Menu
A lot of time people who have been taken advantage of or exploited experience victim blaming. Victim blaming happens when people unfairly blame the person who was hurt or had something bad happen to them, instead of blaming the person who caused the harm or the things that went wrong. It’s like saying, “It’s your fault that something bad happened to you.” This is a problem for a few reasons:
Blaming the person who got hurt takes the focus away from the person who caused the harm.
When people are already going through a tough time, blaming them can make them feel even worse. They might feel guilty or like it's their fault, even when it's not.
If someone thinks they'll be blamed for what happened, they might not ask for help or tell anyone about it. This can make it hard to get out of a situation where they’re being taken advantage of.
When we blame victims instead of the people who caused the harm, we don't fix the real problems, and that makes it tough to prevent exploitation from happening again.
Time to Thrive was developed by the Survive & Thrive Advocacy Center in Tallahassee, Florida. We created this site as a resource just for you. No matter where you live, this information is for you.
If you live in Tallahassee or these six North Florida counties (Leon,Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty, Franklin, and Wakulla) feel free to reach out to us at 850-597-2080. We consider this phone number a warm line. It is not monitored 24/7 like a hotline but we do our best to respond to text and phone calls within 24 hours.
If you live outside of Tallahassee we suggest contacting the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or visiting Survive & Thrive Advocacy Center’s Get Help page to find the right resource for you.
Read more about contacting hotlines here.