Here at Starfish Project, we continue to build our program so that every survivor has the opportunity to lead. We believe and have seen that every brave, resilient woman in our program has what it takes to be a leader, yet, like many of us, she needs encouragement to believe this is possible for herself. One of the many ways we do this is through setting micro-goals. If you’ve done this yourself you know there is nothing small about the impact of micro-goals.

I had the great pleasure recently of leading one of our micro-goal small groups. Together we took a quick look at three areas; technical skills, soft skills, and people skills. We each choose one area to work on over the next 6 weeks. We found creating realistic goals within a tight timeframe is easiest when you have a couple of friends (and coworkers) there to help by asking the hard questions in love. We came out with very different, yet equally exciting goals.

Our goals spanned from developing Excel skills for a new role as Assistant to the Production Manager (Yay Sun Sun!) to practicing calming techniques before and after dealing with difficult family members. Loni’s goal was very clear – pass her Basic Computer Skills test. She laughed as she shared that she had zero computer skills when she joined Starfish Project. The opportunity to learn how to use a computer in our vocational training program was one of the reasons she decided to leave the brothel and join Starfish Project.  

At first, Loni set her sights high with the goal of sending me a typed document every single day. After a little pushback from our realistic group (who have dinner and play cards at Loni’s house most weeks), she rethought her goal. It was settled – three typed documents a week for the next 6 weeks. And she did it! The first week I received a 3 sentence paragraph and by the end of 6 weeks, Loni sent a page-long typed reflection. Loni took the opportunities presented to her and she ran with them, each one watering the first seeds of hope that brought her out of exploitation to experience freedom! These are the beautiful, life-transforming opportunities your purchases provide for the incredible women here at Starfish Project who are establishing independence and developing careers for the first time. It’s amazing!

The beauty of setting micro-goals together is that no matter the outcome, we celebrate one another. We reflect on what we might do differently next round, we laugh, we eat cookies and we celebrate little wins because each paves the way for so much more!

Just weeks later Loni beamed as she shared with us that she indeed passed her Basic Computer Skills test! The glow of accomplishment was remarkable. I can’t wait to see what Loni does next! (I may have put her name in to lead the next micro-goal small group!)