Press Releases Archives - Shared Hope International

November 25, 2024 by Leif Larson

Shared Hope International Supports Nomination of Pam Bondi as United States Attorney General

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release

For more information, contact:
Leif Larson
Director of Communications and PR, Shared Hope International (Washington, D.C., office)
leif@sharedhope.org
202-421-3708

Shared Hope International Supports Nomination of Pam Bondi as United States Attorney General

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shared Hope International, a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking, enthusiastically supports the nomination of Pam Bondi as United States Attorney General. Bondi, the former Attorney General of Florida, has a proven track record in tackling criminal cases and advocating for policy changes to combat sex trafficking.

Linda Smith, Founder of Shared Hope International and a former member of Congress, expressed her support for Bondi’s nomination, stating, “The nomination of Pam Bondi is exactly what this country needs as we take the fight to those who traffic humans, whether in the sex or labor. We look forward to her confirmation and are confident she will bring her knowledge and experience combatting human trafficking to support the critical work of the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Bondi’s extensive experience in law enforcement and her dedication to combating human trafficking make her an ideal candidate for the position of United States Attorney General. Throughout her tenure as Florida’s Attorney General, Bondi demonstrated a strong commitment to seeking justice for victims of human trafficking.

Shared Hope International has previously collaborated with Attorney General Bondi’s office on several anti-trafficking events. Shared Hope International has provided detailed information at the request of the Florida State Resources Committee, which was developed to address the specific response mechanisms available in Florida for victims of sex trafficking.

Shared Hope International supports Bondi’s unwavering determination and passion in the fight against this heinous crime.

As United States Attorney General, Bondi will have the opportunity to further advance the fight against human trafficking on a national scale.

Shared Hope International urges the Senate to swiftly confirm Pam Bondi as the United States Attorney General, recognizing her exceptional qualifications and unwavering commitment to combating human trafficking.

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About Shared Hope International 
Founded in 1998 by then-U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith, Shared Hope International is a national nonprofit organization with a threefold mission to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking: prevent sex trafficking through training, awareness and collaboration; restore survivors of sex trafficking, and bring justice through legislative and policy solutions. Shared Hope engages in diverse training, intervention, and legislative activities that confront sex trafficking in communities throughout the U.S.  

November 14, 2024 by Leif Larson

No Senate Confirmation Until House Ethics Committee Report Clears AG Nominee Matt Gaetz of Sex Trafficking Allegations

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release

For more information, contact:
Leif Larson
Director of Communications and PR, Shared Hope International (Washington, D.C., office)
leif@sharedhope.org
202-421-3708

No Senate Confirmation Until House Ethics Committee Report Clears AG Nominee Matt Gaetz of Sex Trafficking Allegations

Washington, D.C. – The recent nomination of former Congressman Matt Gaetz for the position of Attorney General has sparked concern among those working to combat sex trafficking in the U.S. Gaetz has been dogged by allegations of sex trafficking and has resigned under the cloud of a House Ethics Committee investigation just days before a report was to issue.

“The office of Attorney General requires the highest ethical conduct and public trust,” said Linda Smith, founder and CEO of the leading anti-sex trafficking nonprofit Shared Hope International. “We urge Congressman Gaetz to put the allegations of sex trafficking to rest before appearing before the Senate Confirmation Committee.”

The U.S. Senate has been a champion of legislation to prevent sex trafficking, protect the victims, and prosecute sex trafficking offenders. U.S. law defines sex trafficking in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 U.S.C. § 7102(11)(A)). The U.S. Senate has doggedly pursued legislation that has reached into areas from the banking sector to the Internet.

Linda Smith warns, “Congressman Gaetz should welcome the release of the House Ethics Committee Report as he will face a serious and knowledgeable committee of Senators in the confirmation hearing who will surely pursue honest answers.” This nomination occurs at a time when numerous high-profile cases of sex trafficking are about to start, most notably the criminal case against Sean “P Diddy” Combs.

The U.S. Department of Justice is the leading agency combatting sex trafficking through the enforcement of federal laws as well as programs across the nation strengthening law enforcement and civil society responses to victims and survivors of sex trafficking.

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January 25, 2024 by SHI Staff

Attention Governors: There are Child Sex Trafficking Victims in Your Prisons

JANUARY 25, 2024

CONTACT: Sarah Flaim
202-546-4242

WASHINGTON – Today, a leading anti sex trafficking non-profit is calling on governors in all 50 states to examine their probation and prison populations for potential child sex trafficking survivors who have been criminally prosecuted despite their own trafficking victimization.
The letter from Shared Hope International (SHI) – a non-profit organization focused on sex trafficking prevention strategies, restoration programs, and justice initiatives – urges governors to “help right some of the wrongs experienced by this particularly vulnerable population of trafficking survivors,” by:

Screening all minors who were prosecuted as an adult to determine if they have experienced trafficking victimization. This screening should include individuals who are now adults but were initially charged or prosecuted when they were a minor, and should include individuals committed to adult prisons or juvenile facilities, or under the oversight of adult probation services;
Providing access to appropriate services, including re-entry services that support survivors after they are released from prison;
Providing access to legal services that help survivors address the short and long-term consequences of being criminalized;
Advancing legal protections, including non-criminalization, immunity, affirmative defenses and vacatur, to provide relief from unjust criminalization and ideally prevent it at the outset; and
Expanding access to funded community-based services to provide alternatives to prosecution and incarceration for responding to child trafficking survivors.

