Catalyst Ministries hosted their 3rd annual “Be A Catalyst” dinner last night. Over 400 people were in attendance. The faith based organization raised enough money to cover the expenses of the dinner, so all of the proceeds made that night went directly into stopping human trafficking.
Julie Ryan, the founder, announced the ministry went national and opened a second location in Texas.
She also noted there are 300,000 people in need of services they provide and there are only 800 locations that offer support to victims of human trafficking.
The fundraiser event was held at the DoubleTree hotel and the keynote speaker was Marian Hatcher. Hatcher spoke about her experiences in prostitution and how she served time in the Cook County jail for 120 days. Hatcher said she turned her life around while she was on the inside and started working in the Sheriff’s office of Cook County.
Hatcher serves as Senior Project Manager and Human Trafficking Coordinator at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and was awarded the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama.
Hatcher was granted Executive Clemency by Governor Bruce Rauner for drug and prostitution offenses related to her exploitation. She coordinates CCSO’s anti-trafficking efforts such as the “National Johns Suppression Initiative,” a nationwide effort with over 100 arresting agencies and more than 200 partners targeting sex buyers as the driving force of sex trafficking and prostitution.
A video was played for the guests and human trafficking survivor, Amanda, told her story. In the video she explains how a man she was seeing got into selling drugs and abused her.
“I would say to myself ‘maybe if I did this line of coke he would stay home,’” said Amanda in the video.
The dinner guest stood and offered thunderous applause for Amanda when Ryan introduced her. Amanda shared that she was homeless and sleeping in abandoned buildings and cars, eventually she found her way to Catalyst Farms and was housed.
