Shared Hope International

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Announcing Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking; grades based on an advanced legislative framework. Coming Nov 18, 2020

Many of you have met Brianna… 

She was just 18 years old, a straight A student with dreams of becoming a nurse, when a trafficker made his move and began to groom her in preparation to sell her into the underworld of commercial sexual exploitation. Through the intervention of a high school friend and his father, the quick actions of a law enforcement officer, and Shared Hope founder and President Linda Smith, she was able to see that this friendship was not what it appeared to be. Her community recognized the red flags and prevented her exploitation.

Ten years later, Brianna continues to bravely tell her story, partnering with Shared Hope International to raise a voice of awareness so that other youth can be spared. Unfortunately, there are countless stories of children who suffer outcomes far less positive and end up falling victim to the evil in this world, with traffickers and buyers dragging them into the nightmare of commercial sex trafficking. The struggle of these survivors continues even after they leave their trafficking situation as many are often misidentified as criminals themselves, interfering with critical access to holistic care and services while the buyers suffer far fewer consequences.

Survivors like Zephi[1]… 

Zephi was a typical, happy, hard-working 16-year-old junior in high school when she met her trafficker. She was sociable, participating in community activities, including her church’s worship team, a select fastpitch softball league, and her high school drill team.

However, after an abusive boyfriend introduced her to drugs, her outlook and demeanor quickly changed due to the new emotional, mental, and physical challenges she now faced. She also would run away from home. As Zephi’s life continued to “spiral,” her community was unable to prevent what happened next.

In May of 2019, an adult acquaintance began grooming her for sex trafficking. Through use of coercive tactics such as drugs, violence, and death threats, Zephi’s trafficker forced her to participate in commercial sexual acts with other adults, resulting in her being repeatedly raped by buyers. This heinous cycle of commercial sexual exploitation ended after her trafficker killed one of the buyers. Because Zephi was present during the murder, however, she was arrested and charged alongside her trafficker for capital murder.

After enduring pain, suffering, and exploitation during her trafficking victimization, she is now being charged with a crime. How is this justice? Sympathizing with her situation is not enough; we must act.

We are committed to taking action until every survivor receives justice. Zephi’s case is another reason why Shared Hope’s work to change laws that bring justice and ensure protective responses to victims is so critically important. For the past decade, Shared Hope has graded states on their success in enacting fundamental laws to address child sex trafficking. The Protected Innocence Challenge project was our vision for mobilizing states to improve legislation that impacts the sex trafficking of minors. Ten years of grassroots mobilization, advocacy, technical assistance, and consistent collaboration has allowed this vision to largely become reality.

Now, we begin a new decade focused on achieving State Action. National Change. through the legislative changes that will result from guidance provided through Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking.  The advanced legislative framework for the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking will be officially released on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.

So what is the advanced framework for the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking? It builds on the Protected Innocence Challenge state report card projects, identifying 40 key points of law, grouped into six issue areas, necessary under state law to provide a protective response to child and youth survivors of sex trafficking. All states now have a child sex trafficking law, and most states have made significant progress in providing laws that protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable; collectively, the country has made significant progress in those policy goals. However, little has been done to address and fund specialized services for victims or to adequately address root causes, including demand.

The past decade has led to new research and opportunities to listen to survivors, bringing ever increasing clarity to laws and policies that must be in place to finally put an end to the sex trafficking of minors. Now is the time to raise the bar and challenge states to enact the policies encompassed in the advanced framework for the Report Cards, which will support the ability of survivors to access care, opportunities to heal, and protection against future harm. Now, we begin a new decade focused on achieving State Action. National Change. through the legislative changes that will result from guidance provided through Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking.

The advanced legislative framework for the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking will be officially released on Wednesday, November 18, 2020

In the meantime, please join us for the JuST LIVE! State Action. National Change webinar series, which will run throughout October free of charge for anyone who wants to learn more about how to effectively fight child and youth sex trafficking. The webinar series aligns with six issue areas that hang on an advanced legislative framework.

Issue Areas Include:

  1. Criminal Provisions: Clear criminal laws, including those that criminalize buyers of sex with children, are needed to ensure all sex trafficking offenders can be held accountable.
  2. Identification of and Response to Victims: State laws must identify all commercially sexually exploited children as victims of trafficking and provide for a protective, rather than punitive response.
  3. Continuum of Care: To break the cycle of exploitation, state laws must provide victims access to funded, trauma-informed services.
  4. Access to Justice for Trafficking Survivors: A range of civil and criminal justice remedies must be available for victims under the law.
  5. Tools for a Victim-Centered Criminal Justice Response: Criminal justice procedures for the benefit and protection of victims must be provided under the law.
  6. Prevention and Training: To help prevent trafficking and promote more just responses to child sex trafficking victims, training for child welfare, juvenile justice, law enforcement, prosecutors and school personnel, and prevention education for students, must be required by law.
Please participate in this important experience — and share the registration information on all your channels!

