Surrounded by flowers and a crowd of dozens of women, Carol Andersen held a bright, lit candle at a podium in a large Bethlehem church sanctuary.
The candle, Andersen said, symbolized two women who were graduating Sunday evening from a two-year residential program for survivors of sex trafficking. She called on anyone facing the traumatic crime to find their way out of abuse and start over.
“The candle is really where it all begins,” said Andersen, CEO of Bloom for Women, a Lehigh Valley nonprofit that assists survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. “It’s shining that light, the way out of darkness.”
Among its programs is a residential program for up to 21 women — two of whom officially graduated Sunday during a ceremony at the New Covenant Christian Community Church in Bethlehem, alongside other survivors of sex trafficking currently living in Bloom’s homes, and other alumni of the program. The ceremony featured prayers, hymns and speeches from graduates’ loved ones.
The audience-wide candle-lighting ceremony at the end of a Bloom graduation is a tradition dating back to the organization’s founding, according to Andersen; it means “there is a way out, and that there is welcome and love and hope waiting on the other side,” she said.
“We do declare today that we are not graduating victims or survivors, but God, we are graduating overcomers today,” said Sheniqua Mitchell, Bloom’s outreach manager, in a prayer during the ceremony.
Lauren Brennan, a Bloom workforce development coordinator, congratulates the graduates Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
Lori and husband Dominic Baptista of Bethlehem watch a video of the graduates Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
Supporters for the recent graduates hold candles Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
Carol Andersen, Bloom CEO, concludes the celebration Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
Supporters place their hands on the back of a graduate during a prayer service lead by Sheniqua Mitchell, an outreach manager of Mt. Pocono, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
A 2023 graduate of the Bloom for Women residential program hugs her sister who graduated Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
Dinoli Rowlands, Bloom board vice chair, opens the celebration Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
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Lauren Brennan, a Bloom workforce development coordinator, congratulates the graduates Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, at New Covenant Christian Community in Bethlehem for women who have completed Bloom for Women Inc.’s two-year residential program. Bloom for Women is a nonprofit providing support to survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. (Jane Therese / Special to The Morning Call)
The Morning Call does not name victims of sex crimes without their permission, and Bloom asked that the graduates not be identified.
The first graduate on Sunday said in a video that before she found Bloom, “I just remember sitting on my bed and just praying for a really strong woman to come into my life.”
“I know if I just keep putting the right foot in front of the other ones, I cannot go backward,” she later said in a speech.
Thanking her mother “for not giving up on me,” the second graduate said that finding employment from Bloom and studying in beauty school changed her.
“It gave me a boost of confidence,” she said in a video. “It was like giving me a sense of purpose.”
Bloom for Women operates five homes in the Lehigh Valley, offering programs that provide safe housing, partnerships with treatment providers, education and job training and more to help women heal. Bloom maintains 21 beds for program members across the homes.
“By the time they come to us, they’ve experienced failed systems over and over and over again,” Andersen said of members of the program, after the event. “And the fact that they are willing to take suggestions from staff, move into a house where they know no one, we take that trust very seriously.”
Andersen, Bloom Residence Manager Alyssa Almonti and dozens of Bloom employees have responsibilities to guide sex trafficking victims in three phases. The process begins with medical treatment and recovery services, and progresses to program members working part time in two of Bloom’s social enterprises: one an art studio, the other a women’s charity boutique.
“It takes weeks and months,” Almonti said. “It takes trusting, and we have amazing case managers and the residential staff who believe in them.”
Andersen explained that Bloom staff also supports sex trafficking survivors in custody cases or other challenging legal circumstances. Almonti said that they have to often “fight tooth and nail” with judges.
Representatives from Bloom hope to speak in front of state officials in Harrisburg next January — marking International Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The organization is yet to receive any state or federal funding, and is funded by local gifts and various annual events.
“It’s hard enough to rebuild a life after you’re traumatized, but when you have criminal histories and stigma following you, and lack of opportunity for a variety of reasons, we’re trying to break down those barriers,” Andersen said.
Andreas Pelekis is a freelance writer.