How we got started…
It all began one evening in 1980 when Frank Barnaba met a young woman in a diner in New Haven, CT. Returning from a business trip, he stopped during a snow storm for a cup of coffee. He spotted a young woman sitting in a booth. She was crying. Hoping to be of assistance, Frank walked over to her booth and asked what was wrong. Instead of a broken date, a flat tire or some other common dilemma, Frank heard a story that was to change the course of his life.
This young woman, barely 19, had been recruited into prostitution by a fast talking, smooth operator who wooed her and her family into believing that he wanted only the best for her. This “boyfriend” then introduced her to drugs and consequently was able to get her into prostitution. Ultimately, with the help of Frank and other volunteers, she decided to leave the streets. Unfortunately, against the advise of those helping her, she told her pimp she was leaving and was going to make sure that this did not happen to other unsuspecting girls. She died of a questionable drug overdose before this could be accomplished. Her name was Lisa…
Her shattered life and untimely death motivated Frank and a small group of volunteers to begin to search for the answers to their many questions. With seed money from Saint Paul’s Church in Westbrook, CT a small group of volunteers traveled to New York to begin their quest for knowledge and truth and the Paul & Lisa Program was born.
