It’s not every day that the public is invited to golf for the homeless. But the Servant’s Anonymous Society (SAS) is holding a fund raising tournament at the Tsawwassen Country Club on May 30 to help get sexually exploited women off the street.

Based in Surrey, SAS is is the only organization in Canada that offers an education in the hope of solving the problem of homelessness.

"When you give a woman an education, you change the life of a generation," said Mary Pichette, executive director of SAS, which offers a high school education, homes and drug addiction counseling. When they have their Grade 12 degree, it changes everything about how they view their life. It also makes them much more employable."

Thirty-five per cent of the women who come to SAS are second-generation homeless. As homelessness typically breeds homelessness, the idea is to get these women off the street while creating a legacy of hope to help their children.

"One young woman came through our door three times and on the third time, she got her Grade 12 degree," said Pichette.

Dressed in her graduation cap and gown, the woman walked on stage as her mother and son sat in the audience and watched. After the ceremony, the woman’s mother approached Pichette and asked if she could attend classes at the school because she never received her secondary education.

But more importantly, the child went to his mother and said, "I’m going to finish high school just like you,’" said Pichette.

SAS is also different from most homeless advocacy groups in that it offers safe housing for women for up to seven years.

"Most of them don’t even know what that means," said Pichette. "Second generation, or not, they have never stayed in one house for more than seven years — ever. They bounce around from school to school, foster house to foster house and family member to family member."

Each home, which houses eight women, has a full-time, live-in volunteer director instead of a rotating daily staff. This helps the women develop a sense of belonging and trust, Pichette explained.

"It literally removes the fear of homelessness from their lives," said Pichette. "Nobody has that kind of model."

As SAS only receives funding through private donations and gaming dollars for residential programs from Lottery B.C., the golf tournament seemed an ideal way to raise money for the school and generate interest in the organization.

The organization values its anonymity and protects its womens’ identities once they have graduated and are leading successful lives.

The chances for re-exploitation are high, explained Pichette.

"People do not celebrate young or old women who step up and share their stories because we don’t understand the nature of sexual exploitation," Pichette said. "It’s still considered the woman’s fault and the shame is still laid at her feet.

"People don’t celebrate with her accomplishments. They re-exploit her — it sells newspapers; it sells stories and people are only interested in the sexiness of it all."

Pichette says valuing anonymity is an added challenge, but one they refuse to surrender.

"It’s very easy to put somebody in the front of the room and have them tell their story and make money from that," she said. "But isn’t that exactly what prostitution is?"