Bridging The Gap Between
Healing and Exploitation
Our Work
Our Mission
To bridge the gap between healing and human trafficking through research, teaching, and consulting.
Our Story
Seeing The Gap
While our founder and president, Matt Pierce, was studying and developing health care programs for vulnerable populations, he discovered that hundreds of the people he was serving were suffering from exploitation. As a public health professional, mental health, and general practitioner, Pierce was well equipped to provide healing services to these individuals through social impact programs. The more time and experience he gained in the field of anti-trafficking efforts, the more he realized how little people understand about this issue, and just how important it is for everyone in the community to have a fundamental understanding. Pierce developed HealEx as a way to help bridge that knowledge gap and drive resources to the people who need them. Founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, HealEx has had research interns and fellows from all over the United States, but also from several other countries. HealEx has also provided training to many institutions in Utah, and consulting services have expanded outside the state and into international programs. HealEx partners with, trains, and consults for organizations that directly serve exploited individuals.
Our Work
Research
First seek to understand,
then to be understood.
We are dedicated to better understanding what exploitation actually looks like in communities around the world. We have research interns and fellows who find every bit of information they can about this issue.
We are also connected with direct impact organizations that work directly with survivors of exploitation. This is where the real learning happens.
Teaching
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
We provide training and consulting services to groups and organizations that want to improve their understanding and response to exploitation in their own community.
We help break down all the myths and mysteriousness of "Human Trafficking" and help people understand what is really happening and how they can make a difference, right here and now.
Consulting
Healing happens through connection and relationships.
HealEx brings specialized expertise to the table to help you better serve exploited people. Our consulting models center around mobile clinics, community health programs, and protocol development.
We can help you create sustainable, healing solutions for survivors you serve.
Research
Our interns and fellows have done some really fantastic research on the intersections of health, healing, and exploitation.
Check out a preview of this research presentation done by one of our international interns.
Teaching
We have provided training to many organizations, groups, and businesses in the Salt Lake City area. Training can be incredibly beneficial for your staff, employees, community, and organization because it helps people understand a serious problem in their community. That awareness is key and empowers them to do something constructive about exploitation. If your group is looking for a really fantastic speaker to come educate on trafficking and exploitation, HealEx founder Matt Pierce is currently booking arrangements for 2023. These arrangements are tailored to the learning needs of the attendees and the event. Whether it is a class, conference, business employees, or nonprofit/community organization, HealEx has something valuable you need to hear.
Consulting
HealEx Founder, Matt Pierce, has provided personalized consulting services to organizations and groups looking to improve their response to exploitation in several ways. This often looks like development of specialized training material, protocols and procedures, programs, projects, products, and narratives related to the intersection of healing and exploitation. He is currently opening up slots for consultancies throughout the United States as well as for organizations operating social impact programs outside the USA.
The Bakersfield Pregnancy Center has been working with HealEx in the development of staff training, protocols and procedures, and answering questions about how to best identify, serve, and respond to survivors of trafficking that enter their facility.
In the Dominican Republic, there are many children vulnerable to human trafficking, particularly in the poorer communities and among immigrants from Haiti. HealEx has provided consulting services to an organization operating a community education center in a poor community in order to implement trafficking prevention. HealEx has helped this organization to have a community health program within the education center, which provides trauma informed care to survivors of exploitation and preventative care to those who are vulnerable.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nonprofit organization called Tifie Humanitarian administers development projects focused on alleviating poverty, suffering, and vulnerability. HealEx has provided consulting services for their school system where the children are incredibly vulnerable to exploitation in labor and commercial sex. The program focuses on helping school teachers provide health education, care, and referrals for their students. The training given to these teachers helps decrease the vulnerability of the students to exploitation and improves the ability of the community to be self-sustaining.
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