Kristy Norbert (LCSW-C) and Abby Fabiaschi launched EmpoweredNetwork (EN) in 2017 to address a national gap in services: most trafficking survivors exhaust resources with systemic barriers standing in the way of a realistic economic alternative, putting them at high risk of further exploitation, experiencing homelessness, and/or remaining in the service cycle their entire lives. Kristy’s twenty+ years of clinical work designing economic solutions complimented Abby’s nonprofit board chair tenure and experience creating data-driven, scalable growth as a high-tech executive. 

Previous philanthropic work left Kristy and Abby wary of pitfalls plaguing many nonprofits: staff burnout; boards wielding power without insight from lived experience; overlapping resources that waste charitable dollars. They vowed to be disrupters and thoughtfully navigate these challenges from the start. In line with best practices for domestic violence survivors and people experiencing homelessness, Kristy curated an innovative program paving paths to fiscal independence while Abby recruited a diverse, engaged board and developed a tech-savvy backend to support scalability, sustainability, and sophisticated measurement tools.

That November, EN launched a pilot program serving four survivors in New York City. Immediately, a wait list formed. After a writeup in theSkimm, calls poured in from aftercare programs nationally requesting EN’s services in their area. Four months after inception, Peter and Jennifer Buffet’s NoVo Foundation reached out and said, “Your program addresses a real issue no one else is trying to solve and we don’t want you to fail.” This partnership continues under Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors with pledged funding through 2025.

Today, Empowered Network has 100+ referral partners nominating survivors in 11 trafficking hubs. The program outcomes are significant: 95% of members graduate in stable housing and the average annual wage increase is $9,863 ($19,179 to $29,042). That’s 51% in less than 18 months!