To date we’ve served over 1,600 survivors of trafficking, engaged with more than 15,000 men attempting to purchase sex, and provided dignified employment to 19 survivors. All of these programs exist because if proximity has taught us anything, it’s that everyone is worthy of the chance to rebuild their lives.
Abby Phifer, MS, LMFT
Clinical Director
Abby received her Bachelor of Arts from Texas Tech University with a degree in Psychology and Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy. She worked as a therapist in a clinical setting with couples, individuals and families and also provided therapy at the local juvenile detention center.
Since moving to Fort Worth in 2018, she worked as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at Lena Pope providing therapy in different settings. She provided in-home family therapy to youth on probation for various charges, conducted groups in the Tarrant County detention center and led parent groups for youth with a first-time offense.
In 2020 she began work at the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, where she provided therapeutic intervention for students, behavioral interventionists, teachers, and administrators, as well as crisis management for youth and caregivers.
Abby is passionate about advocating for those in the community who may feel they do not have a voice. It is her mission to provide others with an opportunity to let their voice be heard, and to make each person she works with feel seen, valued and loved.
As the Clinical Director at The Net, Abby is eager to use her clinical experiences to provide wraparound services and walk the journey with survivors, as well as staff serving these women. Abby is dedicated to maintaining a positive and healthy environment, eager to fight for justice, and passionate about creating change for the survivors and their families.
Abby attends First United Methodist church and feels that she would not be able to do this work without encountering the love and grace of Jesus. In her free time, she enjoys experiencing new adventures with her husband Grant, walking their maltipoo Leo, working out, and spending time in a local coffee shop.
Board of Directors
Drew Neill | Board Chair
Partner, Kelly Hart & Hallman, LLP
Megan Cano Dobbertien | Past Chair
Senior Director of Marketing, Radical
Chris Mellina | Past Chair
Director of Operations, Avocet Ventures LP
Alexi Alvis
National Manager of Field Sales Training, BillionToOne, Inc.
Ciara Bertolino
Director of Strategic Partnerships, IJM
Katey Hellman
Founder + Blogger, Chronicles of Frivolity
Tyler Kelly | Treasurer
Director of Operations, Watermark Fort Worth
Jordan Molberg Owner, Molberg Plumbing LLC
Keeton Monahan Partner, Turner-Monahan, PLLC
Karen Smith
HR Director, Cantey Hanger, LLP
Chris Taylor | Member Emeritus
Director, RAM Interests
Julie Wilks Vice President, LanCarte Commercial Real Estate
Advisory Board Members:
Dr. Vanessa Bouché, Lance Cashion, Heather Essian, Kelly Lancarte, Belinda Marshall, Jay & Toni Meadows, Emily Radler, Jackie & Jim Snyder, Becca Stupfel, Karen Wiseman
Power of Relationships
In 2010, our founder and a handful of passionate college students started building relationships with people experiencing homelessness. They quickly learned that because poverty is rooted in broken relationships, the people they were meeting needed friendship and a network of support more than they needed material handouts.
Through several years of mentoring refugee youth and sharing meals and building relationships with folks experiencing homelessness, they regularly met and formed friendships with vulnerable women and girls in Fort Worth.
While spending time with them, they repeatedly saw the ways that violence, trauma, and poverty lead to situations of sexual exploitation and trafficking. By walking alongside these women, building friendships, and hearing their stories, they began to learn how complicated the issue of sex trafficking is.
In order to “get out of the sex industry,” they needed more than just rehab and probation. More than anything, they needed a supportive community who would commit to coming alongside them, despite the trauma and hardships of their pasts, as they rebuilt their lives and walked forward in freedom.
Proximity Breeds Compassion
In 2012
The Net was invited to join the treatment team of a specialty court called RISE under Judge Brent Carr’s leadership. As a partner organization to RISE, we began providing one-on-one advocacy and social support to the 40+ women survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation in the program.
As we walked alongside these survivors, we heard countless stories of the abuse and trauma they endured not only at the hands of their traffickers but also from the buyers who purchased them. After 2 years of hearing these stories, we decided we wanted to reach the men who were causing so much harm to these strong and resilient survivors.
In 2014
We joined Demand Abolition’s CEASE Network (Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation) North Texas core team along with several other DFW stakeholders. This was the beginning of our MASE initiative (Men Against Sexual Exploitation), which led to a formal training and partnership with The EPIK Project to conduct online cyber patrols in 2015.
Through these partnerships and the relationships we had formed, we learned that we can simultaneously combat the injustice of sex trafficking as well as the shame it causes both for the men and women involved.
After 6 years
of watching survivor graduates of the RISE program struggle to gain employment, we decided to create a solution to provide dignified employment to survivors in a trauma-informed way. After several educational trips to Thistle Farms in Nashville learning the ropes of creating a justice enterprise, we founded The Worthy Co in 2018 to employ and empower survivors of trafficking in Fort Worth.
In 2020
despite the challenges posed by this year, we had the privilege of opening Fort Worth’s first non-profit brick and mortar store in October to expand employment opportunities for the survivors we serve. The Worthy Co Headquarters houses our production and manufacturing facility as well as a retail storefront where the community can shop goods that give 100% back to the mission.