2019-April-23

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Between Human Trafficking and a Future Without Fear, There’s Vanessa

Vanessa Russell is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Love Never Fails, which places human trafficking victims in a safe house to make sure they have a stable and healthy homelife, jobs, and everyday work clothes. She spent 12 years at Cisco before deciding to pursue her passion full time.

My Life Forever Changed

I’ve always lived the life of a change agent. It all started many years ago as a vulnerable child growing up in San Francisco, where I survived abuse.

The pain should have crippled me, but I only grew stronger. Today, I use my experiences to tenaciously serve others and to help propel them to live their best life.

In 2001, I began teaching dance to inner-city kids in the Bay Area on Friday nights. Our dance teams included girls, boys, youth and adults from all walks of life, ranging from ages 3 to 25.

We were often invited to county fairs, schools, and community-based events. It was a beautiful time supporting young people and helping them realize their dreams.

Then in 2010, one of my 15-year-old dance students abruptly stopped attending. I thought she had lost interest. Sometime later, a woman I knew brought a girl to me who needed help.

She explained how she found the girl and that she had been exploited. When I came face to face with the young lady, I realized it was my student. The terror set in.

For the next hour, she described being beaten, choked, raped, shot at, and sold throughout California. This changed me forever.

For several months, I tried to continue with my life. I kept thinking I could just go back to normal, but my tears wouldn’t stop flowing. I realized I couldn’t unlearn the horrors of human trafficking and couldn’t turn my back on my precious student.

Our Mission

Love Never Fails officially kicked off in December 2010. Since then, we’ve achieved much more than I ever could’ve dreamed.

We’ve opened multiple safe houses and housed 99 women and 19 children. We’ve mentored hundreds of survivors and at-risk youth. We’ve rescued hundreds of victims with the help of law enforcement.

We also partnered with organizations such as 3Strands Global Foundation and Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives in a collaboration of leading nonprofits in the field of human trafficking education called PROTECT. Together, we have rolled out prevention education in 32 California counties and three states.

A Job Can Make a Difference

We realized early on that workforce development was an essential part of restoring a survivor of human trafficking. Providing sustainable jobs allowed them to live without dependence on government subsidy and/or unhealthy relationships or family systems.

Initially, we met this goal by providing job training thanks to partnerships with industry leaders in banking, real estate, and other industries. And then one day a woman asked me a simple — yet loaded — question, “Why aren’t you getting them jobs in IT?”

It was then I realized I hadn’t bridged Love Never Fails with my career because I was afraid of exposing my own abusive past. I thought my involvement with human trafficking — especially as a woman of color — would limit upward mobility. But after much reflection and prayer, I knew I had to take a chance.

I established Love Never Fails as a Cisco Networking Academy and developed a trauma-informed curriculum called IT Biz for survivors of human trafficking as well as other vulnerable populations such as foster youth, previously homeless, and re-entry.

Check out Vanessa’s video.

Amazingly, I have received nothing but love and support for this work from Cisco. The fear of bridging these seemingly disparate areas of my life was shattered when I received the Cisco Bridge Award for doing just that.

Shortly after this career high point, I made another decision to retire so that I could pursue our mission with a sense of urgency. In early 2019, I left my role as a Senior Global Sales leader to focus on Love Never Fails and our vision to replace the chains of pain with hands of love.

Today, I spend my days traveling around the country raising awareness about human trafficking and urging everyone who will listen to partner with me to save lives.

Now What?

The day after I retired, I was right back in San Jose in Building 12 participating in a Networking Academy Summit and learning new ways to bridge my students into the digital economy.

It is my goal to reach 5,000 students by 2024. And with your support, I believe we can get there.

Over the past few months, leaders from groups such as Women of Impact-Southern California and AppDynamics have asked us to educate their teams.

Many of you have come forward to organize our community store, build toiletry kits for our housing programs, create internships and placement opportunities for our graduates, host fundraisers, and even lend professional expertise.

Love Propels Us

Along my journey, I’ve learned many important lessons. I’ve learned that love propels us to be our very best, love stretches us to levels we never imagined possible, love meets us at just the perfect time, and Love Never Fails.

Keep a lookout next month when we’ll share another story about amazing people who Be the Bridge at Cisco.