About Building 22

In 2012, our founder, Kerri Hupp, was introduced to the original Building 22 boy, ‘D’. As his foster parent, she not only learned the ins and outs of the foster care system but just how critical restorative care was for these traumatized children. Kerri subsequently adopted D and served with a Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) based foster care support nonprofit. In 2019, Kerri felt a tug on her heart to begin work supporting recovery for sex trafficking victims. As she explored in what capacity she might help, the connection between foster care and sex trafficking grew more horrifying. This single statistic changed everything: over 80% of victims of commercial sexual exploitation experienced time in the foster care system. As Kerri researched further, she found that DFW, the state of Texas, and America at large, have refuge and recovery programs for females, which account for about 65% of cases, but almost NO resources are available for male youth victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Having adopted a son out of the Texas foster care system, this didn’t sit right with Kerri. At all. As Kerri shared these updates with D and he asked, ‘Who is helping the boys?’, Kerri knew that the call was hers.

Over the next couple of years, the idea of an organization that provided support for those in recovery began formulating. The pervasive theme of healing and restoration resonated but it wasn’t until she read Numbers 3, and considered that these boys are God’s chosen, set apart and consecrated to Him, that the name Building 22 was solidified:

“Look, I have chosen the Levites from among the Israelites to serve as substitutes for all the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me. When Moses and Aaron counted the Levite clans at the Lord’s command, the total number was 22,000 males one month old or older.”

– Numbers 3:12, 39 NLT

In December 2021, Kerri took several road trips to a small town in northwest DFW. After three separate trips, she happened upon a large plot of land, and the vision took shape. Building 22 was not just an organization that housed recovery programs for male youth coming out of sex trafficking. It was a physical house. In 2022, Kerri and D relocated to begin the groundwork for Building 22 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. While the land and physical building are yet to come, the plans are fully in motion.

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