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January 1, 2022 by stephen

Tennessee is first state to receive ‘A’ in Shared Hope International’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking

Tennessee is top-ranked state in the nation for its laws protecting and responding to child trafficking survivors

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 15, 2023—Tennessee is the first state to receive an A in Shared Hope International’s Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking, released today. (See Tennessee’s Report Card and related resources.) 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) were the other states ranked in the top five highest grade earners.

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 children have access to protective care and services that help survivors heal and rebuild their lives.

“Tennessee is at the forefront of the fight to end human trafficking with historic investments in law enforcement and public-private partnerships to serve survivors,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “Human trafficking has no place in our state, and we are committed to building on our progress, improving laws, and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

“Governor Lee and the General Assembly continue to keep human trafficking response a top priority for Tennessee, and thanks to Shared Hope for their continued drive to ensure survivor leaders inform the next decade of progress in the fight to combat this crime,” said Margie Quin, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Children Services.

Key highlights on Tennessee’s progress under the Report Cards project include:

Overall most improved state (from 2021-2023, raised score by 28.5 points).
Nation’s first “A” state and top scorer in both 2022 and 2023.
Leads the nation for laws related to identification and response to survivors of child sex trafficking and stakeholder training.
Provides for a survivor-centered multi-disciplinary team response to child sex trafficking cases.
Extends foster care services to youth under 24 years of age and also urges the private, nonprofit community to establish a network to provide information, assistance, services, and supports to persons from 16 to 24 years of age who were in foster care when they turned 18.
Appropriated over $3,000,000 in state funds to community-based service providers to support the development and provision of specialized services for trafficking survivors.
Of the 30 states that statutorily prohibit the criminalization of minors for prostitution, Tennesee was one of the first, having enacted this critical legal protection for trafficked children in 2011.

“We applaud the incredible progress that Tennessee has made this year and since the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking were initially released in 2021,” said former U.S. Congresswoman and Shared Hope Founder and President Linda Smith. “We hope this progress will inspire and encourage the many states that continue to struggle in their legislative efforts. The persistent gaps in state laws create 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.

“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 state, Tennessee, which was an early leader in prohibiting the criminalization of children for prostitution, and has also appropriated substantial state funds to ensure access to 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.

December 20, 2021 by Jo Lembo

Finding Truth in the Midst of Reality

Our world is rocked. Our security feels threatened. Our emotions may be ravaged. We’ve never lived through the craziness of a pandemic before. The ground beneath our beliefs is roiling, and we seek something solid on which to stand.

If you will, please allow me to share my journey. When things reel out of control for me: The death of my father, my rock, when I was young and in a doomed marriage; the divorce that followed the next year; life as a single mom, a blended family challenge, and recently the death of my beloved mother. Those were the times when my heart and mind searched for the absolute truth that has been my guide since childhood. What does God have to say? And I find comfort in His words:

Psalms 27:5 “In His shelter in the day of trouble, that’s where you’ll find me; for He hides me there in His holiness; He has smuggled me into His secret place, where I’m kept safe and secure – out of reach from all my enemies.”

Psalms 68:20 “Our God is a mighty God who saves us over and over! For the Lord, Yahweh, rescues us from the ways of death many times”

But what does that mean when we feel threatened by very real things like COVID-19? If the God who penned the words above feels distantly removed, then what are the words of the One who lived in this world with us and experienced pain as a human being?

John 16:33 “Everything I have taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”

Indeed, we live in a real world with very real pain.

To know the strength and confidence Jesus is promising, we need only look at the circumstance wrapped around those words of great hope that He offered. The stage was set in this passage:

John 13 “Jesus knew that the night before Passover would be his last night on earth before leaving this world to return to His Father’s side…and He longed to show them the full measure of His love. So before their evening meal had begun…”

The context of Jesus’s promise of peace and confidence was just hours before He knew He was to be brutally crucified. He knew that he would be publicly humiliated and beaten, endure hours without food or sleep, experience the denial of His own followers, and die on a cross between two common criminals. All of that was in His conscious mind, as His fate approached. And yet His concern was to comfort His followers, even the one who would betray Him later that night.

But He had peace. And He promised we could have that same peace.

In that moment of realization, of who He is, and how He willingly came to this earth to give Himself for me, and that He did it all so I could be confident and have peace in this world of troubles; that is when my soul finds comfort. That is when my mind rests. That is when I don’t need to know what tomorrow holds. For surely He is with me and He knows trouble and pain, and He’s already paid the price for me.

And in that moment when I cannot trust my feelings, I can stand still on the Solid Rock, knowing He will be with me through whatever comes tomorrow.

