Our Mission and Vision at Samaritan Village

Samaritan Village exists to provide a safe place for women who have been sexually trafficked to heal from trauma, recover from addiction, and take back their lives to become catalysts in their communities.

When Rhonda Stapleton, Samaritan Village’s founder, moved to Orlando, Florida, she bought a house right off of Orange Blossom Trail. People told Rhonda her move into that neighborhood was crazy, but she knew she was called to reach out to women in desperate situations. As she connected with women near her home and worked as a jail chaplain nearby, she saw women caught in a cycle of exploitation with no way to get out. Samaritan Village, Inc. launched in 2009 as a transitional home for survivors of sexual exploitation and chemical dependency.

As the understanding and awareness of human trafficking began to grow, it became clear that the women being served at Samaritan Village were indeed survivors of this crime. In 2013 the staff and board of Samaritan Village went through a season of intensive prayer and strategic planning. We relaunched our program, implementing at the time, one of Florida’s only trauma-informed recovery safe homes, to meet the unique needs of victims of trafficking, in the fall of that year.

Since opening a second safe home as a “transitional” home in 2019, Samaritan Village has had the capacity to serve 9 women in our residential spaces. For the last 10 years Samaritan Village has maintained one of the longest standing recovery homes for adult female survivors of human trafficking in Central Florida. In 2023, we plan to open our 3rd safe home, completing a long-term goal to have three homes as part of our overall plan for survivor recovery.