To stay up to date on this exciting project, sign up here to guarantee the advanced framework will be delivered directly to you the moment it is released on November 18th!

To support implementation of the advanced legislative framework for the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking, our Policy Team will remain available to provide rapid technical assistance to support legislators, advocates, and state agencies; technical assistance requests can be submitted here.

  1. DirectlyTo, Zephaniah Trevinos Defense Fund, https://go.sharedhope.org/e/234702/phaniah-trevinos-defense-fund-/k4d74/307424383?h=WZ-miPH5rhOSTaJQE4-OkhEy2Q4WePnS3vBQjdxJtdk(last visited Sept. 23, 2020).

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What 6,890 advocates can do

We are celebrating! Legislative sessions are wrapping up in states around the country and we have great news. Many of the bills you advocated for have passed:

  • Utah HB 20 comprehensively strengthens the state’s response to child sex trafficking.
  • Utah HB 108 strengthens the state’s existing non-criminalization laws to ensure that youth engaged in commercial sex cannot be arrested for prostitution but, instead are provided a protective, non-punitive response.
  • New Mexico HB 56 ensures minors engaged in commercial sex are treated as victims of sex trafficking, not offenders of prostitution.
  • Mississippi HB 571 comprehensively strengthens Mississippi’s existing child sex trafficking laws to ensure that all minors under 18 are immune from prosecution for prostitution charges, that child welfare is required to respond to and provide holistic care to child sex trafficking victims, and law enforcement, child protective services, 911 operators, and foster care parents to receive training on child sex trafficking.
  • Washington SB 5885 will create critical courtroom protections for child survivors by by permitting the child’s out-of-court statements as evidence in prosecutions of their perpetrators.
  • Georgia SB 158 prohibits minors from being criminalized for prostitution offenses and directs commercially sexually exploited youth to specialized services.
  • Montana HB 549 strengthens existing protections for youth survivors of sex trafficking by creating access to specialized services for survivors, including protective shelter, food, clothing, medical care, counseling, and crisis intervention services.
Since November, 6,890 of you have taken action by signing a petition or contacting your legislators. Collectively you made 5,927 connections with state and federal legislators around the country; our states with the most advocates were Washington, Texas, California, Florida, and Tennessee!

We are so encouraged by your engagement in helping us to advocate for these laws! 

But not all state sessions are over, and there’s still work to be done! Visit our Advocacy Action Center to see how you can be involved. Together we are making a difference, helping to ensure that when a victim of child sex trafficking is identified our systems respond with compassion and justice.

Want to support our advocacy work?

Right now, your giving impact would be doubled with our $100,000 Matching Challenge for the Shared Hope institute for Justice and Advocacy. Our new location, just two blocks from the White House, will enable us to work closely with U.S. government agencies on the front lines. From the Institute:

  1. We will dramatically expand our work,
  2. We will increase our influence in the halls of power, and
  3. Fight more effectively than ever against the scourge of child sex trafficking.

Your critical support will help Shared Hope take a huge step for our justice and advocacy work and our fight against child sex trafficking.

DONATE

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How to Tweet Your Legislator

On November 16 we released the 2018 Protected Innocence Challenge State Grades. This year, with our new tools, you can be a grassroots hero by sharing your state grade with your legislator! Click the Take Action button to visit our new Advocacy Action Center to tweet your legislator.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you also have the opportunity to share the campaign on Facebook to encourage your friends with twitter to tweet their legislator.

We’ve made a quick clip to show you how quick and easy it is to take action!

Here are the steps:

  1. Visit the Advocacy Action Center and select your state’s grade.
  2. Fill in your name, address and information.
  3. Send out the pre-written tweet that will automatically go out to your state legislators. (Note: you will have to authorize our system to post to your twitter the very first time you do this).

Thank you to all of you who have already taken action! It’s makes a difference when legislators hear directly from those who elected them. Thank you for being activists and using your voice!

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Bipartisan Grassroots Advocacy Drives Change to End Child Sex Trafficking

PRESS RELEASE

On the heels of a divisive mid-term election, a new report released today by Shared Hope International reveals an encouraging bi-partisan trend: individuals are coming together to fight child sex trafficking.  Shared Hope’s annual Protected Innocence Challenge State Grades analyzes state laws to protect juvenile sex trafficking survivors and hold buyers and traffickers accountable. Through 8 years of empowering grassroots action, Shared Hope is leading a movement and has changed the map from 26 states with F grades in 2011, to 35 states with A and B grades in 2018.  Across the nation, Shared Hope’s advocacy tools provide a bridge for anyone to reach out to their elected officials and effect change.

