The Hummingbird Project CT

01/13/2026

Many times, I get asked how I got started in this work. Please listen in. Our hope is that others who are being called will answer.... knowing you are not alone.

Jermika, Executive Director

01/08/2026

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month!
Here Is something we can all do. ✊🏾
🗣️ ED Jermika Cost
https://youtube.com/shorts/-20aIVQjULc?si=CVL89g-BpnAQDlO2afiie

Welcome to The Hummingbird Project CT is a faith based culturally specific organization, where our mission is to uplift and empower survivors of s*xt traffic...

01/06/2026

Myth: Most trafficking victims are kidnapped by strangers.
Fact: Kidnapping by a stranger accounts for less than 1% of human trafficking cases. Traffickers are far more likely to be someone the victim knows—such as a family member, friend, employer, or romantic partner.

Learn more ➡️ bit.ly/3YjuEIo

If you suspect human trafficking of:
Adults📲 Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888
Minors 📲 Call CT DCF Careline: 1-800-842-2288

01/03/2026

Faith can come in many ways. To understand faith connected with healing we must build knowledge to make informed choices for ourselves. ✊🏾
This is a safe, honest, Faith centered space to learn, unlearn, ask questions, and grow—together.

📚 Book Club | Church Girl by Dr. Sarita Lyons
💬 Open conversation. No condemnation.
🙏 Christ-centered discussion will be present (all are invited)

Register for free TODAY!

Let's discuss Faith, Life, Healing, and Growing Forward Together.....

01/02/2026

🎥 Have you seen Sarita Lyons in action? Check out this video where she shares insights about "The Church Girl"!
Call to Action: Let us know your favorite takeaway from the video!
Join our upcoming book club today!
➡️https://www.thehummingbirdprojectct.com/event-details-registration/virtual-audiobook-lets-get-beyond-the-church-girl

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Are you tired of putting on your superwoman cape for everyone and everything? As a woman, I can certainly identify with feeling overrun and overworked. And s...

12/29/2025

Afro-Latinas are worthy of healing, safety, and rest…

In places like the Dominican Republic, live-in domestic labor can be traced back to slavery-era power dynamics, where boundaries were blurred and vulnerability was normalized.

💭 Can you see how this history might affect a Afro Latina woman—especially one seeking safety and healing after s*xual violence?

💛 The Hummingbird Project believes:
Healing deepens when survivors understand that what happened to them was never their fault. Our experiences don’t exist in a vacuum—systems shaped by history can influence how bodies are perceived, treated, and protected.

Understanding this isn’t about excusing harm. It’s about releasing misplaced shame and restoring clarity, dignity, and power.

You deserve safety.
You deserve agency.
You deserve rest.

12/22/2025

This article really hit home for me. Who else has a candy lady memory? 🍭
I can still remember the Kool-Aid icees—flipping them over first just to get to that gooey, sugary goodness at the bottom (yes, I’m making up words to describe the experience 😄).

In a world full of hurt and uncertainty, what kind of nostalgia brings a smile to your face? 💭✨

Read the entire article: https://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/21/the-candy-lady-was-the-system/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAO2ImFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeRqVnCJ8iBwmrQ69jj3j0xHnOTSWPMwTliNxRB5TQmlb50HYaFS7yBgmIut0_aem_VjkvfkyGX0zTpSt-hn6hdA

12/22/2025

This article really hit home for me. Who else has a candy lady memory? 🍭
I can still remember the Kool-Aid icees—flipping them over first just to get to that gooey, sugary goodness at the bottom (yes, I’m making up words to describe the experience 😄).

In a world full of hurt and uncertainty, what kind of nostalgia brings a smile to your face? 💭✨

The Candy Lady Was the System
Across Black America, a front-room business became a neighborhood’s smallest, steadiest institution—priced in quarters and governed by respect.

For many Black Americans, “the Candy Lady” is a memory so universal it can feel folkloric—one of those childhood references that prompts a smile before you’ve even decided you’re smiling. Yet if you treat the Candy Lady as nostalgia, you miss what she reveals: a neighborhood institution built at the scale of the living room.

She sold candy, yes. She sold chips and pickles and juice and sometimes baked goods bought in bulk and resold as individual portions. She sold frozen cups—Kool-Aid or fruit drink poured into plastic sleeves and frozen solid—called different names in different places, but recognized everywhere as the price of surviving summer. And she sold something else, less sentimental and more consequential: predictability.

The Candy Lady was a micro-economy calibrated to scarcity and a safety system that didn’t call itself one. In neighborhoods shaped by segregation, underinvestment, food deserts, and over-policing, the Candy Lady’s enterprise often filled gaps the formal economy left behind. She made childhood more navigable: one less hungry hour, one less unsupervised stretch, one more adult who knew your name and knew how to enforce a rule without calling the state.

Read the full article at https://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/21/the-candy-lady-was-the-system/

09/24/2025

So often, when I share about my work to end trafficking, moms respond with, “That’s why I keep mine close. They don’t leave my side.” I’ll never forget the horror on their faces 🤦🏽‍♀️.

But what breaks my heart even more is telling them that in the U.S., the most commonly reported entry point into s*x trafficking and exploitation isn’t strangers snatching kids off the street—it begins online, on the very devices in their hands, and often through people they already know 🥹.

The truth stings, but I’d rather speak it plainly and risk hurting feelings than stay silent while children continue to be hurt 💜.

09/19/2025

Sharing is caring!!! Clicking and attending is caring in motion….💜👊🏾

Response to Recovery Conference Speaker Highlight:

Roberta Senter, LCSW, joined Love146’s Survivor Care Team Program as a Long Term Social Worker in 2016. She provided direct services to youth and their families for four years and was promoted to Clinical Supervisor in 2020. Roberta began her current role as Senior Program Manager in 2023, overseeing all of Rapid Response and Long Term services

Offering a diverse selection of session topics and workshops, the 7th annual Response to Recovery Conference is an opportunity for disciplines across Connecticut and nationwide to come together to learn how to strengthen their response to child abuse and exploitation cases.

For full bios, detailed workshop descriptions, registration and more, visit our website via link or QR Code: https://response2recovery.org/

09/17/2025

Sharing is caring! But responding brings change....

09/17/2025