Mission

R.E.A.L. Choices educates the community to identify, resist, and prevent human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and gender-based violence in the New Orleans area through outreach and prevention education.

About the Program
Recognizing Exploitation and Advancing Life (R.E.A.L.) Choices offers a variety of prevention education, including:

A Prevention Education Curriculum
Using the curriculum developed by My Life My Choice in Boston, MA, R.E.A.L. Choices seeks to empower young girls through education, and works to eliminate gender-based violence, especially commercial sexual exploitation, in the Greater New Orleans area. Created by survivors and educators, the program aims to challenge girls’ ideas about sexual exploitation, provides girls with the skills to avoid recruitment or leave harmful situations, and connects them to services and role models within the community.

This 10-session program, given over the course of 4 or 10 weeks, is facilitated by a licensed counselor and a trained survivor of sexual exploitation. The program incorporates interactive activities, trust exercises, and self-reflective journaling to address safety, recruitment tactics, self-esteem, and empowerment.

This program is relevant to any girl between the ages of 12-18 as all girls are at risk of being commercially exploited, but is most often used as outreach to girls who are at a disproportionately higher risk or are already survivors of exploitation. High-risk girls are often those who have histories of abuse or neglect, have been exposed to family violence and/or drug addiction, or those who live in areas more often targeted by pimps. R.E.A.L. Choices is also beneficial for girls who know someone who is or has been exploited.

Human Trafficking 101
Facilitated by an Eden House staff member and a survivor leader, this 90-minute presentation educates high school-aged individuals on how to identify, resist, and prevent human trafficking and exploitation.

Community Presentations
Eden House provides presentations on human trafficking and Eden House services to civic and community organizations. Please call Eden House for more information.

​Become a Prevention Partner
If you are interested in becoming a partner school or organization, or have a group that you think would benefit from this program, please contact info@edenhousenola.org with “R.E.A.L. Choices” in the subject line, or call our office at (504) 407-0943.