Growing up, Kim Flynn was told she was just like her mother—something that was not meant as a compliment.
“I grew up hearing all kinds of horrible things about myself. I was just like my mother. I looked just like her, I acted just like her, and they were all in a negative way,” Flynn says.
She says she believed untruths about her worth and identity from an early age, which led her into years of struggling with addiction and mental health issues, spiraling until she became a victim of human trafficking.
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It was a time when resources were limited and when Flynn says she didn’t have the mental health support she needed. This was true even after she participated in a 12-step program and became sober. “There was no trauma counseling, no mental health help, back then, you know, so there wasn’t any kind of intervention,” she says.
It was when she started becoming immersed in education, through both training and YouTube videos, that the puzzle pieces of her past started to connect.
Now, Flynn is the founder and executive director of Overcomers on the Move, a nonprofit that specializes in recovery housing and peer support to empower individuals trying to heal from mental health challenges, substance use disorder and human trafficking.
She notes that the name Overcomers on the Move has profound meaning for her, as she believes in using more empowering language for victims of abuse and human trafficking. This led her to emphasize the mentality of actively overcoming rather than simply surviving.
Founded in 2017 as a faith-based recovery community organization, Overcomers on the Move gained its nonprofit status in May of 2020. Its first event was held a month later, as the group passed out water, hot dogs and clothing to people in the Hilltop neighborhood. It was June 15, the birthday of Flynn’s late mother, Victoria Flynn. Today, Flynn’s mom is her hero for the strength, spunk and spirit of overcoming she represents.
From there, Flynn started a housing program and a certified peer recovery supporter internship program. Her interest in certification was sparked by Maria Busch, the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s former anti-trafficking coordinator and the manager of the Governor’s Human Trafficking Task Force. (The task force was launched by former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in 2012 and expanded by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2021.)
Flynn served as a survivor advocate to the task force through the department’s Survivor Advisory Council, where she led trainings on identifying and serving survivors of human trafficking. Busch and Flynn became friends and colleagues in outreach work to women in Ohio prisons, with Busch’s office in a “cheerleading” role alongside Flynn’s journey to launching Overcomers, Busch says.
“There are certain things that only Kim can do, and I see that when I go to outreach events. I see the way that people light up when they talk to her. I see the way that their walls kind of just come down,” Busch says.
“It’s really powerful.”
This article was made possible by support from the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation, which has partnered with Columbus Monthly to profile those making our community a better place. Help us inspire kindness by suggesting people, initiatives, or organizations for Reporter Sophia Veneziano to profile. She can be reached at sveneziano@dispatch.com. Learn more at Dispatch.com/Kindness.
This story appeared in the June 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly. Subscribe here.
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: Overcomers on the Move is Empowering People to Change Their Lives
Reporting by Sophia Veneziano, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
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