SHI Founder and President Linda Smith explained how imprisonment of survivors re-victimizes them and prohibits them from getting the restorative care and support they so desperately need, “Imagine, if you will, a child who was sold into sex trafficking at age nine or ten. The child spent day after day, year after year wondering if anyone was coming to help. Then, one day, someone finally comes along. But, instead of connecting them with therapy, rehabilitation, and a safe place, that child is put on trial as an adult and thrown into prison with hardened criminals. Sadly, this is the reality across America – but it doesn’t have to be! We are calling on governors to step in to right these wrongs and ensure no child is ever further victimized by the institutions that should be there to protect them.”

Once such child victim is Shared Hope Ambassador Yvonne, “I was trafficked and raped from the age of 11. At 16 years old, I was arrested, told I was the criminal, and spent many years in jail. Yet nobody was there to stop my trafficker or the men paying him to use me. Through the help of Shared Hope International, I am now able to be that voice I wish I’d had at 16 through the Girls Like Me Campaign, which is working to bring notice to this kind of injustice and give a voice to those still in prison.”
SHI is calling on Americans across the country to join the fight and urge their governors to examine their prison population for these victims. To learn more about the vital work of SHI and send the letter to governors, people should text the keyword Shared Hope to 52886 and visit sharedhope.org.

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November 15, 2023 by stephen

Children in sex trafficking still unprotected by laws in most states, Shared Hope’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking show

Nonprofit’s annual evaluation of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., shows progress in certain states’ legal protections and supports for victims, gives 32 states failing grades for laws addressing child and youth sex trafficking

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 15, 2023—Tennessee is the highest-performing state for laws to protect children and youth from sex trafficking and the first to achieve a grade of A in Shared Hope International’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking, released today. As the only U.S. nonprofit organization working in every state to advance legislative protections for child and youth sex trafficking survivors, Shared Hope’s 2023 Report Cards for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., gave the majority of states – 32 – a grade of F, while Florida (B), Minnesota (C), California (C), and Washington (C) ranked in the top five of highest grade earners behind Tennessee.

The Report Cards are used to press for a national standard of victim-centered justice, which can be achieved only if all states are actively working to develop and implement robust protections and just responses to children and youth who have experienced trafficking. Through the Report Cards, Shared Hope is pushing states to ensure all minor victims of sex trafficking have access to protective care and services that help survivors heal and rebuild their lives.

“We applaud the progress that states have made in recent years, especially Tennessee in earning an A this year, according to our grading criteria,” said former U.S. Congresswoman and Shared Hope Founder and President Linda Smith. “At the same time, many states continue to struggle in their legislative efforts. This creates a wild patchwork of statutes across the country, with the number and quality of legal protections and responses literally all over the map. Regardless of state of residence, no minor should be punished for their own trafficking victimization. Instead, these minors deserve critical services and care.”

The Report Cards are the result of a comprehensive analysis and assessment of all legal responses to child and youth sex trafficking in each state. While Shared Hope recognizes a range of policy, practice, and cultural responses to sex trafficking victims in each state, the Report Cards evaluate only statutes and use 40 policy goals in six issue areas in its grading system. States are assigned up to 2.5 points for each policy goal for a possible total score of 100 (with a possibility of up to 10 extra credit points) and then assigned a letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F – based on their score.

The Report Cards are part of a larger toolkit that Shared Hope has produced for each state, which includes a State Analysis Report specific to each state’s statutes on child and youth sex trafficking. Shared Hope has produced the Report Cards and state analyses annually since 2011 as a tool to assist public policy activists and state elected officials in developing and advocating for better laws to support sex trafficking survivors.

In addition to the letter grades that Shared Hope has given to each state, the toolkit for each state this year includes the addition of a Safe Harbor Scorecard. This component was added to support and assist efforts as most states continue to develop robust Safe Harbor laws. Safe Harbor laws ensure victims of child and youth sex trafficking are not involved in the juvenile or criminal justice system but are instead directed toward restorative and protective services. Sustainable protections for vulnerable youth must start with laws that prohibit arresting, detaining, charging, and prosecuting all minors for prostitution offenses, while also requiring law enforcement to direct children and youth to specialized services and care. These laws are a subgroup of all statutes covered by the Report Cards and are at the core of Shared Hope’s policy goals. The organization has been working on safe harbor laws for the last 12 years out of its total 25 years of existence.

