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Home>Archives for Guest

May 18, 2020 by Guest

One Small Business Type We Should Let Die

Guest Author: Tomas Perez, Founder & CEO of The EPIK Project 

I’m a coffee snob. Living and working near Portland, Oregon it’s delightfully easy to become one. Sadly, many small businesses like local coffee shops are facing extinction in the face of COVID-19. Thankfully, communities across the country are acutely aware of the threat to their favorite local small business and are doing all they can to support them these days. And the federal government is doing its part by directing enormous amounts of money to the same end.  

 But there’s one small business in America we should let die during this pandemic. For far too long Illicit Massage Businesses or “IMB’s” have hidden in plain sight. These shady storefronts provide cover for trafficking networks and account for a growing segment of the commercial sex industry. These so-called small businesses are directly related to the exploitation of vulnerable women. They’re brick-and-mortar businesses that exist behind a thin veneer of legitimacy. They advertise therapeutic massage services, but often deliver coerced sex acts from disenfranchised, and often captive women to wealthy and powerful men who navigate this black market with impunity. The Polaris Project has identified over 9000 of these “small businesses” from coast to coast. They appear in all sorts of retail locations, generate millions in illicit profit and are often linked to trans-national organized crime. But they operate like most other small businesses, and therein lies a unique opportunity; they pay rent, incur business expenses like marketing, payroll, and transportation. They bank and have to manage employees. Shared Hope International has long held firm the position that any commercial sexual activity by minors is, by definition, domestic minor sex trafficking. Their work has resulted in significant changes in legislation to bring justice for the victims of sex trafficking, educational tools to help prevent trafficking, and working with domestic and international partners to bring restoration. Thoughtful, coordinated efforts to combat IMB exploitation is consistent with the standard set by Shared Hope.  

 Heyrick Research, a Virginia based firm recently noted that current market conditions have 

“…severely compromised the financial standing of illicit massage businesses (IMBs) across the country. Once considered a low-risk, highly profitable criminal enterprise, we assess nearly all IMBs will likely be approaching complete insolvency should the pandemic and near-zero buyer demand persist for five more months with many approaching insolvency much sooner.”

 Their assessment paints a bleak picture for an exploitative industry that’s thrived for far too long.  Even before COVID-19, communities like South Florida, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Dallas and others have been developing multiple policies and strategies that make it difficult for IMB’s to thrive.  

 The ugly reality of COVID-19 has provided concerned communities with an unlikely opportunity to eradicate this illicit business.  Clearly “non-essential” businesses, IMB’s have been forced to lock their doors while customers are sheltered in place. A few IMB’s have the liquidity to weather this temporary situation, but most operate on thinner margins and won’t have the resources to survive. While all this is in play, now is the time to educate yourself and your local leaders on IMB’s. Consider policies like coordinating with local law enforcement to inform landlords of possible illicit activities at IMB’s on their properties and requesting their assistance in terminating leases. Encourage political leaders to protect the massage industry (a legitimate health care business) by establishing health codes for businesses offering any kind of massage-related services. Or investigate requests for SBA/COVID-19 relief funding from IMB’s. Yes. Some IMB’s may be trying to get federal money to continue their exploitative businesses! Encourage your legislators to help ensure critical pandemic resources are directed to support the victims trapped in IMB’s, and not used to prop up these harmful businesses.  

IMB’s as a profitable exploitative business model is on the ropes. But the demand for commercial sex is a virus of its own; it adapts, shifts and spreads in unpredictable ways. While the demand that drives IMB’s has dried up, our work at EPIK and that of our partners at The Avery Center reveals that other forms of commercial sex continue to thrive. Online markets like webcamming and street prostitution continue to place vulnerable kids and young people in harm’s way. While there’s so much we can’t do right now to slow the overall spread of sex trafficking in America, perhaps we can use the unlikely momentum of COVID-19 to ensure that when our communities come back to life, IMB’s won’t.  

 

April 3, 2020 by Guest

Space, Time, and the Covid-19 Continuum: Effects on the Exploited

By Kathy Bryan

This pandemic that has turned our world upside down is having particular impact on vulnerable and at-risk populations.  As the Director of Elevate Academy, I work with a client base of over 600 trafficking survivors. We are receiving daily, desperate communications with the most prevalent issue being significant financial problems due to loss of work without pay either because of child care/school closings and/or their employer closing. Several clients have the virus and there are those who have lost a family member to Covid-19.  Additionally, the emotional toll is quite high as confinement is very triggering for survivors of sex trafficking.

Even survivors of human trafficking who have been out for several years are seriously impacted. Many are single moms already struggling to get by on incredibly tight budgets while negotiating the intense healing still needed after years of abuse and trauma. Those challenges are more magnified by the unfortunate fact that they are often saddled with criminal records which prevent them from receiving government financial assistance. Those crimes, in so many cases, are acts they were  forced to engage in by their traffickers. Add this pandemic to the mix, and their current circumstances are beyond grim.

