How the dedication, faith of a local man from Colorado led him to share his work at the Vatican

Keenan Fitzpatrick is just one of many individuals working to combat sex trafficking and violence

Sex trafficking is a crime involving the use of force, coercion or fraud to exploit a person into sexual exploitation. Graphic by SUKHMAN SAHOTA, art director

When Colorado local Keenan Fitzpatrick dedicated his life toward the rescue and rehabilitation of sex-trafficking survivors, he did not entirely know that only a few years later he would be standing at the Vatican sharing his work with Pope Francis.

After being introduced to the problem of sex trafficking during his college years, Fitzpatrick devoted his religious faith and time to anti-trafficking rescue work, initially rescuing victims of sex-trafficking violence in Denver. 

“I got involved (in survivor rehabilitation and rescue) in college after a profound faith conversion,” Fitzpatrick told The Panther. “I wanted to live a heroic life for Jesus and felt called to protect the vulnerable. A priest and I would do rescue drives in Denver. We would listen to praise and worship and pray the rosary waiting for the Holy Spirit to allow us to intervene.” 

According to Fitzpatrick, after spending time in rescue work, he saw the need for a long-term restoration for survivors, noting that rescue was not the only thing survivors need. 

They also need a stable place to rehabilitate. 

This led Fitzpatrick and his wife, Brianna, to co-found The Avodah Collective in 2020. The organization is committed to long-term restorative and rehabilitative housing for survivors of sex trafficking. 

By the spring of 2022, the Avodah Collective launched its first long-term safe home in Denver which is staffed by religious sisters. Today, they partner with sisters from multiple international orders and serve in five homes across the country.

Avodah’s website states that sex trafficking can be defined as any commercial sex act induced by fraud, force or coercion, mentioning that 40 million are estimated global victims and every four out of five victims in the U.S do not have a place to recover due to a lack of available beds.

“We call our work ‘the rescue after the rescue,’ as we accompany them through physical, spiritual, emotional and mental healing,” Fitzpatrick said. 

According to Andrew Brinker, the outreach and development associate for Avodah, other rehabilitative organizations have struggled with staff turnover due to the intensity of the trauma that staff encounters daily and the combination of long hours with low compensation.

Avodah’s website mentions that up to 12 employees from most U.S. safehouses leave every six months.

To combat this, Avodah has taken a religious mission approach to their safehouses, employing Catholic nuns from across the world.

“Other organizations struggle with staff turnover. Our model of care was to involve Catholic sisters from places like Nigeria and the Philippines in what we are doing,” Brinker told The Panther. “Staff turnover has decreased, as they have given their lives in service to their faith and work. The sisters have a strong community to rely on when things get difficult.” 

These safehouses, along with the continual work of Avodah, soon caught the attention of a friend of the pope who then organized an ecumenical group of mission leaders across the globe. 

According to Brinker, Fitzpatrick met with pope Francis for about two and a half hours alongside other rescue organizations. 

“[Although] I wasn’t able to make the Rome trip, Keenan and the other individuals personally shared their missions and work with the Pope - the challenges, successes, and joys,” Brinker said. “Afterwards, everyone thanked Pope Francis for his time and Keenan had a short conversation with him. While I didn’t go, Keenan shook his hand the pope gave us his blessing.”

Fitzpatrick recalled his interaction with the pope.

“A friend of Pope Francis organized an ecumenical group to share their hearts for the marginalized to better strategize how to serve by aligning hearts and minds across church walls,” Fitzpatrick said. “(He was) gleaning wisdom and insight. He really inspired us to lose everything we had for the sake of the lost and forgotten.” 

On Feb. 12, Avodah, alongside anti-sex trafficking organizations Frontline Response, Rescue America, Safe House Project and Her Song, deployed emergency responses to sex-trafficking victims in and around the 2023 Super Bowl. 

According to a poster infographic provided to The Panther by Brinker, these agencies have developed an emergency response program to mobilize a multidisciplinary team from each agency to provide on-site support for sex-trafficking victims.

“I haven’t been able to find any long-term studies or statistics, but it is pretty well known for those loosely familiar with sex trafficking that with big events such as the Super Bowl, sex trafficking can follow suit,” Brinker said.

Brinker also mentioned that a lot of trafficking is not what many initially think of, stating it can happen by fraud or coercion. 

“At the Super Bowl, we were made aware that because there are so many people — and there is so much alcohol and drugs, money and strong emotions — people are going to act out,” Brinker said. “Demand for strip clubs and massage parlors for instance is much higher… According to a Miami police department confirmation with the 2020 Miami-hosted Super Bowl, they rescued close to 100 women (from sex trafficking).” 

According to Dani Smith, Chapman University’s sexual assault crisis counselor and an advocate for health education, college students are among a population higher at risk for sexual violence and sex trafficking. Smith, alongside two since-graduated resident advisors, started Chapman’s C.A.R.E.S. organization in 1993 to educate students on the prevention of sexual violence on campus. 

According to Smith, the protection law against sexual assault, Title IX, is traced back to the activism of two college women. 

“Title IX, and the 1967 Senate bill in California for affirmative consent, stemmed from the work of two women from Chapel Hill (North Carolina University) who had been sexually violated on their campus,” Smith told The Panther. 

Smith referred to the movie “The Hunting Ground,” as a reference to the risk college students are at for sexual violence. 

“The movie goes on to talk about the ‘hunting ground’ on college campuses, where people are vulnerable,” Smith said. “Many men who were doing this — it tends to be men, with 98% of women saying it was a man and 93% of men saying it was a man— do it again and again and again, and they don’t see it as rape. It’s not sex. It’s violence.” 

Like Smith and organizations such as The Avodah Collective, university students are active against the threat of sexual violence and sex trafficking in the U.S. as well. Anjie Aveno, a junior health science major and a resident advisor, joined C.A.R.E.S her sophomore year at Chapman. 

“I joined C.A.R.E.S. because I want to be part of the solution,” Aveno wrote on the C.A.R.E.S. formal website. “I want to help create a safer environment for others by providing sexual violence awareness, empowering others to speak up and connecting people with resources to get the help they need.” 

Editor’s note: This story was updated to more accurately reflect the nature of The Avodah Collective, their work and their mission.