survivors in the criminal legal system, educate stakeholders about the laws impacting survivors and provide case support to attorneys working with survivors through our education pillar. Our policy advocacy pillar seeks to improve the legal system to be more survivor-centered and trauma-informed.
Each of these three foundational pillars – legal services, education and policy advocacy – is a key component in creating tangible, meaningful change. Through these efforts , we work towards a world where people like Sarah are never trafficked in the first place.
Rising Above the Criminalization of Survivors
Hear Jamie talk about Sarah, the harm of criminalization and how Free to Thrive was created to tackle a huge gap in services for survivors of human trafficking.