Celia grew up in north Toledo, a high-crime, low-income area of Toledo, Ohio. After driving into work seeing drug-addicted and abused women on the streets, Celia had an epiphany about who she really was as a social worker and a spiritual follower. Not finding any meaningful information at the library, in 1993 Celia took to the streets and spent 6 months, 3 times a week on the street learning about prostitution, drugs, and the culture of the street. She went into crack houses, and a brothel to connect with women and walk beside them into freedom and recovery. She later learned that three of her childhood friends were caught up as sex trafficking victims. One was murdered by a customer. The other struggled with life-long trauma and addiction.