From the Deja Vu to the Freedom Center

How a former strip club in Spokane became the headquarters for one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading anti-trafficking organizations - and what it means for the future of Helping Captives.

The building on East Sprague Avenue has a long history.

It was built in 1938 as the Dishman Theater - a family-friendly movie house where people brought their kids on weekends. Over the decades it changed hands, changed purposes, and eventually in 1989 became Deja Vu Showgirls, one of the first locations of one of the largest strip club chains in the world.

For over thirty years it operated as a place of exploitation. Then in 2023 it closed. And in early 2024, Helping Captives purchased it.

The same building. A completely different purpose.

How It Started

It started with an email and a man paying attention.

Scott Kusel, a long-time supporter of Helping Captives, was driving home one night from a small group discipleship class - a class specifically focused on learning to hear the Holy Spirit. As he passed the Deja Vu on East Sprague, he noticed a for sale sign in the window.

He did not hear a booming voice. He did not see a burning bush. He just felt something and sent an email.

That email reached us at exactly the moment we had been praying and searching for a larger space. We needed room for outpatient services, 24-hour emergency stabilization care, counseling offices, and a headquarters that could grow with the work. We had women coming into our office in crisis - ready to get out of trafficking - and we did not have a facility to receive them.

At first we were not sure about the building. The history was heavy. But the more we prayed, the clearer it became. The location is on a bus line. It is recognizable and accessible. It has the space we need. And the symbolism was undeniable.

A place built for exploitation becoming a place built for healing.

We ultimately felt that we could honor God by turning this building from a place of exploitation into a place of restoration.

The Night Hundreds of Men Showed Up

Before any renovation had started, something remarkable happened.

The men of Bear Paw Bible Camp asked if they could hold a prayer service in the building. So one Saturday night, hundreds of men gathered inside the former Deja Vu Showgirls.

They brought a cross. They placed it on the stage. They worshipped. They prayed. They dedicated the building to God.

I stood in that room and told the crowd clearly: we were not there to hate on dancers. We were not there to condemn anyone. We were there because women who have been sex trafficked and forced into the sex industry deserve a place to call home - a place where they can finally find freedom.

That night became something I will never forget. Men who came ready to tear down a stronghold left with a vision for what God was about to build.

What the Building Is Becoming

Helping Captives is one of the only anti-trafficking organizations in the Spokane and Northern Idaho region offering 24-hour care for survivors. We get women right when they are coming out of the life - when they are most vulnerable, most in need of safety, and most open to the possibility that something could change.

The Freedom Center is being built to meet that moment.

When it is complete, the building will house emergency stabilization care, outpatient services, counseling and case management offices, and the full headquarters for Helping Captives. It will serve women in crisis not just from Spokane but from across the region.

We need $900,000 to pay off the building and the lot next door. The walls are coming down. The stages are gone. The signs have been removed. Every step of demolition is a step closer to what this place was always meant to become.

One Former Worker’s Words

When the Deja Vu sign came down, a woman named Dionne Varney was there. She had worked inside that building for fourteen years. She knew every corner of it. When she first heard it was being torn down, she was sick to her stomach.

But she came. She walked through the gutted interior. She pointed out the places where she had memories - good and bad. And then she said something that has stayed with me.

“I loved this place. I loved it. And I am going to love it even more for what it is going to become.” That is redemption. Not erasing the past. Transforming it into something that gives life to the very people the darkness tried to destroy.

How You Can Be Part of It

This project is not finished. We are still raising the funds to complete the Freedom Center and open its doors fully to survivors.

If you want to be part of what God is building on East Sprague Avenue - if you want to be one of the people who helped turn the Deja Vu into a freedom center - visit helpingcaptives.org to give, to partner, or to learn more.

The building is changing. Lives are about to change with it.