Grant Applicant: LOTUS Legal Clinic

The feature below is brought to you by LOTUS Legal Clinic, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about LOTUS Legal Clinic, please visit their website: here.

Mending broken into Beautiful

Introducing LOTUS Legal Clinic!

LOTUS was founded in 2013 to provide Legal Options for Trafficked and Under-served Survivors (LOTUS) in Wisconsin. Our mission is to serve victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking (labor and sex) through trauma informed legal advocacy, policy initiatives, education, and survivor empowerment.

Gender Based violence is an ugly problem!

Rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking are forms of gender- based violence that are not typically addressed in regular legal practice; LOTUS is fighting to change that.

“Creating a beautiful life.. with what is left”

LOTUS sees the inherent worth and humanity of every survivor. We give each client a beautiful quilt handmade by the Material Girls.
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The Material Girls is a group of 25 women in Baraboo, Wisconsin, who have provided LOTUS more than 200 quilts for survivors. These extraordinary quilts are gifts to lift up fellow women, girls, and boys who have been abused and trafficked. The quilts given to LOTUS’s clients remind them there is beautiful in the world and someone cares about them with no expectations-  no strings attached.
 
“Many of the fabrics are less than top-of-the line since quilters are a frugal bunch who often make do with what is left. Sort of like creating a beautiful life or a gift with what is left”

“This quilt reminds me every day that people care. Especially in times of self-doubt and difficulty, I like to wrap up and it makes me feel safe”

Samantha’s Story
LOTUS met Samantha, a fifteen-year old survivor of human sex trafficking, last year. While she was in “the life” everything had been controlled by her trafficker including food, clothes and possessions. When she left the exploitation and went into a state-sponsored care program, she had nothing to call her own. For Samantha, her inability to trust others made her sometimes feel like the state took the trafficker’s place in providing her physical necessities. She still had nothing to call her own. Despite her strong spirit and intelligence, her trauma made it hard to adjust and to sleep, get back on track with education, and form healthy relationships.

In time, she came to LOTUS for legal assistance related to her victimization. After the first meeting, Samantha received a vivid handmade quilt from LOTUS’s executive director and staff attorney. This quilt was her very own. She helped pick the patterns and the colors that felt most like her “Soulmatch,” and said that it was something that belonged to her that no one could ever take back.
 
LOTUS hopes for $3,500 in support from See Beautiful. The Material Girls intend to continue making quilts for survivors and even have plans to recruit other quilt guilds in Wisconsin to help. Although the Material Girls have an unlimited desire to help, they have limited resources to acquire the materials and make recruiting trips. Support from See Beautiful would offset some of these costs.
 
The price of materials (fabric, batting, machine quilting) is about $200-$250 (minimum) per quilt. Additional costs for other supplies (e.g., thread, needles, fusible webbing, binding; cost of electricity; cost for trips to shop for supplies and deliver quilts to LOTUS) are extra. 
 
In addition to materials, a lot of time and talent are required to make the quilts. Volunteers contribute many hours to making this project successful (shopping for materials, design, sewing, machine quilting; washing, drying, cutting, and ironing fabric; piecing together the fabric; etc.). The volunteer commitment alone is estimated at between $14,500- $48,000!
 
You can’t put a price on feeling valued and respected for who you really are, “as is”; there’s nothing you can buy that says Made From the Heart like the work of human hands who put love in every stitch.  LOTUS knows this project changes lives. 

Written by Madeline Monien for LOTUS Legal

Edited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful