BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A new partnership between two local non-profits aims to help survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation.<\/p>\n
“My sister’s closet manger is here, my resident\u2019s manager is there,” said Ashley Caravello.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old has her own office too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s super messy,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caravello is the Director of Finance and Administration at Bloom for Women.<\/p>\n
“I love spreadsheets, I love numbers,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You’re one of those brains?\u201d asked 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I am one of those brains I love statistics,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caravello could have been a statistic, instead the sex exploitation survivor is an 8-year employee of Bloom, cultivating a career.<\/p>\n
“My confidence has gone up, my stability, independence,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, Bloom is opening up similar chances, partnering with The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, offering training and jobs for survivors to staff the phones at Pennsylvania’s 2-1-1 Call Center, a free help line for a number of human services.<\/p>\n
Carol Andersen of Bloom and Erin Connelly of United Way say it’s a first-of-its-kind partnership for the state.<\/p>\n
“There was often a call to say can we have more locally based staff to answer the calls that really understand geography the resources we available.” Connelly said.<\/p>\n
Three women are in training, set to take calls in November.<\/p>\n
“Presenting an opportunity to someone with sometimes limited work history, in job that crosses sectors and can put them on a path for economic mobility.” Andersen said.<\/p>\n
“Today I’m working on our 2026 budget and September finance reports.” Caravello said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Caravello, it’s a clear career goal, she hopes will bloom.<\/p>\n
“Five years ago, we were recorded and I said I wanted to be the CEO of Bloom, and that’s where I’m headed,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A new partnership between two local non-profits aims to help survivors of sex trafficking and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,174,271,272,269,267,268,270],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-bloom-for-women","tag-career-development","tag-human-services","tag-non-profits","tag-sex-trafficking","tag-survivors","tag-united-way-of-the-greater-lehigh-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}