4 Summit Takeaways Renew Passion to Eradicate Sex Trafficking in Dallas, Texas

“The two days out of your year attending The Global Leadership Summit are guaranteed to change your life,” says Mandy Goodall, program director of Poiema Foundation. “If you give up this opportunity, you might never know the potential you could have unlocked in yourself. It is that good!”

Mandy was invited to attend the Summit by the Poiema Foundation’s executive director, Rebecca Jowers, who applies the leadership lessons learned to her mission to eradicate sex trafficking in Dallas, Texas. Mandy is so enthusiastic about the Summit because she realized it is a critical reason Poiema is successful.

“I came along at a time when Rebecca needed a director to develop her safe house program so she could focus her time to educate and create more awareness of this issue,” says Mandy. “Since being here,  I have developed and now run the safe house program, liaise with outside organizations to offer and schedule counselling, therapy, healthcare, education, etc. I train staff and volunteers to be trauma-informed enough to coach residents and empower them to reach the goals we encourage them to set for themselves.”

What Rebecca hoped would happen when she invited her new teammate to the Summit, happened—Mandy gained renewed drive and passion, and applied many of the lessons she learned to the mission.

“I truly believe God connected me with Rebecca and she sent me to the Summit to give me the drive and understanding I needed to do this work,” says Mandy. “The Summit renewed my faith and drive. Now when I’m told something cannot be done, I ask myself, How can I do this? Or, What can I do about this? And I pray for God to show me, and he always does.”

These are Mandy’s four biggest takeaways she applied in the last year:

1. Encourage growth

“Sheryl Sandberg discussed post-traumatic growth, which really helped me recognize we need to actively encourage growth in our staff. It’s not just about empowering survivors to grow, which is important, but growing the team of staff around the mission we are building to best serve those in need.”

2. Be uniquely better

“I loved what Andy Stanley had to say about what makes your organization unique. I have done a ton of work on this since then, and found that we individualize our staff training to offer support that fits each survivor’s needs. In this way, we are able to offer the best possible support for each individual we serve.”

3. Lead by example

“Fredrik Haren, Marcus Buckingham, and Sam Adeyemi encouraged me to lead by example by thinking differently about how to approach a problem. I chose to listen to the survivors’ experiences in order to look at what really works. I began to think outside the box, and outside the conventional ways of working with this population to structure our program to be sustainable and flexible.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

4. Don’t give up

“The Summit reminded me to keep going and to trust God in His calling, no matter how ill-equipped I think I am. God always shows up when He has called you. Once He shows me something, I know I cannot turn away.

I cannot tell you how many times I have actually said out loud ‘Oh why did you shown me that!”’

Inspired to work harder to make a difference

“Before coming to the Summit, I have to admit, I used to think that what we were doing was just not enough,” says Mandy. “It felt like it was a drop in the ocean. But after hearing the different life stories of struggle, hardship and survival, I realized every life touched is good enough for God. I felt truly inspired and energized by the speakers to go out and work harder to make a difference. I was able to see even one life really does matter.”