#53: A New Grip BJJ Co-founders Christina Lea Houck and Samantha Glenn: Using BJJ to Help Empower Survivors of Human Trafficking
Samantha is a full time police officer for St. Louis County Police Department and the new title she is about to add (due March 28th, 2022) is a Mom! She has been training Jiu-Jitsu for roughly 9 years. She majored in Criminology and Criminal Justice in college, and focused heavily on Human Trafficking trends while attending.
Christina is an accomplished BJJ, fitness and nutrition coach. After graduation Christina was introduced to and fell in love with MMA and more specifically Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Three years into her BJJ training she earned her Purple belt and was given the opportunity to teach BJJ for a company called PalmsSports in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She taught at the all-girls school, Al Erteqaā€™a School. In the short amount of time she was there she had won 3 consecutive UAE Jiu-Jitsu World Pro Championship coach titles. She has since returned to the states and opened up a BJJ school, RNACFBJJ Team, with 4x BJJ World Champion and partner Rene Nazare-Azevedo. This is where she can pass on her passion and knowledge of BJJ to others. Christina believes in the power BJJ has when it comes to being therapeutic and healing. It has helped her through her past traumas and because has seen firsthand how it has helped and benefitted her she has partnered with Samantha Glenn to create A New Grip, INC.
Together they use BJJ as a therapeutic way to help human/sex trafficked survivors and sexually exploited individuals take back their lives and start fresh. Georgia, Samantha and Christina discuss:
- The impact of the pandemic on human trafficking
- What you can do as a parent to protect your children
- The New Grip program and how it started
- Next steps for A New Grip and how you can get involved!
You can learn more and get involved by following the girls and the program on instagram @anewgripbjj
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Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified female survivors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga
