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Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

The Covering House

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United States
Brentwood, MO
The Covering House

Restoring the lives of sexually trafficked youth in the U.S. The Covering House is a therapeutic recovery program for youth who have been sexually trafficked.

Our COVER Care™ program is being licensed and copyrighted as an evidence-based program for national distribution. The program integrates specialized therapies (horticulture, equine, culinary, and arts/expressions) with experiential learning, individual and group therapy, sensory diet, and a full in-house, trauma-informed education program designed to meet the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional needs of survivors. Since 2009, The Covering House has served 440+ children and teens and educated 11,000+ at-risk youth on trafficking red flags and self-protective behaviors.

02/09/2026

Thank you to our incredibly generous donors who are making it possible for us to open a new residential home! The new campus will provide a safe place for double the number of young girls to live and heal. That means we need double the supplies and a variety of items for our new home! If you would like to help, please consider purchasing items from our Amazon gift list here: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/I4AR6WX9GB68?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_ggr-subnav-share_5KEB65JPYS1YP32D4GFV

02/05/2026

Save the date! Our annual Dine for Dignity Gala is April 18th from 6pm - 10 pm at the Four Seasons of St. Louis. We rolled the dice and said a prayer. We went ALL IN to help youth survivors of s*x trafficking and exploitation. We're betting on their bright futures, how about you? Purchase your tickets at WWW.DINEFORDIGNITY.ORG.

02/02/2026

According to a National Survivor Study done by Polaris 90% of human trafficking survivors reported that all, or some crimes on their record were directly related to their trafficking. The same study shows that most of them faced barriers to secure housing, employment, and education because of their criminal or arrest records. To give victims a better chance at rebuilding their life, Representative Fry introduced a House Bill last year called the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which was signed into law by President Trump on 1/23/2026. This act allows gives victims the ability to vacate their convictions and expunge arrest records for class A or B, non-violent offenses if they can prove that the crime(s) they committed were directly related to their trafficking.

This is a big step in helping survivors get their life back!

01/30/2026

Often times when we think of trafficking, we think of a violent kidnapping like in the movie Taken. However, it is not always like that. Often times trafficking starts with traffickers luring victims in by building trust with them. They may do this by manipulating them, being in romantic relationships with them, or making false promises. After traffickers build the victim's trust, they may then blackmail them and/or threaten them with or use violence against them to force them to do something they don't want to do.

Some common ways that traffickers build victims' trust are through kind words, buying them gifts, or promising something of value. Kind words might be something as seemingly innocent as "you are so sweet" or something as serious as a declaration of love. Gifts come in many forms. We are now commonly seeing gift cards being used as a luring tactic. False promises may involve traffickers promising victims things like jobs, fame, or money.

01/29/2026

We are incredibly grateful to all of our panelists and attendees for contributing to such a powerful and meaningful discussion. A special thank-you to Maritz for partnering with us and generously hosting the event.

Our panel featured remarkable experts, listed below, who are doing critical work every day to prevent and respond to child s*x trafficking.

-Stacy Fowler, BSW, MSW, LMSW, The Covering House Program Manager and Therapist
-Michelle Stille, The Child Advocacy Center of Northeast MO Director of Forensic Services
-Jessica Seitz, MPA, Missouri Network Against Child Abuse Executive Director
-Lauren Peffley, MSW, Crisis Aid International Community Education Coordinator & Advocate

Their insights left us with several important takeaways:

1. Protection starts with connection. Children who feel safe coming to their trusted adults with questions or concerns are far less vulnerable to exploitation. Open, judgment-free communication is one of the strongest protective factors.

2. No chat-enabled website or app is completely risk-free. Staying engaged—by disabling, limiting, or monitoring chat features—can be an essential part of keeping children safe online.

3. If a child discloses harm, your response matters. Stay calm, avoid overpromising, and focus on listening. Reacting with intense emotion or making commitments you can’t keep may unintentionally discourage them from opening up again.

