Bay Area nonprofit provides shelter and support to human trafficking survivors

Ten years ago, Vanessa Russell was a busy tech executive focused on her career, her family and volunteering as a dance teacher for at-risk kids. But after discovering that one of her students had been pushed into sex work and trafficked throughout the state for close to a year, Russell was spurred into a new kind of action. 

Russell, herself a former foster child, tried to find a residential program where the young woman could rebuild her life, but was dismayed that there were few available programs. That prompted her to start Love Never Fails, a Dublin-based organization that today runs four group homes for people fleeing trafficking, and offers job training, counseling, substance abuse treatment and anger management classes. It also runs an IT academy and a cybersecurity training program where participants gain skills that can lead to a career in high tech. To date, Love Never Fails has sheltered 154 men, women and children escaping trafficking in the Bay Area.