Nonprofit Partnership in South Dakota Leads to Groundbreaking Law

In 2017, South Dakota passed a groundbreaking law to ensure survivors of sex trafficking, ages 15 and under, are protected from criminalization.  This effort began two years ago when Becky Rassmussen, Executive Director of Call to Freedom, an awareness-raising and survivor-serving organization, recognized the important perspective she could bring to the legislative process. Seeking to address South Dakota’s D grade, Becky reached out to Shared Hope for technical assistance, and together with local partners, three critical pieces of legislation were passed strengthening the state’s response to child sex trafficking.

“Shared Hope is a valuable asset to what we are doing here in South Dakota,” said Becky Rassmuseen. “We are extremely grateful for their ability to create awareness and help us in our research of what other States have done successfully and how we can make our legislation more effective.”

State Grades Empower Lawyer and Law Enforcement Officer to Change Tennessee Law

Towards the east in Tennessee, another passionate individual became aware of the scourge of child sex trafficking in his state and committed to fight it through the rule of law. Ryan Dalton, a Tennessee attorney, who was already working to combat humanitarian violations in Sudan as a law student, learned about Shared Hope’s state report cards from a friend. Having seen firsthand through his advocacy work how state laws could both help and harm survivors, he started studying how to address the gaps in Tennessee’s laws. Ryan’s desire to improve Tennessee’s laws eventually led him to connect with Margie Quin, who at the time was Special Agent in Charge at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). Leaning on Shared Hope’s analysis of Tennessee’s laws, Ryan, Margie, and a coalition of lawmakers and advocates succeeded in strengthening Tennessee’s laws over the next 8 years.

“Tennessee benefited from a bi-partisan activist General Assembly and a combination of state and nonprofit leaders to craft a comprehensive strategy,” said Margie Quinn. “Shared Hope’s Protected Innocence Challenge framework provided the roadmap, all we had to do is find the will to effect change.”

Today Tennessee has an A grade and the highest score in the nation. But that hasn’t stopped these committed Tennesseans from working to improve their state’s laws.

“When Margie and I first began to advance new laws to fight human trafficking, Tennessee was a safe place for traffickers and buyers, yet a dangerous place for victims,” remembered Ryan Dalton. “Today, thanks to a hard-working coalition of devoted advocates and Shared Hope’s Protected Innocence Challenge, our state is a dangerous place for traffickers and buyers, and a safe place for victims. Though we have come far, our effort to build a slave-free Tennessee remains unrelenting.”

New Jersey Community Activist Reaches out to Lawmaker

Back in 2012, Karen Fenkhart, active community member and New Jersey resident, was holding a presentation on preventing sex trafficking. She reached out to her local Assemblyman Ron Dancer to attend.  While he was not able to make it, he was curious to learn more. Karen, a volunteer with Shared Hope, contacted the policy team and connected them to Dancer. That connection lead to a multi-year effort by Asm. Dancer sponsoring and co-sponsoring critical pieces of legislation related to child sex trafficking. Because of Karen’s outreach to her elected official, Asm. Danser remains a steadfast champion for juvenile sex trafficking survivors.

In a divided time, Becky, Karen, Ryan and Margie are heroes of grassroots activism, and the tools of the Protected Innocence Challenge State Grades lay the framework for all people to work together and spark change in their state.

“2019 is our opportunity to send a message that we as a nation stand together with survivors of child sex trafficking,” encouraged Linda Smith, Shared Hope International Founder and President. “There’s still work to do, and while many issues are dividing us, this problem is bringing both sides of the aisle together.  We must continue to take action in every state and work together to protect children.”

Shared Hope International’s advocacy tools, from tweeting your legislator to in-depth legal analysis, empower individuals from all backgrounds to join the anti-trafficking movement and fight to end child sex trafficking.

The official release presentation of this year’s grades will take place at the National Foundation of Women Legislators Annual Conference via Facebook Livestream on Friday, November 16 at 12:45 ET.

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Nonprofit Partnership in South Dakota Leads to Groundbreaking Law

In 2017, South Dakota passed a groundbreaking law to ensure survivors of sex trafficking, ages 16 and under, are protected from criminalization.  This effort began two years ago when Becky Rassmussen, Executive Director of Call to Freedom, an awareness-raising and survivor-serving organization, recognized the important perspective she could bring to the legislative process. Seeking to address South Dakota’s D grade, Becky reached out to Shared Hope for technical assistance, and together with local partners, three critical pieces of legislation were passed strengthening the state’s response to child sex trafficking.

