Some conclusions and things I learned:

The best approach is to be friendly and concerned
about the safety of the women while being
completely non judgmental. You will only be able
to help them after they trust you.

I always let them know up front that I was not
interested in sex. This seemed to immediately set
me apart in their minds from the men who used
them.

Many of the women had physical ailments and were
on disability, so I paid them cash. If they made
more than a certain amount of money per month,
they would lose their disability payments and their
insurance.

Out of 10 women who I spoke with at length, 100%
of them had either been sexually abused as
children, raped as an adult, or had been involved in
an abusive relationship.

These women had been in prostitution for times
ranging from 4 months to 32 years. It was easier to
help the ones who had been in it for a shorter time.

The women all had emotional problems.
Depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD were
common.

In Leann's case, a former client continued to call
and bother her. He did it while she was working, and
I asked to talk to him. I saw how upset she was, so
I said some angry things to him and he never called
again. It's possible that the women could have
some very dangerous stalkers.

The biggest obstacle aside from gaining trust was
to help rebuild their self esteem enough to do
anything other than prostitution.

I did free repair work for 3 of the women that I did
not hire. My thinking was that I could be a friend
even if I couldn't support them with an income.

The women who I befriended warned me of women
who had pimps, major drug addictions, and those
who robbed people.

I found that doing this by myself was often
heartbreaking and exhausting. It was very easy to
get spread too thin.

Last, and probably most important is to know that
the best time for the women to really make changes
is after a major crisis. Being arrested or assaulted
usually made them realize how much a real change
might benefit them.

During the years 2000-2002, serial killer [edited by admin] was murdering prostituted women here in the [edited by admin] area. As more women were found, I decided that I would someday try to help others like them.

In early 2008, I became aware of women advertising prostitution [edited by admin]. At that time I owned a rental property which was badly in need of repair, and my wife was not able to help me often because she was working full time. I decided to try
to hire one of the women to help me part time. I
thought that I might be able to help at least one of
them move on to a better life. I discussed the idea
with my wife, who knew I'd always wanted to help,
and she agreed to it.

I knew I needed to learn more about prostitution, so
I researched online and finally bought the book
"Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress" by
Melissa Farley. I read it from cover to cover and
gained a much better understanding of how women
fall into it, the dangers involved, and some clues
about how to help them get out of it.
I looked and watched [edited by admin] for women who mentioned wanting help. I contacted some by email, and called others. At
first, I asked them directly if they were interested in
other kinds of work. I needed help cleaning and
painting mostly, and it was ongoing because I made
a continual mess with my repair work. It seems like
I contacted 4 or 5 women before I found one who
was interested.

"Violet" came to work with me for 2 days per week.
I paid her $100 per 8 hour day plus lunch and some
gas money. We had to paint the whole interior of
the house, so I worked alongside her which allowed
us to talk at length. She told me she was living with
a "client", and had been living in her car before that.
Her family was several states away. She had come
to this area with an abusive boyfriend, and had finally
split up with him. Her parents still called her
regularly, but would not allow her to live with them
until she sought help for her problems. She had
been in prostitution for 2 years, arrested twice, and
robbed twice. One of the arrests came shortly after
one of the robberies. She reported the robbery,
and the same police set up a sting to arrest her.
I noticed how she seemed to feel better when she
was working. I think it was helping her gain self
confidence. I helped her write a resume and
encouraged her to stay in contact with her family.
With her permission, I began to contact them as
well to let them know how she was doing. Each day
at lunch, I would talk about how she did not deserve
to be sexually exploited. I kept reinforcing her
positive abilities and personality traits, sort of the
opposite of the way an abuser will continually berate
someone.

Violet moved out of her client's house after a couple
months, and began living in her car again. I told her
she could stay at the rental property until it was
finished, but she did not want to get me in any
trouble with the city, so she refused. I tried to help
her find a shelter, but they were either all full, or
were only available for those who could prove they
were residents of [edited by admin]. Amazingly, after she
posted an ad looking for help and saying that she
didn't want to be exploited, a man offered her a
place to live and didn't ask for anything in return.

Violet did have one addiction, and that was
gambling. At one point, she gambled away all her
money and stopped coming to work. I later learned
she had become very depressed and just stayed in
her room for months. She did finally go into a
shelter for a time, then back to live with the man who
offered her a room. It has been over a year and a
half, and I don't believe she has gone back to
prostitution.

When Violet stopped showing up for work, I held
her job for her for a few weeks before I decided I
had to get someone else. There were two other
women who were close. "Leann" had just been
arrested for prostitution, and "Angela" was still
advertising.

I sent a letter to Leann since they had put her
name, picture, and address in the paper. In the
letter, I wrote about how unfair I thought it was for
her to be judged by others and have her name in the
paper. On the outside of the envelope, on the back,
I wrote "You are in my prayers". I also noticed that
she had a [edited by admin] account, and I sent her a
message there, along with a friend request. She
added me, told me the things she was accused of
were true [edited by admin], and we began corresponding. I offered her work helping me with cleaning, painting, and
general repairs for 2 days per week. After a few
weeks of correspondence, she trusted me enough
to take the job.

When I called Angela, I talked about how the police
were arresting women in the area and encouraged
her to be careful. I also told her I needed someone
to work with me on the property (this was before
Leann took the job). Angela did come to trust me
after a week or two, but her self confidence was so
shattered that she didn't think she could accomplish
even simple jobs. There came a time later when
Angela split up with an abusive man and was also
afraid to continue prostituting. I tried to put her in
contact with a woman from a local battered women's
shelter, and also encouraged her to talk to Leann,
but Leann did not have the patience to help her, and
the women's shelter didn't maintain contact with
Angela, so the opportunity was lost. She ended up
back with her abusive boyfriend doing the same
thing as before.

From the first day Leann showed up for work, she
proved herself to be a master at cleaning and
organizing. Suddenly I could find all my tools, and
no longer had to walk through debris. Since we
were making so much progress, I stepped up to 3-4
days per week. After the rental property was
finished, I hired her to help me clean my own house,
and began taking paid repair jobs for other people.
Once a week I'd take my kids to her house to visit
and play with her kids, who were about the same
age. On those days, I helped her and her husband
do various repair work on their house. We became
good friends.

Leann had a bad back. She had surgery twice, and
there came a time when she could no longer work
without hurting severely. By that time, I had sold the
rental property and was ready to slow down on the
repair work I was doing for others. She stopped
working for me, but did not go back to prostitution.
While working, she gained self confidence, learned
how to manage her money better, and gained an
understanding of how she fell into prostitution.

I am not in a position to help more prostituted
women at this time, but I'm glad I had that
opportunity. I hope my experiences will help some
others who want to do the same thing.