The financial strain results in a high risk of recidivism due to incredible pressure to meet even the most basic needs. Survivors already have beaten the odds by enduring the most horrific experiences; to think that circumstances might force them to sell sex to survive is heartbreaking. The health risks to trafficking victims and those who might in desperation consider selling sex for survival are exponentially high right now.  “Shelter in place” is not adhered to by sex buyers, nor do traffickers/pimps choose to give time off…trust me when I say, as a survivor myself, there are NO days off.  In fact, in times of crisis, it is the norm for exploiters to tighten their grip on those they abuse, and to bring more people into their folds.

Human trafficking is a deplorable crime, but it is also a business and thrives during times of crisis by adapting quickly to opportunities the crisis presents. For example, with schools and daycares closed, parents are forced to work from home while keeping their kids home OR entrusting them to themselves during work hours. Ultimately this tends to mean an increase in screen time with less supervision as parents attempt to juggle employment requirements while being full-time caregivers. This is a BONUS for traffickers as they have increasingly been recruiting their victims online. Factor in the isolation that comes from being out of school, yet sequestered from society, and children are hungrier than usual for companionship and guidance that exploiters are all too happy to provide.

Another nefarious business, Pornhub, has quickly jumped at the opportunity to bolster business. Guising themselves as benefactors, they are ‘graciously’ giving 50,000 masks to emergency workers, and ‘benevolently’ providing free access to their online porn services. Disguising it as charity, they are luring captive audiences pining for entertainment with free content, knowing the “gift” will increase their subscriber base. There is a direct correlation between the purchase of sex and viewing of pornography. While not everyone who consumes pornography buys sex, those being bought for sex will tell you the buyers all watch porn.

As businesses are shuttered due to Covid-19, traffickers are taking advantage of new ways to increase the flow of cash. So, in addition to meeting the demand of sex buyers, some victims are forced to take on-demand jobs like Uber or Instacart. Strip clubs are morphing their services too, requiring their workers to begin delivering food with an accompanying striptease, doing drive-thru no-touch lap dances, etc., and demand for cam services is also on the rise.

Why am I sharing all this?

It is absolutely crucial that we provide both financial and emotional support to victims and survivors, now.  Helping them cover basic needs like groceries and rent will go a long way to helping them weather this storm safely while continuing the important work of healing and maintaining their freedom.  Healthy and healed survivors are the leaders who are vital to the work of helping others find a way out!

In the midst of this crisis, I am incredibly grateful to Shared Hope International. They have pledged to provide financial relief to the extent possible to the desperate women and youth through partners in their scope of care.  If you are a survivor in need of assistance, please reach out to Shared Hope via savelives@sharedhope.org.

And if you are able to help…if keeping survivors of sex trafficking free and standing on their own feet is important to you, please make a donation to Shared Hope, designating the survivor benevolence fund! Let’s help protect their hard-won freedom. Let’s prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from taking extraneous victims along with it.

March 31, 2020 by Guest

Renting Lacy Reveals Reality: A Student’s Perspective

I was assignment to read ​Renting Lacy​ for a class on human trafficking at my university. Renting Lacy​ was a required book for the course. Though it was a quick read, it was notably substantive.

Renting Lacy is a fictional, yet reality-based story founded upon the biographies of the unfortunate lives that are involved in the child sex trafficking network in the United States.

The novel depicts a story of an underage girl and her co-workers who are trapped in a sex trafficking ring in Las Vegas. Lacy has been a victim of sex trafficking from a very young age and has been loyal to her trafficker, Bobby Bad, for many years now. She manages and cares for the other girls, Star, Sugar, Cherry, Brandi, and KiKi, who are stuck in her same situation. The book explains how Bobby grooms vulnerable girls by using love, affection, and gifts. Once they are hooked on him and the drugs he supplies, he detracts, leaving them wanting more. This is when he knows they will do anything for him, something even as dehumanizing as selling sex for money. Yet, they all feel a sense of loyalty and even fear towards him.

The mental torment, deceit, and violation the girls endure has left an immeasurable impact on me. Even more so, knowing that even though the book is a compilation of replicated accounts, these intertwining stories are consistent with the real life experiences of individuals manipulated into sex trafficking.

A unique aspect of ​Renting Lacy ​ is the comprehensive approach to defining, analyzing, and understanding the dynamics of a trafficking situation. Not only is the story told through the dialogue of traffickers and the targeted girls themselves, but of police officers, judges, family members, buyers, and sellers that are included as well. This is illuminating because there is so much value in the awareness of multiple perspectives in regards to the study of sex trafficking.

