LaTasha Williams never thought she would be sharing her life story with the world.
In 1984, when she was 18 months old, the Fort Worth native witnessed her father take the life of her mother, Cheryl Williams-Saddler, along with his own. In college, Williams investigated her mother’s death and learned that Cheryl, who was 17 at the time of her murder, was in an abusive relationship with her father.
Williams wishes her mother was still here.
“But because she’s not, I have the ability to not only honor her but help other kids who don’t have anybody to speak for them,” Williams said.
She formed Cheryl’s Voice, a faith-based nonprofit that provides resources to children and families impacted by domestic violence. It also educates the community about prevention of intimate partner violence among teens.
Through Cheryl’s Voice and her work as an assistant program manager of Tarrant County’s Domestic Violence Diversion Program, Williams has become an expert voice in the correlation between teen dating violence and sex trafficking. And she isn’t alone in this effort.
Cheryl’s Voice is one of several organizations that make up the Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce, a network of faith-based and secular nonprofits banded together in efforts to end human trafficking.
“A lot of times they’re in relationships with this person, not realizing that the person is not who they say they are, and they’re really setting them up to be trafficked,” Williams said.
Task force origins
From 2019 to 2023, there were over 4,800 cases of human trafficking reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline from Texas, according to a 2025 Tarrant County Public Health report.
The Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce serves as a place for nonprofits, churches, government and business leaders to network and collaboratively fight trafficking, according to the organization’s website.
The task force’s name comes from David and Goliath, the biblical underdog tale in which a young shepherd boy faced off and defeated a giant named Goliath with only his faith, a slingshot, and five smooth stones.
The task force’s stones? Awareness, training, policy advocacy, restoration and demand, founder Felicia Tallent said.
Interested in learning more?
5 Stones hosts meetings at 11 a.m. on the last Tuesday of each month, except for December. The gatherings are open to the public and serve as a way to become involved in addressing trafficking in Tarrant county.
The seeds of the task force were planted in 2009. Tallent was with the city’s community relations department and was working with a coworker on a project examining the health impact of adult prostitution.
As the two started conducting interviews and research, Tallent discovered many of the women they talked to were introduced to sex work as minors.
“That really just sort of lit a passion in me that this was something that was so egregious and just so wrong in the world,” Tallent said. “It was still in my heart. It was something that had never gone away.”
While working as an administrative assistant for the Fort Worth Police Department in 2014, Tallent looked to start a conversation between the department and community stakeholders to see how to join forces and combat human trafficking.
The group grew by word of mouth, Tallent said. By 2016, 40 members met every month to provide education on trafficking, share ideas and support survivors, she said.
By that point, the police department decided the group was established enough to become an official arm of local law enforcement, Tallent said.
Carrie Grace, a co-leader of the task force, got plugged into the organization in 2016 while working with women leaving the sex industry.
Back then, organizations focused on fighting human trafficking felt like competitors, Grace said. It was because of the task force she felt that organizations started working together, she added.
“It was just sort of this really toxic culture in the anti-trafficking movement … and yet here we all were on a monthly basis in the same room, looking at each other, and we started becoming friends and building relationships,” Grace said.
Addressing the gaps
Human trafficking occurs when a person is exploited through the use of force, fraud or coercion to perform labor or commercial sex, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While anyone can be a victim of trafficking, the department notes economic hardship, substance abuse, mental health issues and involvement in foster care or homelessness are significant risk factors.
While awareness has grown, it often feels misaligned, Tallent said.
Movies and other forms of media sometimes illustrate trafficking through a kidnapping narrative, a “white van scenario” or exclusively an international issue. Those narratives contribute to misconceptions, she said.
“If that’s what people think trafficking is, then they may miss trafficking as it actually is occurring, and that can be dangerous, because it may be right in front of us,” Tallent added.
Melissa Ice founded The Net in 2012 after recognizing signs of trafficking she noticed in her ministry and nongovernmental organizational work overseas.
The Fort Worth-based organization offers support to survivors through financial literacy classes, job training and support groups.
“I’ve learned that people (have) God-given dignity and skills and talents and capabilities, and … organizations like mine … come alongside to remind them that you have everything in you to turn this whole thing around,” Ice said.
The Net also runs the Men Against Sexual Exploitation Program, or MASE, which educates men on how to disrupt trafficking demand by reaching out to other men seeking to purchase sex.
The program has enrolled 43 sex buyers in its rehabilitation course, according to the nonprofit’s 2025 report.
Sarah Phillips, executive director of Rescue Her, got involved with the task force in 2017.
The nonprofit organization supports survivors and raises awareness through speaking events and tabling at churches, schools, local hotels and airlines. To this day, Phillips feels the task force maintains its grassroots culture by keeping its meetings open to the public.
“I think that coalitions and task force task forces are necessary because they offer an entry point for conversations to start,” Phillips said.
Kendall Reed was new to the field of human trafficking advocacy in 2021. 5 Stones was the first group of individuals who welcomed her into the advocacy work.
She has gone to nearly every meeting since, she said. Two years later, Reed founded Phoenix, a Fort Worth nonprofit supporting college-aged female survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
“We realize that we need every single person to make the movement the most effective, and everyone comes with that perspective. I think that’s why it’s most effective,” Reed said.
5 Stones has drawn increased interest over the years from churches wanting to learn more about combating human trafficking, said Sonya Brooks, director of prevention education for Unbound Now.
“We are just having more and more churches who are recognizing, ‘Hey, this is part of what we’re commanded to do by the Lord. The Lord calls us to shine a light on the darkness, and this is darkness,’” Brooks said.
The Fort Worth-based nonprofit identifies and supports trafficking survivors. Unbound Now also operates The Underground, a 24/7 drop-in center for vulnerable youth ages 10-22 to rest, eat and shower.
The organization has been intentional about partnering with faith communities, Brooks said. Unbound Now has formed a partnership with Lighthouse Fellowship Church in northwest Fort Worth to educate the congregation’s youth, hosted human trafficking awareness forums at churches ahead of major sporting events, and offered training in secular and religious schools.
These efforts help make churches a safe space, Brooks said.
“The more they’re willing to open up and be transparent, and to recognize the fact that this is something that’s actually happening … we can come up with strategies and tactics in order to address this in a way that’s honoring and loving, and Christ-serving to our congregants,” Brooks said.
Making a difference
In a perfect world, domestic violence and sex trafficking wouldn’t exist, Williams said.
In reality, she doesn’t see those issues going away.
What Williams has witnessed over the years is a group of five or six people with a vision to address trafficking in the county grow. Today she sees familiar faces at the gatherings — and new ones, too.
To her, it’s a sign more people are educating themselves and inviting others to join the cause, she said.
“If people didn’t care in the city, we wouldn’t have this much growth,” Williams said. “People are sharing the information, people are wanting to know what they can do to better support and that’s what makes a difference.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
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