Joy Friedman

Joy Friedman is a survivor of sexual exploitation and an invaluable resource for women and girls within the anti-sex trafficking movement. Joy successfully completed a program for sexually exploited women, and after two years of sobriety was hired at Breaking Free, an organization that empowers and supports
survivors. At Breaking Free, Joy co-coordinated and conducted training at one of the first Offender Prostitution Programs in the country.

The past 23 years, Joy has directly supported victims and survivors of sexual exploitation through a variety of different ways. She has helped incarcerated survivors' transition back into society. Joy's support for incarcerated women has been recognized by the Sexual Violence Center, a rape crisis center in Minnesota.

Joy has conducted trainings on sexual exploitation and has trained a variety of law enforcement agencies investigating sex trafficking cases. In 2013, Joy had the honor of speaking at the 120th International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference Excellence in Victim Services Award luncheon in Philadelphia, PA. In 2014, Joy, completed a human trafficking program hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Joy started her own consulting business and sits on advisory boards for the Just Exits Initiative as well as the University of Minnesota's MEND Project. She is certified to run survivor mentor groups through My Life, My Choice. Truckers Against Trafficking, she is Certified Peer Recovery Specialist a co author of a publish research paper Joy became the first independent contractor to receive grant funds from the Minneapolis People's Assembly Partners. Through this grant, Joy gathering community input through street outreach to re-conceptualize public safety.

Joy has published a book call “The Fragments of Joy” a Memoir.

Joy is a Co-Author on a research paper that was published in the SAGE Journal International Journal of Qualitative Methods.