This book is raw, explicit and devastating, but it tells a strong story that is a solemn reminder of the vulnerabilities of our youth. It is a story that needed to be told to really grasp the interconnectedness and intersectional issues that are presented on this topic. The interwoven events of being trafficked and also being forced to engage in the victimization of others results in compounded trauma. For many of the girls in the book, the victim-offender intersections of their experiences makes the girls’ situation that much more complex. This leads them to be identified as criminal, rather than victim. Shared Hope released a report on this very issue in January that you can read here.

I am glad I got the opportunity to cross paths with ​Renting Lacy​ and take from it the knowledge and awareness of an issue that is happening all around us. It forced me to take a hard look at the world around me, instead of brushing off this topic as ‘someone else’s issue’. It is all of our problems and we are all part of the solution. This is an important book for future students to read, as well, because is motivates a discussion of the reality of sex trafficking. ​Renting Lacy is a humbling book that has the ability to spark initiative.

February 8, 2020 by Guest

You Don’t Always Get to See the Seed Sprout

By Butch and Jean Fitzpatrick

As Ambassadors of Hope, we spend time proactively communicating, giving out resources, sharing about DMST and the work of Shared Hope International,  and make ourselves available for prevention and awareness but we don’t always get to see the seeds we plant sprout into action.

In September 2018 we spent time in Upper MI, responding to the urgent needs of an 18 year old survivor and seeking police rescue, health care, and legal support.  That day we visited different government and health service organizations as well as law enforcement. Sharing what we do, explaining the situation and the need, and giving SHI resources.  As part of that day we visited with the MI State Police post in Wakefield, MI. As we talked to the duty officer, giving him a number of resources (which we always have with us), we explained how we use the “Chosen” film in our prevention/awareness presentations. The officer was very interested and said MI had a Human Trafficking Liaison officer and he would make sure to give him the information. We hoped he would.

With Shared Hope’s support, we had communicated with the State and sent them info on what tools were available to possibly meet their certification requirements for dentists. It required multiple follow up phone calls to different State Offices giving them information on the i:Care materials that had just been released.

In a circuitous way, during an annual check-up at the dentist, our hygienist  told us that she had attended a “packed” community prevention/awareness event in Wakefield hosted by the MI State Police and they used “Chosen” as part of their presentation.  Our hygienist said that attending this presentation met the requirement for her, where dental staff need HT awareness training for license or re-license in the state of MI.

It was so rewarding to hear that the State Police had picked up on what SHI had given them and are now using it to help educate citizens as well as professionals.

Just had to share this good news.

Butch

 

Learn more about our Ambassador of Hope program today, including how you can become our newest Ambassador!

January 6, 2020 by Guest

Hope for a New Life in the New Year

Terry’s House, a partnership between Shared Hope and The Coffee Oasis, is a transitional living home for young women who have survived sexual exploitation and seek a supportive path to self sufficiency.  There is room for you or your client with us!

Hope for a New Life in the New Year

She is calling. Hope is responding.  Hope starts with putting the caller at ease and letting her know our conversation is confidential, safe and she is not alone. After a quick overview of the program it’s my opportunity to let her know how I know Hope is Real – I too am a survivor. 

Terry’s House is a safe home in a quiet area in Kitsap County, Washington for young women seeking refuge from sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. We are survivor led, trauma informed and relationship focused. 

Her first experience upon arrival is the peaceful and welcoming atmosphere of the home with overflowing bags and cups filled with spa-like items such as blankets, fuzzy socks and goodies. However a young lady may have made it here – we know the journey has been long and the adjustment will take time. This is why the first week at Terry’s House is called Rest Week.  

From that initial foundation we work alongside residents to develop long-term crisis interventions and  stabilization plans. Survivors of chronic and/or complex trauma have a multitude of diverse needs. We partner and collaborate with law enforcement, medical and mental health providers, attorneys, and recovery centers. These are just a few of the partners we work with in addressing and assessing an individual’s needs. Some examples of our therapeutic program include equine therapy, art expression, one on one case management and an evidence based curriculum grounded in mindfulness. 

Our favorite part of walking alongside these brave and resilient young women is helping them identify their strengths, gifts, dreams and what they are passionate about– what makes them feel connected and excited about life. Terry’s House is the perfect space to meet them where they are in this process while they explore new ideas and options. We love to celebrate, watch them bloom and grow. Ultimately survivors know best what they need to thrive. From my personal and professional experience –  a safe space to heal with time and community support is key to empowering survivors to greater independence. 

All across the country there are young women who need the love and long term support we provide.  Terry’s House has space both in our home and in our hearts to effectively accompany survivors on their healing journey.  

 Do you know someone who needs the real hope we offer?  Read more and apply here.

 “Terry’s House has helped me in a various amount of ways. I am always surrounded with positivity and genuine support from staff and volunteers. I am learning coping skills, how to improve myself, and fun things too. Thanks to Terry’s House I am excited for the future and all the possibilities! “ – Terry’s House Resident Quote 

raquel.piscopo@thecoffeeoasis.com

 

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