Life & Work with April Casillas of Orange County

Today we’d like to introduce you to April Casillas.

Hi April, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is April and I grew up in a very broken home, and endured through years of physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse beginning at the age of 3 years old. At 5 years old, I was introduced to a man who I thought was my mom’s boyfriend and he became my abuser, exploiter and trafficker for a period of four years until I was the age of 10 years old. Little did I know that the exposure of abuse that I was introduced to would create lifelong battle wounds that are now recognized as complex trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. I was exposed to pornography at the age of six years old and now understand this as a form of what is called ‘grooming’. My abuse turned into molestation and progressed into being raped in exchange for my mom to have a car, a house, and her financial needs to be met. My abuser used psychological manipulation by threatening to harm my mom and my two younger sisters and also began to make me believe that what he was doing by playing with my mind and violating my body was out of love. For many years I struggled with hypersexuality and lived a very promiscuous life where I sought after love, protection, and a sense of safety. I now understand that what I experienced were severe forms of sexual exploitation and commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).

At 18 years old, right out of high school, my life was headed in a deep downward spiral. I had gotten myself kicked out of the house and was staying with my grandma. I met a guy in his mid 20’s in the neighborhood park, and I told him that I was only 16 years old, which should have been a red flag that he was okay with dating a minor. It didn’t take long for me to fall right into a trap of vulnerability and become a victim of sexual exploitation because of the deep void and desire to be loved. Once he knew, he gained my trust and that it wouldn’t take much for me to believe that he loved me, which is a term referred to as a Romeo pimp. Within weeks, I was being used for labor trafficking by making drug sales and also engaging in sex for money, becoming what I now know is domestic human sex trafficking and labor trafficking. I quickly recognized that my life was headed on a detrimental and destructive path, and I count it nothing short of a miracle that I did not end up in prison or dead. I got out of that situation by making the decision to go into the military and served honorably as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy from 2005 to 2013.

Prior to leaving for boot camp in October of 2005, I met Robbie who is my first husband, and he is also my second husband. I was stationed in San Diego and arrived in April of 2006. Robbie and I were married in July of 2006, and we had our son Nathan in September of 2007. We divorced in 2009 due to my destructive life choices, being unfaithful in our marriage and also layers upon layers of the lack of dealing with years of unresolved trauma. My life from 2009 to 2012 was utterly and completely disastrous and again nothing short of a miracle and the hand of God upon my life, because I should not be alive today. Throughout that time of Robbie and I being divorced and separated, Robbie’s mom took compassion for me and began praying for me and also encouraged Robbie to be praying for me as well. In 2012, I was completely broken, lost, had no desire to live and also had no knowledge of any understanding or belief in God. That began to change when Robbie invited me to church. My life was a complete mess, and I didn’t know where to even begin, but when I was in church looking around at the people who were singing in praise and worship, I knew that there was something in them that I so desperately wanted and had been searching for and that was to have a sense of peace and it wasn’t long after that I had a greater understanding of the peace that could be found by grace through faith and I accepted Jesus Christ into my life as my Lord and Savior (John 3:16). In 2013, Robbie and I began to reconcile our relationship and eventually we moved in together right around when our son Nathan turned 4 years old. Around that time, I looked up a church closer to where we were living and started attending church on my own and eventually began taking Nathan with me. Then God began speaking to Robbie’s heart and convicting him by putting on his heart that I was doing his job by not taking leadership over our family unit going to church and seeking God together. Soon after, that changed when we began attending church together and God really did some major restoring in that time, and I would also experience having Scripture spoken over my life for the first time and it was the verse Jeremiah 29:11 which says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a purpose”. I didn’t know it then, but God was doing a miraculous work in my life that is beyond anything that I could have ever imagined.

