A Wisconsin native once caught in the dark life of human trafficking now helps women like her find hope and healing

Colleen Stratton met the man who would nearly destroy her outside a gas station when she was withdrawn from alcohol and drugs. He asked if she was okay.

“Anyone could have taken one look at me and known I wasn’t okay,” Stratton says, nine years later, recounting the story in Starbucks in De Pere, Wisconsin. With her bright smile and calm demeanor, Stratton looks like any customer in the coffee shop on a Saturday morning. No one would assume this Sheboygan-area native has a past unimaginable for most Wisconsin residents.

The man outside the gas station asked Stratton if she had a place to stay. Homeless and struggling with addiction, Stratton said no and took him up on his offer to stay with him. She didn’t care that he was a stranger. All she cared about was getting off the streets.

For a week, Stratton stayed with this man and lived in a haze of drugs. There were other girls in the house, and they would come and go. Stratton didn’t think much of it, until one day when the man returned to the house with three other men she had never seen before. They raped her.

“His words were, ‘If you wanna stay here, then there’s something you gotta do. Nothing is free in this life, so if you wanna stay, you gotta earn it,’” Stratton says.

This is the moment Stratton was initiated into what is referred to as “the life,” the dark subculture of human trafficking that is filled with manipulation, deception and violence. For two years, Stratton was trafficked in Florida, forced to sell her body and meet nightly quotas in exchange for basic shelter.

Human trafficking is the business of buying and selling people for the purpose of physical or sexual exploitation. It is a form of modern-day slavery, and it occurs every day in the United States. It is not a problem confined to foreign countries or major cities.

According to Dr. Joy Ippolito, Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, human trafficking occurs in all 72 counties of Wisconsin and in all 11 tribes.

“This is not a uniquely urban or rural issue,” Ippolito says. “It’s something that can happen anywhere in Wisconsin to Wisconsin residents.”

In short, Stratton’s experience is not an isolated incident.

Her story, however, should be viewed as a symbol of hope and a testament to the human spirit’s ability to move forward in the face of even the most horrifying circumstances. Today, Stratton, 38, works at the Rose Home, the first safe home in Wisconsin for adult women who have been trafficked. As a survivor of human trafficking, Stratton helps women who are in the same position she was not long ago. Her mission is to show women they are worthy of a better life and help break the bonds of deception and shame their traffickers have imposed upon them.

Photo Courtesy of the Rose Home

The Rose Home opened in October 2017 in Green Bay, as part of Eye Heart World’s effort to combat human trafficking in Brown County. Eye Heart World, a nonprofit founded by Brian and Season Russo in 2010, began as an awareness and fundraising effort, but has since grown into an organization offering a full scope of services for preventing and addressing human trafficking.

Brown County has access to major interstates such as I-43 and I-94. This centralized location makes the area an attractive and easily accessible place for sex buyers, or “johns” as they are referred to in “the life.” Eye Heart World decided to open the Rose Home in Brown County because the demand for a safe home was so high. Since 2014, Eye Heart World has worked with 58 people who have been trafficked in Brown County alone.

“Law enforcement was contacting us so often to go into the jail and police department to meet with girls, and we were finding these girls were homeless or they were living with their trafficker with nowhere to go after,” Stratton says. “We just knew we had to have a home.”

The Rose Home is a renovated house that can accommodate up to eight women. For the safety and security of the women, the exact location of the Rose Home is confidential. The women, typically between the ages of 18 and 25, will live in the Rose Home from 6 to 14 months. During their stay, they participate in trauma-informed therapy, counseling and job-readiness training. They also undergo a transitional living component so they can be successful after they leave the home.

Stratton leads a group called “Ending the Game” at the Rose Home, a course dedicated to helping survivors break the trauma bond that often develops between the women and their trafficker.

“It’s a level of deception that’s hard for most to understand if you haven’t lived through it,” Stratton says. “This course helps the women recognize how they were manipulated and made vulnerable.”

Manipulation and preying upon vulnerabilities are two things traffickers or “pimps” know well. Stratton says the amount of shame and fear traffickers instill into women who already have a history of trauma plays a major role in keeping the women trapped in “the life.”

According to Stratton, her past was the perfect storm for a trafficker to target. At the age of 5, Stratton was sexually abused, which led her to start cutting herself at the age of 7. By the age of 13, she was coping by abusing drugs and alcohol.

“There is definitely a link between addiction and abuse that a trafficker can sense and then preys right on that,” Stratton says. “A trafficker can spot that out in a second and play on it because that’s what they do. They instill shame and instill fear in people who already have that bondage in them.”

When Stratton was in “the life,” her days were dominated by fear and a sense of hopelessness. She would be taken to a stretch of highway, a truck stop or a motel and be expected to make at least $800 to $1,000. Once she did, she could get picked up.

“None of that money was ours,” Stratton says. “Our bodies were searched. There was a lot of violence and a lot of deception added. It just kept me stuck.”

Stratton’s trafficker would often walk around with a gun and go from girl to girl pointing the weapon asking, “Who feels like dying tonight?” He’d pull the trigger, and it would be an empty chamber.

“I can vividly remember thinking, ‘I’m not even scared to get a bullet in my head anymore,’” Stratton says. “‘I’m just scared to continue living like this, and I don’t know how to get out.’”