Jo Lembo, Director of Faith Initiatives | Shared Hope International

(All scriptures listed are The Passion Translation Bible)

November 17, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Just released – Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking (Press Release)

Shared Hope International Introduces Advanced Level State Report Cards

The majority of states + D.C. have “D” (10) or “F” (40) grades
FL receives highest grade, a “C”
Only 8 states fully protect trafficked children from arrest, detention, charging and prosecution for prostitution offenses

WASHINGTON, D.C., (November 17, 2021) — Shared Hope International, dedicated non-profit leader in the fight to eradicate domestic minor sex trafficking, today released year-one of a grading system that will be sure to get attention. Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking introduces advanced level analysis that builds upon the previous 10-year grading project, one that realized a 25.6% improvement nationwide in basic anti-trafficking legislation responding to domestic minor sex trafficking. Now, the advanced analysis provides a blueprint for action for motivated legislatures by identifying deficiencies in state child trafficking laws that remain in place. Published as a report card for each state, the 2021 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking encourages redoubled effort to tackle the hardest elements of responses that will protect juvenile sex trafficking survivors and hold buyers and traffickers accountable.

Due to the high bar that has been set with this grading system, 39 states and the District of Columbia (DC) earned a failing grade in 2021, the launch year for the advanced analysis. In comparison, the first year of the basic level report cards ten years ago found 26 states with a grade of “F” but nine years later every state had improved significantly; there were no “F”s and only two “D”s. While this seems like a step back, this year’s low grades reflect a starting point for states to advance beyond the tremendous progress they made over the past 10 years. The new framework also responds to calls from stakeholders to raise the bar, especially in the area of victim protections where many states lagged behind. Notably, Florida, the only state to receive full credit for its victim protection laws under the Protected Innocence Challenge framework, is now the top scoring state under the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking Advanced Legislative Framework.

Tennessee, which had previously held the #1 spot under the Protected Innocence Challenge Framework, remained in Tier 1, largely due to aggressive efforts in the 2021 session to enact laws that directly addressed the Advanced Legislative Framework. “Ten years ago, we couldn’t have imagined this new framework. We’ve listened to survivors, we’ve learned, and now we go forward with new knowledge to improve Tennessee’s response,” said Margie Quin, CEO of End Slavery Tennessee. “Through historic investments in law enforcement and public-private partnerships to serve survivors, Tennessee is at the forefront of this important fight,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “Human trafficking has no place in our state, and we are committed to building on our progress, improving laws, and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

At the announcement of Report Card grades, Shared Hope will honor two individuals with the Pathbreaker Award for persistent and brave advocacy in ending the criminalization of child sex trafficking victims. Child and youth victims continue to be help criminally culpable for offenses committed while being trafficked, a practice which has led to incarceration of untold numbers of unidentified survivors of child sex trafficking. Ohio Senator Teresa Fedor has worked tirelessly to change the state law to focus criminality on the traffickers and the buyers of sex with children. Alexis Keerica Martin was trafficked at 15 and then convicted of murder and felonious assault in connection with the death of her trafficker. She now brings her lived experience to the effort to change the way systems respond to an offending victim. Her experience is a stark example of the impact legislation can have and stands as the best example of the reason Shared Hope does this work.

Senator Fedor also noted the important link between the release of the report cards, and the resulting work left to be done across the country, and the significance of the award given to her and Ms. Martin. “Like many other states, Ohio has also seen its grade drop this year because of Shared Hope’s new advanced legislative framework. This was despite the fact that last year I finally managed to extend Safe Harbor protections to 16- and 17-year-olds who have been trafficked. All Ohio children can now be rescued from the horrors of human trafficking without the fear being arrested,” said Fedor. “However, with Shared Hope’s Advanced Legislative Framework and survivors guiding my work, Ohio will raise its grade. This is urgent and will be my top priority. I have already begun to work on addressing our survivor-centered response by introducing ‘The Expanding Human Trafficking Justice Act’ (Senate Bill 183) to create a clear path to expungement for all trafficking survivors. I have spent the last 15 years fighting against human trafficking in all forms, and I am not about to give up now.”

State Action. National Change.

“At the time Shared Hope first issued report cards in 2011, 26 states did not make it a crime to buy sex with a child; today every state in the country considers sex trafficking of a minor a punishable crime,” said Linda Smith, founder and president of Shared Hope. “This is the reason we provide the sometimes uncomfortable motivation of a report card. Analyzing state laws for nearly a decade has enabled us to understand where progress is concentrated and where gaps remain. It is important to note that while the 2021 advanced legislative framework zeroes in on areas that states continue to leave unaddressed, it also provides analysis and recommendations for improvement. We trust that states will use these tools as a means to provide a better outcome for survivors of sex trafficking.”

Grades are based on an analysis of 40 legislative components that must be addressed in state laws to effectively respond to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking.

