Atoria Foley has found purpose in helping survivors of sex trafficking who are trying to get on their feet after escaping the lifestyle. She works for Sacramento’s Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH) and uses her experience as a survivor to connect with other women.“I really want to connect with that soulful space. I don't want to come in fake, just genuine,” Foley said. “I’ve lived it so I know what the hurt is inside.” Foley became a victim of sex trafficking when she was just 18 years old. In 2014, she was a single teenage mother without a stable home environment. She was working three jobs while battling postpartum depression and the stress began to pile on. “One of my managers ended up telling me, ‘You should take a leave and come back’, but that was my sole source of money and that went away,” Foley said. “My mom at the same time was saying, ‘You’re not helping out enough,’ and it was like I just knew my time there was coming to an end.” Foley said she came home one day and her and her son’s belongings were out on the front lawn. She needed money and an apartment as soon as possible. Foley knew someone a few years older than her who went to the same high school and was already making money from sex. She told Foley she could accompany her on a “date,” which is another term for a paid sexual encounter. “I was so naive to that world, it was brand new to me I knew nothing about it,” Foley said. “She was like, ‘You can come with me tonight, I’ll hold your money for you when you go in and out of the dates so you’re safe.”The rug was pulled from under Foley in a way she was not expecting.“At the end of the night she called her boyfriend who was actually her trafficker and was like, ‘Can you meet us here in this Walmart parking lot,’” Foley said “My head started spinning as the conversation unfolded and she was like, ‘So this is who is going to take care of us and provide for us and he’s going to actually keep the money but we’ll make sure you get your apartment.’” Foley said she vividly remembers the fear that overtook her body as she realized the position she had found herself in. She knew that money was gone. To make matters worse, the man who was trafficking Foley’s high school acquaintance used her relationship with her son as a way to threaten her and make her commit to the lifestyle. It became, "'If you don't do this then we’re going to tell your son’s dad what’s going on and you won’t have access to your son anymore,’” Foley said.The trafficker did end up telling Foley’s family and her son’s father after she decided to walk away from the situation. Foley ended up losing custody of her son, opening the door for a series of betrayals and letdowns, she said. Foley said the defeat she felt after losing her son made her more vulnerable to other men looking to take advantage of her. Many women who are trafficked are coerced by men whom they view as their “boyfriends” even though they are only meaning harm. “Each time I met somebody I feel like I got lured further and deeper into the lifestyle, and further away from my child,” Foley said.After four years, Foley was able to escape the lifestyle in 2018. Today, she is an anti-trafficking case manager with CASH. Foley said while she is happy to help other survivors, she needed her to process a lot of her own trauma. Once she did, things got a lot easier for her. Now, she focuses on being someone her clients can relate to. “I’m just going to speak to their soul from my soul and heart,” Foley said. “Whether they openly receive it or not I know that they’re receiving it inside.” She tries to destigmatize her past to make her clients more comfortable with approaching her for the help they need. "I think a lot of women come into contact with service providers and they feel judged, Foley said. "I love when I get to break that down and just be like, 'Oh girl I was on that same website' or, 'I was at that same hotel, I don't judge you. I relate to that part of your journey.'"One of Foley’s responsibilities at CASH is to help survivors find resources and make sure they follow through on whatever is required of them to get assistance. But she knows from experience how difficult it is for women recovering from the mental strain of the lifestyle to effectively manage all of their tasks each day. “Somebody that’s existing in a crisis survival mode doesn’t really have the capacity to compartmentalize their day,” Foley said. “Their whole world is in shambles, so how do we now organize that and become task and goal-oriented and complete these things so that once they see that progress in their personal life they have something tangible to hold on to?”Foley makes sure to consistently check in with her clients and often gives them the push they need, but she also understands she needs to handle them with care.She said she practices the formalities of social work, but a lot of her job requires adjusting her strategy to fit the needs of the women she is supporting. “Some women are hard to reach. You kind of have to pester , ‘Hey I'm calling I'm checking in on you and I really care about you,’” Foley said. “So a lot of it is fieldwork. It’s leaving the office and going to their apartment. It’s bringing them diapers, wipes, buying them coffee.”The effort Foley puts in does not go unnoticed by the women she helps. A message she received from a client after helping her apply for community college and financial aid is something she remembers fondly. “Her response gives me the motivation to keep going and keep sending those kind messages because she was like, ‘You have no idea how much you’ve helped me and you have no idea how much your words mean to me, you do not understand the depth of what you’re doing for me,’” Foley said. Foley strives to show love and empathy to her clients because the atmosphere of the sex trafficking world has deprived them of that. “They’ve never experienced that it’s always transactional love, so I want to fill that void,” Foley said. “Giving that healthy example of, ‘I'm proud of you for the mother you are, not how much money you brought home this week.’” As for Foley’s own growth, she said working for CASH feels "redemptive" and allows her to feel good about herself. She regained custody of her first child and is a mother to two other children. With her full-time job, Foley was able to purchase the Mercedes Benz she wanted for five years, and was often promised by traffickers when she was in the lifestyle. She said she has struck a balance of doing the work to provide for her children while also being present for them. Her life has been turned around and she wants the same for other survivors. “It’s OK to come from darkness and defeat and you can still rise again, Foley said. “You can make it to the other side and pull people out of that same darkness.”The story was produced as part of the KCRA 3 Investigates documentary "Escaping The Blade" about sex trafficking in Sacramento County. Watch the full report here.