Stratton did eventually get out, but it wasn’t one single moment or event that finally gave her the courage to leave. There were many “seeds of hope,” as Stratton calls them, that reminded her of her self-worth and provided her with resources and people who offered a way out. An incredibly faith-filled person today, Stratton is a firm believer that God played a role in helping her survive in order to be a voice for women who are trafficked today.

Stratton was often in and out of detox and treatment centers during her two years in “the life.” It was in these places that Stratton encountered women who provided her with words of encouragement and hope, gradually breaking down the deep-rooted deception and dependence her trafficker had fostered.

“These women would say, ‘Colleen, someday you are going to do something great. You are going to help people,’” Stratton says. “I can remember a lot of times when my trafficker, his words would go through my head, ‘You’re nothing but a dirty crack whore, baby. That’s all you’re ever going to be,’ but then I would hear these women, and it was just a little shift where I’d think maybe they’re right.”

A nurse named Linda, who worked at the Wayside House Treatment Center for Women in Florida, befriended Stratton and slowly started to tell her what was really happening in her life. Linda gave Stratton her number, telling her to call night or day if she ever needed help. Stratton had the number for months before she finally used it.

“One day I had woken up on the floor, and it was just after a really bad beating from my trafficker, and I remember looking around at the filthy, nasty place with bugs everywhere and hearing those positive voices in my head,” Stratton says.

With no access to a cellphone, Stratton walked down the street to a payphone and called Linda.

“She said, ‘Just keep walking. I’ll come and get you,’” Stratton says. “That’s the day I left.”

Photo Courtesy of the Rose Home

After getting out of “the life,” Stratton spent a year in the Refuge, a safe home located seven hours from her trafficker to ensure he never found her. She came back to Wisconsin shortly after to seek help for substance addiction.

Doctors once told Stratton the likelihood of her being able to have children would be slim due to all the internal damage done to her. Today, she is married and has four boys.

“It’s been an amazing gift to be with a man who is just gentle and respectful and prays with me, versus the kind of men I was used to associating with,” Stratton says.

In addition to leading “Ending the Game” at the Rose Home, Stratton works tirelessly to bring awareness to human trafficking in Wisconsin and help survivors begin the healing process. She has spoken at anti-human trafficking events across the state and makes regular visits to jails and hospitals to speak with women who law enforcement or medical staff believe are being trafficked.

This one-on-one work with women who are being trafficked is what Stratton finds most meaningful. She understands what they are going through and can provide those words of hope that helped her when she felt trapped in “the life.”

“My heart really is with the girls, in the home or in the jails,” Stratton says. “Sometimes I’ll see girls who are more hardened, but I love those girls because that’s how I was. I was super angry and hardened. While I don’t see their reaction, I still know what I’m saying is getting to them because that’s how I felt. That’s how I was.”

Eye Heart World also works closely with law enforcement, and Stratton has sat in on undercover stings conducted in Brown County that help save women who are being trafficked and identify sex buyers.

According to Stratton, there has been an important shift in the way law enforcement handles human trafficking. Ten years ago, they would prosecute the women and call them prostitutes. Now, police officers see them as victims who need to be given the opportunity and resources to turn into survivors.

“No little girl lays in bed at 5 years old and thinks, ‘I want to grow up and sell my body to 10 different men in a night,’” Stratton says. “They see these girls how we see them. That they need help, and that they are worthy of help.”

According to Investigative Sgt. Matthew Wilson, who specializes in human trafficking within the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, much of the sex trade scene in Wisconsin is taking place online through sites such as Backpages and Craigslist. There is not a strip in Brown County where people see human trafficking occurring, but it is happening every day.

“With the evolution of the internet, it’s made it easier for us to get to the victims and the sex buyers,” Wilson says. “But it’s also made it way easier for the sex buyers to get in contact with the girls.”

As a result, Wilson and other investigators regularly conduct undercover stings where they either pose as the women who are being trafficked in an attempt to bring “johns” into custody, or they pose as “johns” to help offer resources to the women.

“Our focus is to get them in custody and away from the people who are hurting them, whether through assistance from Eye Heart World or the Sexual Assault Center,” Wilson says.

Once the women are in custody, they are often referred to the Sexual Assault Center or Eye Heart World, which offers the services of the Rose Home.

On the outside, the Rose Home doesn’t look like anything too special, but the inside has been thoroughly renovated to offer a serene and welcoming place for the women. When they arrive, the entire basement is set up with clothes, toiletries, makeup and anything else the survivors might need.

A lot of the women, like Stratton when she arrived at the Refuge, have nothing but the clothes they are wearing and the desire to leave “the life” behind.  

“We know they aren’t going to come in and it’s going to be easy-peasey uphill progress all the way,” Stratton says. “It’s going to be tough. It’s healing. It’s a journey, and we’re in it for the long haul.”

Laura Schmitt is a senior studying journalism and English with an emphasis in creative writing. On campus, she works at the Writing Center as an undergraduate Writing Fellow, serving as a peer writing tutor for students across all disciplines.

When she isn’t tucked away in a corner of College Library studying, Laura enjoys exploring Madison, watching true-crime documentaries and listening to Broadway musicals as she writes fiction. After graduation, she hopes to move to New York City and pursue her dream of becoming the next Liz Lemon and/or Joan Didion. Aesthetically speaking, “the next Joan Didion” is most realistic because Laura, too, is 4 feet 11 inches tall and often seen wearing dark sunglasses.