Tyler Perry to establish a shelter for "trafficked girls, boys, and battered women"

Tyler Perry recently created history when he became the first African American to independently own his own studio. The 50-year-old's brand new movie studio in Atlanta, Georgia, is bigger than Warner Bros, Paramount, and Walt Disney’s Hollywood lots combined and it's opening was just as fitting. The pioneering filmmaker, writer, and actor hosted a two-day, star-studded grand opening in which he dedicated sound stages to black celebrities who inspired him. While opening the studio alone is quite a huge achievement, Perry has bigger plans for the future.

Speaking to Variety, Perry opened up about his future goals. "We just finished Phase 1, which is the 12 sound stages. The second phase that we’re starting late next year is the six-lane highway, the backlot, the small little European town, a bigger lake and pond on it. So there’s so much more that I’m gonna do here," he said. Perry revealed that he strived to give back to society, saying, "I feel this tremendous sense of obligation for all the people who helped me get here. Ones I don’t know, ones I may never know… all the way back to the ancestors who prayed for one day a generation to be able to be in this position. So I’m humbled by it."

The celeb also revealed during an interview with ESSENCE that he has a project in mind to fulfill his wish of giving back. "You know what, right now I’m dreaming about how do I build this shelter for trafficked girls, boys, and battered women," he said. According to a report by PEOPLE, Perry had previously spoken to Gayle King on CBS This Morning about his dream, during which he revealed that he planned to incorporate the shelter into his brand new 330-acre film studio.

"Having a compound that is a beautiful place right here somewhere on this 330 acres, where they’re trained in the business and they become self-sufficient, they live in nice apartments, there’s daycare, there’s all of these wonderful things that allows them to re-enter society and then pay it forward again. That’s what I hope to do soon," he said. The cause is quite personal to the celeb as he himself suffered from sexual abuse as a child.

The actor recently opened up about how he went through years of turmoil after he was sexually molested by 3 different men and women by the time he'd turned 10. "I didn’t know what was going on or the far-reaching effects of it. I just moved through it. Go onto the next thing. ‘Boys don’t cry, shut up and move on," he said. Perry revealed that it took him a long time to come to terms with his childhood trauma. "Holding on to all of that, not knowing what to do with it, there was a lot of anger in my teenage years, in my 20s. A lot of anger, a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration trying to just be OK," he said.