While laudable progress has been made since 2011 with the passage of laws to criminalize selling and purchasing sex with a minor, child and youth victims often are denied access to justice and restorative services outside of the juvenile justice system. The advanced legislative framework brings heightened expectation to remedy state laws that fail to provide protective responses to victims of sex trafficking.

“We are asking states to respond to exploited youth as victims of a serious crime,” said Smith. “We recognize changing victim protection laws is a heavy lift and providing services presents resource challenges. Regardless, some states are taking the lead on this and we’re confident others will learn from their example.”

The 2021 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking can be accessed here.

November 17, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Just released – Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking (Press Release)

Shared Hope International Introduces Advanced Level State Report Cards

The majority of states + D.C. have “D” (10) or “F” (40) grades
FL receives highest grade, a “C”
Only 8 states fully protect trafficked children from arrest, detention, charging and prosecution for prostitution offenses

State Action. National Change.

Grades are based on an analysis of 40 legislative components that must be addressed in state laws to effectively respond to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking.

The 2021 Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking can be accessed here.

November 10, 2021 by Samantha

2021 Pathbreakers

Picture in your mind, this pathbreaker. He or she is someone with a formidable tool—a pick or an ax—heaving it with two hands behind the back, coming down hard on a forbidding surface—rocks, or rock-hard earth. This worker is spent with the effort, perspiring and hot, but enduring, and unwilling to give up until this particular piece of the intended path yields to the effort.

This is a picture of 25 individuals who have been selected as Shared Hope Pathbreakers since 2010, each chipping away at a particular piece. More than a decade since 2010 Pathbreaker Award recipient Officer John Chapman recognized that a headstrong 18-year-old on the run was being trafficked, that path is still under construction.

It would be fair to ask why we are still breaking ground after so many years until we recall that the projected route for the path was not put in place until the year 2000. That is when the Trafficking Victims Protection Act defined a route to justice that could actually be visualized. Thanks largely to the efforts of Lifetime Pathbreaker Award recipient U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, the path was begun with the TVPA and supporting federal legislation brought forward by Lifetime Pathbreaker Award recipient U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf and 2013 Pathbreaker Award recipient U.S. Congressman Ted Poe. In short order, axes and picks started flying as influencers and advocates grabbed their tools and went to work!

It was in 2010 that Shared Hope took on a major effort to soften the ground for that path with the introduction of the Protected Innocence Challenge. Grading each state on the efficacy of its laws protecting child sex trafficking victims and holding perpetrators accountable, the Protected Innocence Challenge was the driver of dramatically improved laws in every state, year by year, over the decade that followed. Yet, despite such great progress, stubborn ground refused to yield; so, in 2021 Shared Hope will introduce a report card that reflects graduate-level pathbreaking effort. These stubborn areas are the ones that advocates have been chipping away at for the past ten years without sufficient progress. They address victim-blaming stereotypes enshrined in law, criminalization of victims permitted by law, and lack of services provided under the law for victims on either an immediate need or long-term recovery basis.

It has been Shared Hope’s honor and privilege to highlight outstanding contributors each year who influence policy, provide services, or advocate for justice, especially those whose courageous influence is rooted in their own lived experience. These individuals break through the trend of inaction and initiate meaningful responses to survivors and appropriate deterrence for perpetrators.

The 2021 Shared Hope Pathbreaker Award will honor two individuals whose efforts demonstrate the critical impact legislation can have on a survivor of domestic minor sex trafficking. Selected for her outstanding work to eliminate the burden of proving force, fraud or coercion in a case of child sex trafficking under Ohio state law, Senator Teresa Fedor exemplifies the pathbreaking spirit. Senator Fedor has tirelessly championed several pieces of critical legislation to increase protections for vulnerable children and youth, often reintroducing the same legislation year after year until it is successfully enacted. With the same spirit, Alexis Keerica Martin (Kee, as she prefers) is the brave survivor selected for her voice advocating for protection instead of punishment—a voice she found as a result of being herself convicted in adult court for criminal acts done while being trafficked at age 15 in Ohio. While navigating the countless roadblocks created by her own unjust criminalization, Kee has simultaneously used her experiences to influence much overdue and needed reforms, seeking to ensure that other survivors of trafficking are not held accountable for crimes reflecting their victimization. Together, these two deserving Pathbreakers have provided additional fuel for Shared Hope’s commitment to seek survivor-centered solutions for addressing and preventing child sex trafficking across the U.S.

Read more about the Pathbreaker Award and past recipients here: https://sharedhope.org/what-we-do/prevent/awareness/path-breaker-awards-since-2010/.

And watch the livestream event on November 17, 8:45 am ET, here: https://www.facebook.com/sharedhopeinternational