KENNEWICK, Wash. – Mirror Ministries, a Christian nonprofit dedicated to ending sex trafficking, has relocated to a new building in Kennewick to better serve survivors in the Tri-Cities area. The new facility allows the organization to expand its services and provide more support.
Tricia MacFarlan, executive director of Mirror Ministries, explained the organization’s approach to supporting victims and raising awareness about sex trafficking.
“We start with education, trying to prevent as much as possible bringing education to our local schools, emergency departments, medical, law enforcement, etc. just trying to have more eyes and ears aware of what’s going on,” MacFarlan said.
Mirror Ministries noticed the need for a larger space over the last few years. MacFarlan said every 48 hours a new person reaches out to the organization for help. The previous building could not accommodate the growing demand.
Chris Haughee, donor development manager at Mirror Ministries, said the new facility offers increased space for survivor support groups, counseling, child services and more. MacFarlan emphasized the benefits of the new space.
“So one of the advantages of having this new space that has about three times the square footage is that we are able to do childcare and our survivor services classes in the same space, just on opposite sides of the wall, that’s really important for some of our survivors,” Haughee said.
For privacy and safety reasons, Mirror Ministries has requested to keep the new building’s address confidential.
Previously, the nonprofit relied on off-site locations for events due to limited space. Now, with everything under one roof, the staff experiences a new sense of safety and stability.
“It’s also great when you can let a survivor know, like, ‘this space was designed for you, it was intended for you.’ It’s just another way that we can show care and compassion and meet the needs of local trafficking survivors,” Haughee said.
Although it will take time to pay off the new building, MacFarlan believes the investment is worthwhile.
“It’s the community that’s made it happen so we could get a really healthy down payment on the building, but this is a hard asset that we have for the community and for the agency to keep going and make sure we don’t ever have to close our doors for these people that are really needing our help right now,” MacFarlan said.
More information about Mirror Ministries can be found here.
