Hometown Heroes: Jubilee Havens Founder Sharon Robbins

One woman turned her early life’s misfortune into an opportunity to help others who fall down similar paths.

Overcoming hardships is an integral part of any person’s life, but for Sharon Robbins, she used those negative experiences as building blocks to create a bright future for her and many others.

Robbins began her life on a traumatic path, first being sexually abused as a child and ultimately ending up as a victim of human trafficking.

She then spent much of her young adult life undercover and fearing for her life.

For years, Robbins wanted to use her experiences to help others going through similar paths. In 2016, she established the 501C3 nonprofit known as Jubilee Havens to do just that. “I’ve been homeless, I’ve lost children literally and I’ve had a history of watching people fall apart and I can’t explain why I’m still together except my faith.”

Jubilee Havens is an organization that provides a safe haven for victim-survivors of sex trafficking. This haven provides basic needs such as beds, showers, food, and more to victims who come to find help in getting out of their situation.

The team at Jubilee Havens then works with the survivors to find long-term care facilities they can go to after their time at the safe haven. “I want to do it because there’s so many women out there and men and youngsters that are being trafficked by their predators that if we can be their voice ‘till they get their own voice, that’s what I want to do.”

Since opening, Jubilee Havens has provided care to about 15 survivors and has had the help of around 20 volunteers.

For some, choosing to help at the safe haven was an easy choice due to the level of care and love Sharon and her team provides to the survivors. Jubilee Havens Vice President of Board Leslie Ramon said, “Once I actually sat in and heard the numbers and knew that Sharon was a survivor and heard her story, it was an inspiration and I wanted to be a part of it.”

While Jubilee Havens continues to operate, Robbins says there are already many exciting plans to further grow the organization. “I’m hoping that in the next 5 years that we can start working on phase two and that is the long term facility for Jubilee Havens and that house would actually hold 16 girls.”