Read our interview of Becky Rassmussen, one of our grassroots heroes!  You can become a grassroots hero by taking action to tweet your state’s grade to your elected official. Take action here!

Can you provide a brief background on your role as an anti-sex trafficking advocate?

As Executive Director of Call to Freedom of South Dakota, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most amazing people that are dedicated to helping survivors of Human Sex Trafficking. We strive to cultivate relationships and link arms with others who are dedicated to helping create a cohesive community model of care and support for victims, bringing communities together while educating and legislating to stop human trafficking.

…and what sparked the genesis of Call to Freedom?

Call to Freedom was birthed out of love and deep concern to affect real change starting here at home. Like many of us, I have encountered countless individuals who needed a lot of support if they were going to be successful in transitioning out of this nightmare.

Navigating a healthy path for victims of human trafficking is not just a clever motto on our website, but has become our creed. We take it to heart every single day, knowing this atrocity is very real and happening in our own backyard. We take comfort and remain motivated in knowing we really can do something about it, if we all work together.

As an advocate, I am inspired everyday by working directly with those who have been victimized and with all the individuals who authentically love and serve those in need. I become an advocate because of the inspiring unsung heroes who showed me the overwhelming need to help and empower survivors so they could know and believe they have a voice, a choice and that they really do matter.

What drove you to seek change in this area?

For me, it really hit home at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in SD, with over a half a million people in attendance over a period of 10 days. I was shocked how many gaps in services there were within the United States for those who were coming out of human trafficking. 3,287 individuals are pulled into human trafficking on a daily basis and there were less than 300 beds designated for women trapped in human trafficking and only a handful for boys at the time. Trafficking victims were falling through the cracks and they weren’t getting the help and support they needed to be successful in transitioning out.

What approach have you taken? On a grassroots level, how have you mobilized fellow stakeholders to develop an agenda that seeks improvements in both policy and practice?

We first focused our efforts on the local level, working with law enforcement, creating open dialogue and building relationship so we could all ask the right and difficult questions. We had to find healthier ways to work together that would accomplish each of our individual missions and at the same time help avoid re-victimizing those in transition in the process.

What does grassroots collaboration look like for you?

Unfortunately, we soon discovered there were lots of different legislation gaps – in services, responses, screening questions, etc. that had not yet been implemented in the State of South Dakota.

Our response was to begin holding weekly luncheons and talk to people about what we were experiencing, first hand, here in South Dakota. We began to ask for input, feedback and ideas, empowering them to stand in the gap with us and become part of the solution.

Over time we earned the trust of most of our community leaders both locally and across the state. We were consistent in education and opportunities that helped build up the community and empowered everyone who wanted to know how to become proactive.

It wasn’t long before more and more community leaders and legislators began responding to the call. Soon individuals like State Representative Tom Holmes and Senator Jack Kolbeck were willing to carry three important pieces of legislation that unanimously went through the House and Senate, and have since been successfully integrated into South Dakota law and are now making a real difference.

Since then, many have stepped up to fill in the void. Legislators have supported our efforts. Law Enforcement, US Attorney’s office, and all those who are involved in prosecuting and supporting victims, have tirelessly worked together for the greater good. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we don’t care who gets the credit.

We all continue to work together to create and refine laws that protect survivors and will ultimately send a clear message to the traffickers and Johns… “Stay out of South Dakota or suffer the consequences.”

How have the Shared Hope Protected Innocence Challenge tools (report cards and related materials) influenced or empowered your efforts?

Shared Hope is a valuable asset to what we are doing here in South Dakota. We are extremely grateful for their ability to create awareness and help us in our research of what other States have done successfully and how we can make our legislation more effective. They have been an invaluable partner, helping us to get the most out of our collaboration with our States’ Attorney and Attorney General’s office and helping us find the right words for our legislation in South Dakota.

What, in your mind, are the most notable legal and practical achievements that are a result of your advocacy and collaborative efforts?

We are now in the process of developing and strengthening a task force, which brings everyone to the table for the first time with a single focus; to work together and end human trafficking in South Dakota.

The support now from law enforcement on a state and federal level and many other service providers is so encouraging. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and filled with hope to see how many communities have responded. Everyone is eager to learn all they can about human trafficking so we can best incorporate protocols, procedures and responses within our own communities.

We have successfully worked together to change and strengthen legislation in South Dakota, create public awareness, effectively support and protect survivors, change the public view about victims and their unimaginable plight and successfully help survivors find the support they need to start over.

We continue to learn everyday how we can best work together in this process, promoting collaboration and unity so we might become a braided cord and effective advocates. If we stand together, each of us doing what we can, we will accomplish our mission and erase human trafficking… one community at a time.

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