Who we are

Azalea began in 2008 through a small group of local residents who met together to pray, seeking to find safe, empowering, and consistent ways to help women who were being sex trafficked on the streets of their local area.

Early conversations with local church leaders assessed the viability of Luton offering a non-judgmental Christian response to the women, alongside providing exit strategies. Churches were in favour, so a core team was established to steer and implement the vision, and pledges were made of financial support. A part-time project director was appointed, and we began to liaise with existing services. Azalea gained Trust status and began to apply for and receive grants and community financial support.

At this stage, advertisements went out for volunteer outreach workers and a six-week training course was held, equipping the team to understand the journey of knowledge they were required to take. Each volunteer filled in an application form, sought references, and were interviewed. The successful candidates met as a team and began relating to the women through a drop-in centre. After nine months, and with the support of the Police and NHS Addaction, we purchased our own car for outreach.

Driven by compassion and a desire to care, Azalea’s services were run solely by volunteers; all of whom were dedicated to seeing women set free and recover. They gave hours and hours of time and care to walk alongside the women as they journeyed towards freedom.

Today, we call this work ‘Encompass’.

Very soon, they realised that to empower women to exit sex trafficking would save lives, but not reduce the overall issue of domestic and international sex trafficking. They realised that they needed to reach out to the men who were driving the demand. Today, Azalea volunteers' mentor men who purchase sex, struggle with strong temptations and wish to significantly reduce their purchasing.

This is ‘Flint’.

Flint mentors are moved by compassion when they hear a man share how broken he feels by the damage his purchasing of sex causes to his family. They are led by compassion to respond to men who want to change, but don’t know how. Because they care, they will walk alongside each man and work with him to walk free.

Azalea founded a coalition of local professionals and residents: Luton Against Sex Trafficking. Through this, Azalea is leading a solution-based response to sex trafficking; empowering, advocating and training local residents and professionals to understand the complex issues found in sex trafficking. Azalea holds the core values of courage, approachability, dedication, empowerment and trust as foundational to everything we do.

Today, our operations have expanded beyond Luton and we now serve Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The volunteer model remains at the core of Azalea. We have a team of 8 FTE staff, 107 volunteers and work with 132 women and 10 men each year.