01/28/2026

Law enforcement serves an important role in the battle against child s*x trafficking. They do the hard work of finding, arresting, and prosecuting traffickers. In a perfect world though, law enforcement would never need to be involved because we would stop trafficking before it starts.

The best way to stop trafficking before it starts is to build awareness and educate families and communities on what child s*x trafficking is and how to prevent it from happening to our children. We offer in person, virtual, and pre-recorded trainings that can serve as a great resource to learn more. Visit our website at https://www.thecoveringhouse.org/trainings to view them.

01/26/2026

Sometimes our youth come to us not realizing they are victims. They believe that because they were tricked into willingly participating, that their abuse was their fault. That is never the case. It is always the fault of the trafficker.

It can be hard to believe that a victim would blame themselves, but it often happens because of the way they were lured into trafficking. Oftentimes traffickers use tactics like violence, manipulation, false promises, and even forming romantic relationships with victims to force or trick them into trafficking situations.

Once they recognize that they were manipulated into doing things, even if they thought it was consensual at the time, they can release the burden of blaming themselves.

01/23/2026

Sextortion is when a perpetrator uses explicit photos to blackmail someone else. This crime most often happens to tween and teenage boys and is unfortunately, a growing issue.

How it often happens: a perpetrator pretends to be a teenage girl and begins messaging a teenage boy online through social media or a gaming app. Any app with a direct message feature is risky. They begin a conversation and it can quickly turn to asking for n**e photos. The boys are often convinced the person on the other end of the messages is real.

Once the perpetrator has a photo, the tone changes very quickly from flattery to urgent threats. "If you don't send me $500 by tonight, I'm going to send this picture to everyone at your school and all your connections on social media."

Often times, this sends the boy into a panic. He sends all the money he can. Devastatingly, there are many stories of boys taking their lives because they feel trapped.

Unfortunately, with AI, a perpetrator doesn't always need a n**e photo. They can use a photo of someone's face to create a n**e or explicit photo that looks real.

We don't share this to scare you, but to inform you. Please talk to your children about the risk.

Ask them questions like, "what do you do if someone you don't know messages you online?" Start a conversation. Learn from them about the apps they use, and share how they can keep themselves safe.

Reassure them that no matter what, if anything uncomfortable ever happens to them, they can come to you and they won't be in trouble with you, but that you will help them. If anything like this happens, stay calm. Reassure your child that you love them.

Report the crime to local law enforcement and as tempting as it is to delete them, keep messages as evidence for law enforcement to use.

01/20/2026

Most victims are trafficked or exploited by someone they know, often a family member, significant other, or someone they met online.

Very sadly, we've seen clients trafficked by their own family members, sometimes for drug or rent money. It's very confusing for children when the people who should love them the most are exploiting them. Sometimes children don't realize that what is happening is wrong. "This is how we make money as a family."

Exploiters will often win trust by pretending to a loving boyfriend or girlfriend. Often this includes pretending to fill the needs or solve the problems of the victim, making the victim dependent upon them emotionally or physically. "Your family doesn't understand. You've got me now."

The online world can give kids the impression that they really know the person, after all, they've been talking to them for days, weeks, or months. Yet, who that person is on the other side of the screen may be very different than what the child has been told. "You are in 6th grade? Me too! You play soccer? No way, me too."

01/19/2026

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. and the safety, dignity, and freedom he fought for, for all.

01/17/2026

It's really important to talk to your sons about this issue too. Boys are often less likely to disclose when something has happened to them. One reason is because it's seen as a "girl problem." Another reason is because boys and men might think they should be strong enough to keep this from happening to them. The sad reality is that boys are very much at risk also. Join our panel discussion this Wednesday to learn about how to protect both boys and girls.

Address

P. O. Box 25
Brentwood, MO
63088

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.thecoveringhouse.org/

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Our Story

The Covering House provides refuge and restoration, using the least restrictive environment, for s*xually exploited and trafficked children and teens, providing safety, dignity, and freedom.