Vednita Carter

Vednita Carter is an American anti-sex trafficking and anti-prostitution activist. Carter is an author and the executive director of Breaking Free, an organization which helps women seeking to leave prostitution.

Biography Carter grew up in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota. Unable to afford college, she responded to an advertisement seeking dancers, which she later discovered was for a position as a stripper. Carter observed that many women in her profession transitioned into prostitution. She worked in the industry for a year before leaving. Carter founded Breaking Free, an organization that aids girls and women in exiting prostitution. She subsequently became the executive director of Breaking Free, and the program expanded to provide additional support services, including emergency assistance such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and legal aid for victims of human trafficking.

In their book Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice, Francine Sherman and Francine Jacobs call Carter "a leading service provider for exploited women and girls".

Carter has been published in Hastings Women's Law Journal, the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, and the Journal of Trauma Practice. Carter contributed the piece "Prostitution = Slavery" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.

Activism Breaking Free is a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota with the goal of helping women escape prostitution. Breaking Free provides a variety of services to the women. These services include food, clothing, and emotional support. Breaking Free also provides addiction services, permanent and temporary housing, as well as legal assistance and job training. The services are offered with no strings attached.

Since 1996, Breaking Free has helped over 6,000 women.

Carter was one of six women granted the Women of Distinction award by Century College in 2012.

Carter was awarded the Path Breaker Award from Shared Hope International in 2014. That same year, she was also named a CNN Hero.

In 2015, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, Ambassador-at-Large and Chaplaincy from CICAInternational University and Seminary.

Selected bibliography

Chapters in books Details.

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