SAUGUS — It’s never too late. There is always hope.
That’s the message Jasmine Grace Marino, founder of Jasmine Grace outreach, wants to share with victims of human trafficking and drug addiction as she fights to help other women escape the same traumas she herself endured for half a decade.
Since 2013, the former Saugus resident has spent her time speaking publicly and organizing 8- to 10-week recovery support groups to empower those who suffer from trafficking and addiction, believing that healing can only begin once women recognize they are no longer victims, but survivors.
“Once I found out I was a survivor, I really wanted to help,” said Marino, 39. “I wanted to let those women know that they were survivors, too, because a lot of them have the same story as me, but they’re stuck in the cycle of addiction and homelessness and unhealthy relationships. I just knew the vicious cycle.”
As she worked towards getting her own life on track, she decided she wanted to help others do the same.
Starting small, she began to make bags filled with toiletries to give to women struggling in recovery. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, all the things Marino knew women entering recovery programs often need, she placed in bags and delivered to different organizations, deciding to call her efforts Bags of Hope.
Bags of Hope — which Marino and her team now deliver to women living on the streets or in programs throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire — opened up a world of connections between Marino and other women with similar backgrounds.
“That’s how it started, and then it morphed into this other stuff that we do,” she said of what would later become Jasmine Grace Outreach.
For Marino, the term ‘survivor’ is meaningful. She says she never thought of herself as a survivor until she attended a meeting hosted by a speaker from Route One Ministry, a Boston-based outreach program founded to minister women exploited by the sex industry.
“She literally was going into the strip clubs on Route One and becoming friends with the dancers, letting them know she’s available if they want to exit,” Marino said. “I could not believe there was someone (who) was doing this. I hadn’t talked about those things for years, and so to hear all my old language and things that I could identify with — I had to raise my hand and tell her that I wanted to help and give back. She said, ‘you’re a survivor. You’re amazing.’
Marino said that was when it clicked for her.
“I had no idea,” she said. “I did not know sex trafficking was a thing. If you had asked me, I probably would have thought, ‘oh, it’s like other women from other countries being sent to America.’ I never would have imagined (it had happened to me).
“It was like a newfound empowerment,” she said. “It was like a new freedom. I got a job at My Life My Choice in Boston and half the interview was ‘tell us your story.’ I could not believe someone was hiring me based on my lived experience.”
In 2017, Marino self-published a book detailing her life and recovery based on journal entries written while in the depths of her abusive relationship — something she says was the “only good and healthy thing” she managed to do during the nearly five years she spent with her trafficker.
“When I was with him, I managed to keep a bunch of notebooks where I would write down the things that I was mentally and emotionally going through,” she said. “I would save those and hide them where he couldn’t find it.”
The book, The Diary of Jasmine Grace, is now available for purchase on Amazon. To help bring Marino’s story to those who need to hear it most, buyers have the option to include a donation with their purchase so that another book can be donated to women Marino works with in recovery.
“A lot of times, (these women) are in these programs and they’re not identifying, but once they hear my story, the light goes on,” Marino said. “There’s just so much healing when you’re transparent and vulnerable, and it allows someone else to be (vulnerable), too.”
Although she currently lives in Nashua, N.H., with her husband and five children, Marino still spends much of her time visiting North Shore communities to speak publicly about her story of survival and hope.
And for those seeking recovery, Marino encourages reaching out to her organization through her website, jasminegrace.org.
“There’s definitely a better way,” Marino said of what she wants survivors to know. “It doesn’t have to be like that. That’s not what you were created or designed for, (and) we’re here for help and support.”
National human trafficking 24-hour hotline: 1-888-373-7888
