Home for sexually exploited girls closing, leaving residents in shock: 'I'm losing the people I love'
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When she arrived at Anne's House, Mary was determined to keep her guard up. Sexually molested by multiple people by age 10, homeless by age 12, out on the streets with an abusive boyfriend by 15, she saw no reason to trust strangers.
But the staff at the residential program for sexually exploited girls was there for her, she said.
They talked to her; they listened. They clearly cared, and as the months went on, Mary, 17, started to care too. Her favorite staffer became like a mother to her; she started calling another staff member "auntie." She and her friend Frances, also 17 and a victim of sexual assault and physical abuse, settled in, made friends in the leafy Chicago suburb where Anne's House has operated since 2010, got A's and B's at the local high school and started to dream
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