Dear Friends of The Freedom Story,
We are happy to announce that our Director of Strategy, Lucy McCray, has accepted the position of President of The Freedom Story! Rachel Goble is gratefully accepting a position as the Chair of Board of Directors. They have both written letters to our community sharing their perspectives on this transition. If you’re signed up for our newsletters you will already have seen these. For those who haven’t seen them yet, we’d love to share them with you too.* Thank you for standing with us as our organization continues to thrive and grow!
A Letter From Rachel Goble, Co-Founder of The Freedom Story
Dear friends,
I’m very excited to share that Lucy McCray – who many of our supporters know and love as our Director of Strategy – has accepted the position of President of The Freedom Story and I have accepted the role of board chair as she steps in as our next leader. With more than 7 years of experience and a proven track record for growth, the board unanimously voted her as the next President, effective January 2023.
I could recite Lucy’s incredible resume to you – from her Masters at The London School of Economics to growing our grants program 500% in the last 4 years – but what stands out to me the most is her passion. She is dedicated to The Freedom Story’s mission as though she had founded it herself. TFS is in the hands of a faithful leader who will uphold our values and continue to grow and strengthen the organization.
As I gratefully accept the position of Chair of the Board of Directors of The Freedom Story, I look forward to supporting Lucy in this next chapter of growth. It has been fifteen years since I finished my Masters Degree in Cross Cultural Studies and I knew one thing very clearly: I wanted to start a non-profit organization to focus on prevention of trafficking and exploitation for children who were vulnerable. It wasn’t long after I made my first trip to Thailand with a film crew to finish production on a short documentary that would tell the hopeful story of prevention of exploitation. Thus was born what was then The SOLD Project and is today TheFreedom Story. From the beginning, my vision has been to see the anti-trafficking movement invest more resources into prevention. I have planted the seed, and I have no doubt that Lucy is the leader to continue to grow the work.
We are entering into a transition – 4 months of transition to be exact. If you’d like to drop Lucy a welcome note, she can be reached at lucy@thefreedomstory.org.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers. We are excited for the future of The Freedom Story and so very grateful for your partnership in this important work.
Warmly,
Rachel Goble
Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors
The Freedom Story
A Letter From Lucy McCray
Dear friends,
I am excited and thankful for the opportunity to step into this new role as President of The Freedom Story. I joined The Freedom Story five years ago after wrestling with the reactive nature of much of the work in anti-trafficking. I wondered if there was a way to proactively prevent people from being exploited in the first place? I found my answer in The Freedom Story.
I was immediately impressed by the staff’s passion and the bright, engaging, and hopeful students. As I got to know many of the students better, I heard about their dreams, challenges, disappointments, and, over and over, how they felt they had few opportunities or choices. For so many students, the support of The Freedom Story allows them to dream for the first time.
In my time as Director of Strategy, I have seen personally through student stories, and with our data and research how people are more at risk than ever before. COVID, in particular, has pushed more people into poverty, increased desperation, and spawned new forms of trafficking. The most recent estimates show that slavery is increasing and that a staggering 50 million people live in modern slavery. I have personally heard from families that feel they have run out of options and have no choices but to take jobs that seem too good to be true. These fake opportunities are actually traps- and their children can end up trafficked into scam call centers in Cambodia with no way out, or into sex trafficking in the ‘special economic zones’ just over the border in Laos.
We are meeting this growing need by bringing new scholars into our Freedom Chapters and strengthening the work we began in Nan province in 2020. We are also starting to share our holistic prevention model with other organizations, so we can prevent more children from being trafficked than ever before.
In writing the next chapter of The Freedom Story, we’ll be building on our work and experience over the last 15 years. I’m excited to have the opportunity to lead our Freedom Story family to bring our work to the next level, while maintaining our commitment to caring deeply about each student in our program and ensuring we honor and dignify all who engage in our work. I’m thankful to have you all alongside me as part of that effort.
If you have any questions or thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you again for your support.
Warmly,
Lucy McCray
President, The Freedom Story
*If you’d like to receive updates via email, just fill out the form at the bottom of our home page with your email address and we’ll get you on our mailing list!
