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The Jericho Project is Covenant Life's fight against sex trafficking and exploitation.

Human sex trafficking is part of a growing problem with modern slavery. It is the fast growing criminal enterprise in the world and because of technology, no community is immune to its reach. It is also an economic machine, generating more than $30 billion annually around the globe. One of the main hubs in the United States is Atlanta, GA - only 40 miles from Covenant Life.

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Why is it called The Jericho Project? Inspired by the biblical account of the Battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua, we believe Covenant Life is called to rescue the Rahabs of this world (trafficked and exploited people) and invite them to be part of God's family.

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How Do We Carry Out The Jericho Project? - Three words will guide our fight - educate, collaborate, and facilitate.

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Educate - A trafficker's worst nightmare is an educated and empowered community who is looking out for the warning signs of those who may be victims, and who are also working to reduce the number of people at risk. We are committed to educating ourselves and our community about the global, national, and local impact of this crisis. We will highlight the risk factors and the ways we can all be more aware of the signs.

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Collaborate - While we are relatively new to this fight, there are organizations that have been doing this for years. This is a complex issue. Some organizations focus on the legal side, others the rescuing, others the rehabilitation, and still others the risk factors that make victims vulnerable in the first place. We are establishing collaborative partnerships with those organizations both to learn from them and help them do what they do.

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Facilitate - We don't just want to support other people, as much as possible, we want to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are on the front lines of this fight. We are committed to leveraging our resources, including our property and facilities, to help in this fight.

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What's Already Been Accomplished? - We have already invested $100,000 to open a beautiful Phase 2 residential program in a first-of-its-kind partnership with the House of Cherith. We've invested another almost $75,000 towards the completion of Phase 1.

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What's Next?- We have 7.5 acres in the heart of a beautiful, rural community. That includes 10,000's of thousands of finished square footage, and other property that can be converted and finished.

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Phase 1 - Expansion of HOC West and New Kids/Student Ministry Building

Work has already begun on this phase. Plans for the new ministry building and existing HOC West campus will begin to be formed in August 2022. After completion of the ministry building, the HOC West expansion will more than double the square footage. In addition to adding more rooms for residents, it will give them room for things such as a boutique, salon, medical exam rooms, and much more as they expand their services to these ladies.

 

Phase 2 - Dining/Meeting Space and Commercial Kitchen

Next priority would be creating a large meeting room and commercial kitchen from the existing buildings we own on the property. In addition to serving as a fellowship hall for the church, it will also serve to accommodate training meetings that fulfill the goal to educate the community. It would also accommodate the dining needs and even culinary training for future residential expansions.

 

Future Phases

Once the first two phases are completed, we will continue to assess the current needs of the fight against trafficking. We have considered opening a facility that allows women to be rehabilitated with their children, commonly called Mommy and Me. That plan is flexible depending on what else might be more needed at that time. 

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