ELIZABETH CITY — The only nonprofit organization in northeastern North Carolina dedicated to helping survivors of human trafficking received a prestigious FBI award in a local ceremony Thursday morning in Elizabeth City.

Beloved Haven, a Currituck County-based nonprofit that Tina Pennington founded in 2015, received the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award.

About 40 people from across the state, from Dare County to Charlotte, attended the ceremony held in the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office Community Room.

Pennington and her team develop “long-lasting and personal relationships with clients” as they help them “try to reclaim their lives,” said Robert DeWitt, special agent in charge of the Charlotte Field Office, which is the FBI headquarters for North Carolina.

The nonprofit’s efforts include placing clients in long-term facilities for overcoming addiction, helping them enroll in classes and programs to gain skills for employment and working to help them “obtain crucial documents” like social security cards and birth certificates, DeWitt said.

He shared that last March, an FBI search recovered a victim, and Beloved Haven provided clothing, food and arranged for her to stay in a shelter. The support allowed the investigators “access to the victim in a safe, stable environment” to bring the violator to justice, he said. Beloved Haven then arranged for the victim’s travel back to her home state to live with family.

Beloved Haven staff has also “worked tirelessly” to educate the local community, which often considered human trafficking “something that happened somewhere else,” DeWitt said.

Human trafficking involves subjecting people “by force, fraud or coercion into involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery,” according to the FBI website.

In sex trafficking, the person is induced to participate in commercial sex acts “by force, fraud or coercion,” or when they are under 18, according to the website.

“We are honored and humbled to have our work recognized in this very special way,” Pennington said.

Established in 1990, the award is presented each year “to someone in the community that best reflects the goals and vision of the FBI,” which are to “keep the American people safe, uphold the Constitution and stay ahead of the threat,” DeWitt said.

The award is presented to just one organization per FBI field office each year, according to Shelley Lynch, public information officer for the FBI’s Charlotte office.

North Carolina, like most states, has just one field office. All 56 recipients of this year’s award will receive the actual award in a ceremony held April 19 in FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to Lynch.

Pennington stressed the importance of partnering with and training law enforcement agencies “to assist survivors in a person-centered and trauma-informed approach.”

“Law enforcement is often the first point of contact with the legal system for victims and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking,” she said in prepared remarks.

“Identifying victims of human trafficking can be difficult since victims seldom self-report,” she continued. “In many cases, victims of human trafficking do not realize what is happening to them is in fact a crime.”

Many survivors “struggle with substance abuse and mental health disorders,” and traffickers often use these disorders to control them, she said. “Traffickers may force and require the victims to commit other crimes, such as theft and drug-related offenses.”

The next-closest organization to Beloved Haven in North Carolina serving human trafficking victims is in Greenville, according to Pennington.

“Human trafficking is a global problem and one of the world’s most shameful crimes,” Pennington said. “As we know, it’s a crime that is happening in plain sight, right here in our own backyards.”

Services survivors receive can directly impact whether they can participate in the criminal justice process to hold traffickers accountable, she added.

Both DeWitt and Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten in their respective remarks encouraged audience members to call local law enforcement if they think someone is being trafficked.

A survivor who wished to remain anonymous also spoke at the ceremony.

She shared that she had a troubled childhood and went into the foster care system at 12. At 15, when her mother had the opportunity to take her back home, her mother told the judge she didn’t want to.

The survivor recounted long years of feeling unwanted, unloved and alone.

A man sex trafficked her in the area for two years, starving her, beating her and forcing her to commit sex acts with men. Even after she broke free from him, she said she was “broken” and continued to “live the fast life” on her own at 24.

The survivor cried as she recounted meeting Pennington.

“God sent a woman who was literally the most purest, sweetest person I’ve ever met in my whole life,” she said. Still, it would be years until she decided to allow Beloved Haven’s help in making a major life change.

She has currently reached stability through a program staff helped her find, and she is working, pursuing her GED diploma and is with “the most amazing man who loves me for me.”

Several audience members, including Pennington, who stood beside the survivor as she spoke, wiped tears. The survivor received a standing ovation.

“This is why we do what we do,” Pennington said.