“As states make significant legislative reforms to move away from criminalizing survivors, access to appropriate services is critical to successful implementation of safe harbor laws,” said Christine Raino, Senior Director of Public Policy at Shared Hope. “This necessary and encouraging shift is demonstrated by this year’s top-scoring states, which have all appropriated substantial state funds towards specialized services for trafficked children and youth.”

The national average of numerical scores on the 40 policy goals is 57.9 for 2023. The average has risen from 51.2 in 2022 and 47.9 in 2021, the year that Shared Hope strengthened its grading criteria to shift the focus from criminal laws to victim-centered responses and services. Prior to that, Shared Hope had issued its annual Report Cards for ten years under a different evaluation framework emphasizing criminal law responses.

Send your state’s Report Card to your legislators

November 1, 2022 by Shauna Devitt

Shared Hope’s 2022 Report Cards Release: Kids Can Still be Charged with Prostitution in Almost Half the Country, Highlighting Need for Steady Legislative Improvements

Shared Hope International’s newly released Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking reveals 37 states received failing grades for laws addressing child and youth sex trafficking, showing the nation’s continued challenge to provide comprehensive and accessible victim protections.

Watch the 2022 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking release video!

Shared Hope International’s 2022 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking shows almost half the country still allows children to be criminalized for their own victimization and a vast majority of states fail to provide funded, holistic services to child sex trafficking survivors. As the only U.S. NGO working in every state to advance legislative protections for child sex trafficking survivors, Shared Hope analyzes child and youth sex trafficking laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using 40 policy goals to evaluate legal responses to child sex trafficking victims.

The report is used to press for a national standard of victim-centered justice, which can only be achieved if all states are actively working to develop and implement robust protections and just responses to children and youth who have experienced trafficking. Through the Report Cards, Shared Hope is pushing states to ensure all children have access to protective care and services that help survivors heal and rebuild their lives.

“We are thrilled to see many states introduce legislation this session addressing some of the largest gaps in appropriately responding to survivors of child sex trafficking: the development of statewide service responses, dedicated state funding, and provision of non-criminalization protections,” said former Congresswoman and Shared Hope Founder, Linda Smith. “However, a number of those states struggled to move related bills over the finish line, resulting in a preservation of status quo responses; today, too many children remain vulnerable to punishment for their own trafficking victimization and are unable to access critical services and care.”

In Shared Hope’s Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking, states are graded across six policy issue areas, providing a consistent measure of state progress. States receive a letter grade based on their score, receiving an A, B, C, D, or F. In the 2022 report, zero states received an A. Tennessee has become the first, and only state, to receive a B, with an overall grade of 81.5. Three states have received a C, Florida, Texas, and California. Ten states received a D, and 37 states have received a failing grade of an F.

“It is encouraging to see states advancing reforms that reflect recommendations made in the 2021 Report Cards,” noted Christine Raino, Senior Director of Public Policy at Shared Hope. “In particular, it is exciting to award the first “B” grade only two years after introducing and utilizing a new framework aimed at prioritizing and advancing critical victim protections.”

In the next wave of legislative reform, Shared Hope is deepening its focus on state “safe harbor laws.” With more than a decade of commitment to improving safe harbor laws across the country, Shared Hope aims to set the precedent for safe harbor laws that ensure victims of child and youth sex trafficking are not involved in the juvenile or criminal justice system but are instead directed toward restorative and protective services.

Learn more about the importance of investing in community-based services by watching this video.

“It is my hope that stakeholders across the U.S. will utilize the upcoming legislative session to make significant headway on crafting and funding survivor-centered reforms, ensuring that states are equipped to provide all young people with the care, protections, and opportunities that positively impact their trajectory,” emphasized Raino. “Investment in communities, including community-based services, families, and children themselves, should be a priority for all states, paving the way for effective responses to and, most ideally, the prevention of child and youth sex trafficking.”

Expanding safe harbor laws to prohibit arresting, detaining, charging, and prosecuting all minors for prostitution offenses, while also requiring law enforcement to direct children and youth to specialized services and care, is necessary for implementing sustainable protections for vulnerable youth. Too often systems become the default for protecting children, removing children from the support networks that build their resilience to avoid being re-trafficked. Investing in services is investing in the eradication of child and youth sex trafficking in the United States; guaranteeing all children receive appropriate identification allowing for trauma-informed care and access to services.

Shared Hope’s Report Cards are now available. It is vital the Report Cards reach the hands of lawmakers across the nation and spur survivor-centered legislative reform. A campaign to contact legislators to push survivor-centered reform is now live here, allowing advocates to take action by emailing and tweeting their elected officials. Learn more about safe harbor here.

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