Allana Chris has grown weary.

She’s tired of telling survivors she doesn’t have a place for them to go. A safe space to rest. To plant new seeds and regrow.

For survivors like a girl from Baldwin County who was raised by her grandparents whose dive into trafficking began in her infancy when her family used her to produce child pornography. Her family trafficked her for groceries, drugs “and just about anything else,” Chris said. She went to school. She went to church. She played sports and saw doctors, teachers, adults, like any other kid.

“But she wasn’t noticed,” Chris said. “She was missed.”

This girl is not an anomaly. According to the Global Slavery Index and Trafficking Hope, Alabama is the No. 1 state for familial trafficking. Six thousand occurrences happen daily.

She is not even an anomaly in Baldwin County. Deemed a hot spot by Polaris Project, there are 2,600 advertisements for commercial sex online in Fairhope. That number is 7,000 in Daphne, according to Deputy Joseph Scaramucci, director of law enforcement engagement at Skull Games and plays a pivotal role in the operations and intelligence team and whose expertise in counter-demand, counter-trafficking and counter-pedophile operations at local, state, federal and international levels has benefitted 607 agencies in 44 states, 29 federal and Department of Defense agencies as well as law enforcement agencies in 12 countries.

“If you think that trafficking isn’t happening in your community, you’re unequivocally wrong,” Scaramucci said.

Chris’s weariness has not defeated her. It has led her to action.

That’s why she held a Night for Freedom fundraiser Tuesday night at Original Oyster House in Spanish Fort to benefit Little Tree Project, an anti-human trafficking organization headquartered in Fairhope. Her goal is to open a residential facility to provide the “immediate need for safe transitional housing, a resting period, trauma-informed services, case management, goal planning support and a chance to rebuild their lives,” Chris said.

Chris founded Little Tree Project over four years ago and serves as its executive director. The facility, aimed to be located in Baldwin County, will offer immediate and long-term support to survivors of human trafficking. Chris describes her model to combat what is often called modern slavery as survivor-driven and solution-focused, “filling in the gaps expressed by the survivors themselves.”

Just because she is still in the capital campaign fundraising portion for the facility doesn’t mean she hasn’t gotten to work. Since opening advocacy services in 2023, Little Tree Project has provided over 150 nights of emergency housing and over 120 referral services. Calls for services have been for people ranging in age from 3 to 54.

Chris has formed partnerships with victim advocates, cyber security specialists, registered nurses, law enforcement agencies, trauma-certified therapists, faith-based advisors, pastors and a therapy dog-in-training.

Awareness and advocacy have led to action like state Rep. Donna Givens’ sponsorship of the Sound of Freedom Act, what has been called the toughest anti-human trafficking law in the nation and went into effect Oct. 1. It imposes a mandatory life sentence for first-degree human trafficking when the victim is a minor.

Scaramucci, a co-presenter with Chris at the event, which featured a silent auction and raffle to support Little Tree Project, said trafficking knows no boundaries. It’s venom spreads to all genders, all races, all classes, all platforms where humans interact. Online, in-person, by strangers, by family members and partners. All ages.

“In a local city, I placed an ad for sex, and it was reached out to within 12 minutes,” he said. “That is a man actively going to a particular website, searching for a particular city, coming to those particular ads and window shopping my ad and then reaching out. Twelve minutes.”

In 14 hours, that ad had 90 people reach out. In a four-hour period, he had 11 men show up to hotels to engage in sex with a trafficking victim, one being a minor. These are, of course, fake ads Scaramucci makes to seem real.

While the demand for sex is proven in the numbers, and the victimization of human trafficking is proven in the stories of survivors Chris works with, the resources for what to do after survival are limited.
Just like a tree, surviving is just the first step. It needs water to grow strong.

There is one safe house in Alabama.

One place for survivors like a Mobile girl Chris worked with. She fell in love with a man in the Coast guard while in college and didn’t see the gradual signs of manipulation and abuse until he started pimping her out to his friends, then to strangers online. When she tried to get help, law enforcement labeled her a prostitute.

Or the woman who came to the area from Brazil. She didn’t know English, so when her ID was taken away and she was forced to work at an adult store for no pay, she had no way to get help.

Without support, Chris said, victims often end up returning to exploitation out of fear or desperation.
Little Tree Project will be able to house over 100 survivors a year.

We know we will remain at capacity due to the dire need expressed by our partners and by the calls we receive, Chris said.

So, Chris may be weary. But she has a watering can.