In 2015, Robbie took me back to the place where we first met and asked me to be his wife and to date we have known each other for 20 years and have been re-married for 10 years. It was also in 2015, that God would call us to come back to Orange County and I never ever thought that I would come back to live in the place where I had experienced insurmountable pain from my lived experiences as an adolescent and young adult. In 2016, we began attending a small church in Costa Mesa, CA and it was there that I would hear the words human trafficking for the first time. I was both in shock, that something so horrendous was taking place in the United States, in our cities, and in our community, but also at the same time I had experienced a burning fiery fuel in my soul, and it was almost instant that I knew I had to somehow get involved in the fight against human trafficking and my desire was to get involved right in my local community. Robbie and I began talking more about what we had learned, and I began opening up more about wanting to get more involved and the first thing he did was encourage me to begin seeking out getting myself some help and healing through the trauma I had been through, so that eventually there could be a possibility of being able to help someone else. I began getting involved in anti-trafficking work by volunteering for the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. At the time I was also working as a forensic phlebotomist for law enforcement and I decided to go to community college and pursue an education and graduated with an Associate’s degree in Management in 2018 from Santa Ana College. Around that time, I had learned of an Anti-Trafficking certificate offered by Vanguard University of SoCal and it didn’t take long for my ambitious nature to begin looking into pursuing my education further and majored in Sociology with an emphasis in Women & Justice and Anti-Human Trafficking. It was during my time at Vanguard that I began to recognize, have a better understanding of my life experiences and began to identify as a victim-survivor of human trafficking.

As a survivor and lived experience expert of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and familial trafficking. Together with my husband Robbie, we founded the Katherine Elaine Gallegos Foundation (est. 2018), in honor of Robbie’s mother who tragically lost her life to suicide in 2013, after an unsuccessful attempt to leave her abuser. Using her initials KEG+F we coined the acronym Keeping Every Girl Free as a way to hold onto the hope that every human being deserves to live a life of dignity, hope, and freedom.

In 2019, a survey was conducted by Polaris project, the administrator to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and it was reported that 89% of women would leave the commercial sex industry if they knew there were options available to meet their basic needs. After learning more about the cycles of abuse and exploitation, Keeping Every Girl Free has been able to provide assistance to victims and survivors of human trafficking by stepping in and providing basic needs, access to food, safety and shelter. As well as also providing resources for residential emergency housing when fleeing situations of domestic violence, exploitation and human trafficking and relocation support when a survivor makes the courageous decision to go into a residential program. By collaborating with various organizations, Keeping Every Girl Free strives to provide safe transportation to residential services or the ability to relocate as each brave and resilient individual takes their first steps towards a recovery, relocation, restoration and the hope of transformation from victim to survivor to overcomer to thriver. Since 2018, we have been able to provide support to hundreds of survivors through crisis response and community outreach. We also provide support through survivor mentorship, personal development and professional development. As well as, prevention education for youth and the community through speaking as a lived experience expert. Some of my long-term goals are to write a memoir called Preyed Upon: From Child Exploitation to a Life Repurposed and I also plan to pursue a masters degree in Leadership Studies at Vanguard University of Southern California.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life’s journey has definitely not been a smooth road. Some of the struggles along the way has been creating new paths of continuous growth and healing. Some days are easier then others. On the good days, I enjoy being outside, getting to experience new things, or being productive. On the difficult days, I have learned to be more gentle with myself, allow my body and mind to rest. I also enjoy grounding techniques like listening to music, candles, practicing gratitude, or taking walks.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My professional life and career began at age 18 when I joined the military and was in the Navy. Since being a young child, I always wanted to do something in healthcare and chose to be a hospital corpsman. After completing my time in the military, I continued to contract as a medical assistant and also a phlebotomist, working in pediatrics, urgent care, and natural medicine. I also worked as a forensic phlebotomist with law enforcement for 6 years before going into anti-trafficking nonprofit work.

Upon completing my bachelor’s degree in 2020, I began working in anti-trafficking and assisting with developing outreach efforts, working as a facility manager in a teen recovery home, working with transitional aged youth ages 18-24 years old as well as, foreign national survivors. The area in the anti-trafficking movement that sets me apart is my passion for restorative justice and providing support to survivors impacted by the justice system and being held accountable for crimes that were committed against them during their trafficking. I have had the opportunity to partner with an organization in Long Beach called Gems Uncovered as their case manager and survivor mentor as co-facilitator of Ending The Game through a 24-week program called Free 2B Me. Gems Uncovered works in partnership with the prosecutors office and public defenders office, providing the opportunity for charges to be dropped and cases to be dismissed bridging the gap between trafficking and systems by bringing restorative justice to survivors.

Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to complete a memoir called Preyed Upon: From Childhood Exploitation to A Life Repurposed. My hope is that my story can provide awareness on human trafficking and be used as a prevention tool for parents, educators, counselors, grandparents, and service providers.

I would also like to pursue a masters degree in Leadership Studies at Vanguard University of Southern California.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://keepingeverygirlfree.org
• Instagram: keepingeverygirlfree
• Facebook: keepingeverygirlfree
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-casillas-ba98aa267/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/lh7DtC1UpNI?si=DZU7DlZt1VgkHum9