Home
It is more than a house. It is more than just a shelter. A home is a place to belong, a place to receive comfort, security, safety and love. Every human longs for one...every human deserves one.
Rescue and Resources
Courage to Be You (C2BU) was founded to “equip, encourage and empower individuals to discover and fulfill their God-given purpose”. We realize before any individual can recognize their potential and discover their purpose, their most basic human needs must be met. But on the streets of our cities and in every country around the world, there are a multitude of vulnerable young children that are not having these needs met - far from it. These children are being exploited, abused and sold.
They need to be rescued. They need a safe place to belong and someone to assure them that they not only have value, but also a God given purpose. They need a home, and C2BU intends to provide them one.
Child Prostitution in the United States
The numbers are staggering with estimates ranging from 400,000 to 800,000 children being sexually exploited annually in the United States. Because of the hidden nature of this crime, it is difficult to obtain a consensus on the exact number, but no one denies that the impact of this crime on its young victims is devastating. The average age of the victim is 14, and according to police and FBI reporting, some as young as 10 years old.
Many in our society believe these children have chosen this way of life. That is a lie. Law enforcement reports these victims are children who have suffered sexual abuse at home and have fled to the streets for protection. Once on the streets, it is easy for a predator to commercially exploit them. It seems these “pimps” have an uncanny ability to lure these wounded children into “relationships,” preying upon their desperate need for love and a place to belong. The children are either forced against their will, or they believe it is their only option to live.
Click here to learn more about this problem in Sacramento
Victims Lack Homes and Services
“When I look at these children I wonder who they would have become if their families and now society had not failed them,” mused a veteran police officer. While law enforcement is pleased with the stiff jail sentence that adults who exploit these children are receiving, they are frustrated at the lack of homes and services that cater specifically to the underage victims they rescue. Due to this lack in resources, it is common for the children to return to the streets and become what one police officer called “pimp bait”. Out of the staggering estimated 500,000 underage victims of child prostitution, in the United States, there are only 4 homes in the entire country that serve these children’s specific needs and not a single one of them is a Christian home.
A Courage House is the Answer.
God has placed a passion in our hearts at C2BU to rescue these children from their horrific circumstances, provide them a safe home, offer healing for their physical, spiritual and emotional wounds and lovingly show them that God created them “on purpose for a purpose”.
If we looked at this task with only human logic, we could easily become overwhelmed or discouraged. But when we look into the eyes of these abused children, we do so with eyes full of faith and hope, confident that this is what God wants us to do for “the least of these”. And we need your help. We need partners.
We have set up a donation page on our website that details how you can give. Your donation will take our dream from the realm of the impossible to the possible. Thank you. May God bless you as much as you have blessed these children.
To get information that is specific to your geographic area regarding this hideous crime against children, please email us at info@couragetobeyou.org.
Thank you.