Weeks leads fight against human trafficking

It takes a lot of energy to keep up with Beverly Weeks. She is CEO of Wayne Pregnancy Center, as well as the founder and CEO of Cry Freedom Missions (CFM), a nonprofit that helps women and men find their way out of human trafficking. She is an author and speaker. She is also a Goldsboro City Council member.

How does she do it all? “It’s all about timing and seasons,” she explains. “God gives you visions in different seasons of your life. My children are older now. I can give more. I can do more. But I never feel tired. I never feel burned out. I never feel that I’m exhausted. And the reason why is it’s different than a job for me. It’s a calling. And when He gives you a calling, He will equip you for the calling.”

Of all her roles, the calling she’s speaking of is the work she does to fight human trafficking. She began by doing street outreach, hotel outreach and jail outreach to build relationships with women and men who were being trafficked. Eventually, she built a staff of employees and volunteers, and together her team opened a 21-bed safe house for women, along with gift shops and a cafe to provide funding for the organization and jobs for the survivors. CFM is now in the process of preparing a transition house for survivors who, after a year or so, graduate from the safe house program, where they’ve received trauma counseling, therapy, and training in vocational and life skills.

Weeks started the nonprofit as a local, Wayne County initiative but went on to lead its expansion to other areas of the state. CFM has opened a small shop in Roxboro to provide income for doing outreach from that town southward to Durham and Raleigh and north to Virginia. The organization also partners with a church in Sanford that allows CFM to sell items in the church to fund outreach from that area eastward, to the I-95 corridor from Fayetteville north to Benson and beyond.

And Weeks isn’t stopping there. “My dream is to open another office location over in the Mount Olive/Clinton area that would go out that way, and then also to one day have an office maybe in the Kinston/New Bern area. But,” she admits, “it’s all in God’s timing.”

Much of Weeks’ time is spent traveling and speaking. “My greatest passion is speaking at churches and doing women’s conferences and facilitating conferences,” she says, adding, “I’m on the road a lot, speaking or educating law enforcement or identifying survivors in other areas, meeting news media across the state to educate them on human trafficking…I love it that I’m in my season of life where I can do that.”

Despite the many demands on her time, and although she now has staff and volunteers who do much of the street, hotel, and jail outreach, she still makes it a point to participate in those activities whenever possible, as she deems it vital to maintain personal contact with the survivors. “I want that contact,” she emphasizes. “Because you can’t speak about it from passion until you have lived it. I want to be a woman that’s known to be in the trenches.”

For Weeks, part of “being in the trenches” includes working alongside law enforcement agencies during sting operations. “I’m privy to go out on the stings with the SBI and the FBI or local law enforcement,” she says, noting that her role is that of “the compassion piece,” immediately getting those being trafficked to safety or, often, to rehab. Because, she explains, “Women who are being sexually exploited or in stripping or in prostitution or are being trafficked in some way, I promise you that over 90 percent of them have some kind of addiction going on.”

Weeks has obviously found her calling for this season in her life, and she has advice for others who may feel a similar calling, even if it’s in an area entirely different from human trafficking. “Let me share this with everybody who’s wanting to get involved with any nonprofit,” she says. “Passion and zeal without wisdom equals foolishness. Be educated. Get your trainings. Learn everything you can. Put yourself in places with people who are smarter than you, people who will encourage you, empower you, offer you great knowledge.” Weeks herself received training from several law enforcement agencies and other human trafficking organizations. (It’s interesting to note that this part of her life has come full circle; where once she was the person receiving training, she is now the person doing the training.)

Her second piece of advice is this: “If you want to make an impact on people’s lives, we’ve got to slow down. Our lives are so busy. One of the enemy’s greatest weapons is busyness…We’ve got to take the time to slow down to hear the stories. It’s all about relationships.”

Without question, it is Weeks’ faith in God that informs her mission to fight human trafficking. “I’ve always been a Christian,” she says, “and there was one verse of Scripture that I am drawn to: It’s found in Proverbs, and it says, ‘Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves.’” Women and men who are being trafficked have often lost their voices, she says, to the people who are trafficking them. She tries not only to speak up on their behalf, but, more importantly, to help them find their own voices again.

This calling, like all other aspects of Weeks’ life, comes from a place of deep caring and compassion. “When they lay me in the ground, I want them to know me by my love,” she says. “I want to be known for how I loved my family, how I loved my God, and how I loved others.”

If you know of someone who is being trafficked, you are encouraged to call CFM’s hotline at 919-988-9262. To learn about opportunities for volunteering or donating, visit CFM’s website at CryFreedomMissions.com.

Cry Freedom Missions Shoppe and Café is located at 111 N. Center Street in Goldsboro; the garden and outdoor shop is located at 101 N. Center Street.