Providing healing, hope, and freedom for survivors.
- one daughter at a time.
You can help bring freedom and healing to those trapped in human trafficking. Your donation empowers rescue, care, and long-term support for the most vulnerable.
Our Mission
Ernestine’s Daughter envisions a world where women and girls are free of sexual, physical, emotional, and economic abuse and where they have the resources to live out their dreams and achieve financial security. A world where women and girls of color have the power to change their own lives and the neighborhoods in which they live. To achieve that vision, we envision a world where mothers and children have access to healthcare, nutritious food, quality education, after-school enrichment, employment opportunities, affordable and safe housing, childcare, and streets free from violence. We are committed to building a world where every community has access to essential resources, where grocery stores and pharmacies are within easy reach, and where children can walk to school safely without having to navigate gang territories. To achieve this vision, we work to build power among Black and Brown women and men, empowering them to stop the systemic destruction of the fabric of their communities.
Our Services
Ernestine’s Daughter promotes trauma-informed, harm-reduction, and holistic care. The organization seeks to disrupt the cycle of abuse and exploitation by offering tangible support: food, clothing, hygiene, substance abuse treatment, yoga, meditation, and most importantly, trust and human connection. Through survivor-led outreach, it aims to change the narrative surrounding the sex trade, centered not on judgment, but on emotional and spiritual healing, empowerment, and equity. These practices reflect community care, healing justice, and compassion over criminalization. Ernestine’s Daughter envisions a society where survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation are met with empathy, resources, and justice, not stigma.
Self-Help Groups
Self-Help Center
Yoga & Meditation
Resting Rooms
Substance Abuse Treatment
Food & Clothing
Gender-Based Violence Statement
At Ernestine’s Daughter, we recognize gender-based violence (GBV) as a pervasive and deeply rooted form of oppression that disproportionately impacts women, girls, and gender-expansive people, especially those from Black, Brown, Indigenous, and marginalized communities. GBV, including human trafficking, sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, and systemic abuse, is both a cause and a consequence of inequality.
We believe that eradicating GBV requires more than awareness; it demands structural change. Our work centers survivors and their lived experiences, ensuring that their voices guide the solutions. Through advocacy, policy change, community-led healing, and coalition-building, we are dismantling the systems that enable violence and rebuilding ones rooted in justice, accountability, and care.
Ending gender-based violence is not only possible; it is necessary. At Ernestine’s Daughter, we are committed to creating a world where every person can live free from fear, exploitation, and harm.
About Us
The organization was founded by Brenda Myers-Powell, the Chief Executive Officer, and Brenda Stewart, a consultant, director, and lead outreach, whose personal journeys fuel its mission. The organization was born out of the legacy of the Dreamcatcher Foundation, co-founded in 2008 by Brenda Myers-Powell, who brought decades of lived experience to her advocacy work.
Our Founder
Brenda Myers Powell
After surviving 25 years of sex trafficking across the Midwest, Brenda transformed her trauma into a mission of service and reform. With the founding of Ernestine’s Daughter—named in honor of her mother—Brenda re-focused her efforts to serve one of the most overlooked populations: pregnant and postpartum women struggling with substance abuse and at risk of exiting the sex trade. Mrs. Myers-Powell has established solid relationships with businesses, churches, nail and beauty shops, law enforcement, and those who are surviving in the illicit sex trade.
Our Co-Founder & Executive Director
Brenda Stewart
Brenda Stewart is the Executive Director of Ernestine’s Daughter where she taps into her lived experience and multiple decades-long advocacy for and service to underserved communities. Her work has included substance abuse rehabilitation (residential and outpatient), case management, counseling, family planning and more.
In 2014, Stewart expanded her servant-leadership in the community to specialize in supporting women dealing with human trafficking, sexual exploitation and domestic violence. Stewart’s unique lived experience as a survivor undergirds the praxis for healing and transformation at Ernestine’s Daughter. That work begins by meeting each woman at her personal point of need. The radical, welcoming nature of the Ernestine’s Daughter’s outreach and drop-in center initiatives creates a safe environment for survivors, where the creation of customized long-term and short-term care and recovery plans takes place.
Accomplishments
- In 2015, a documentary titled “Dreamcatcher” was released about the Foundation’s work. Dreamcatcher won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, the Cinema Eye Honor Award, and was nominated for seven other awards.
- On Mar. 24, 2020, Brenda Myers-Powell, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Dreamcatcher Foundation, was appointed to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking by the United States Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office).
- Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir Hardcover – June 29, 2021
- The Dream Center – Drop-in Center- July 20, 2021
- State Sen. Dale Fowler, Brenda Myers-Powell, and state Sen. Julie Morrison show support for SB2323 on March 19, 2025.
- The WorldWE Conference: Building the WorldWE Want Guiding Star Award
Upcoming Events
Virtual Release of 2023 Annual Report
2024 Girls Night Out Fundraiser
more details Coming Soon
Words of the Week
"All I need is within me right now."
News
WGN People to People: Survivors Leading the Fight Against Sex Trafficking
The new film Operation Aunties, starring acclaimed actresses Tisha Campbell, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and a powerful ensemble cast, shines a spotlight on the harsh and
OP-ED: The end of acceptable exploitation
In the wake of recent allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs and the subsequent raid during a sex trafficking investigation, the glaring spotlight has once again illuminated the
OPINION: Protect Black Girls in the Sex Trade, Not the Pimps Who Sell Them
Growing up in Chicago, abuse was the norm. My friends and I routinely witnessed violence and we experienced it for ourselves. As a young girl
Donor’s Statement:
Dear Supporter,
Every day in America, tens of thousands of people are trafficked and sexually exploited. Globally, millions more are bought, sold, and treated as commodities. After decades of progress in political, economic, and social arenas, we must ask: why are so many still being purchased like products?
At Ernestine’s Daughter, we believe that this crisis demands bold action and deep-rooted change. We are leading the fight to end exploitation by challenging the systems and policies that enable trafficking and abuse.
With a powerful coalition of survivors, advocates, and allies, we are not only envisioning an exploitation-free world, we are building it.
Your support fuels this vital work. Thank you for standing with us as we fight for dignity, safety, and justice for all.
With gratitude,
The Ernestine’s Daughter Team
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