Latest News - Page 18 of 120 - Shared Hope International

December 4, 2020 by Guest

Combating Human Trafficking in and out of Uniform

My name is Mary Kate (Donnell) Soliva and I am a volunteer Ambassador of Shared Hope International. I am also a Special Operations soldier currently serving in the US Army. I joined the fight to combat human trafficking in 2012 while a student at the University of Guam.

After hearing about the first known human trafficking case on Guam, I felt called to do something. I empowered others to spread awareness, volunteered as a victim advocate, and started a fund for survivors. I stood alongside students, local leaders, and members of the community at main intersections in Guam with a message saying, “It’s Happening”. This prompted people to ask what was happening and we would proceed to explain that human trafficking exists. We worked tirelessly to meet with local Rotary Clubs and Politicians to discuss the myths that often surround human trafficking, how to support survivors, and resources to educate others. I volunteered to assist the US Attorney of Guam and the local Human Trafficking Task Force. It was during our trip to Palau where I first met former Congresswoman and founder of Shared Hope International, Linda Smith. I was amazed at the work she was doing globally and continue to support her efforts to this day. As a soldier, I was able to help establish a Human Trafficking Task Force outside of Fort Detrick, Maryland. Throughout my career as a soldier, I coordinated training for hundreds of military personnel on the impact and signs of sex trafficking.

What if you had the resources to conduct training with those in your local community? If you are in the military, will you take the opportunity to train other servicemembers about human trafficking? Many of us lead busy lives, but there is a way to support and get involved in the fight against human trafficking. As a volunteer Ambassador of Shared Hope International, I provide knowledge and training to other servicemembers and my community. I am just one person but imagine how much more we could accomplish if we all answered the call to stop the demand of sex trafficking. While I was deployed, I had the privilege of providing awareness about human trafficking to fellow servicemembers and the host nation. Having a conversation is a great start in prevention and it could make all the difference to someone. This is not a fight just for those wearing the uniform, but a call to serve for everyone around the world.

Things you can do right now:

Have a conversation with those you know about human trafficking and find out how much they know.
Learn about local resources and services in your area that help survivors of sex trafficking.
Become a volunteer Ambassador of Hope and join the fight against human trafficking.

Other Resource: Renting Lacy

Mary Kate (Donnell) Soliva
Special Operations/ US Army
Trained Ambassador of Hope

November 18, 2020 by Mark Porter

Shared Hope International launches Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking: State Action. National Change., an advanced legislative framework and blueprint for action.

Building on a decade of successful advocacy through the Protected Innocence Challenge, Shared Hope International’s Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking will advance the standards for grading states on delivering legal solutions that address this vulnerable population.

Washington, DC, Nov. 18, 2020 – Since 1998, Shared Hope has worked to inspire lawmaking that brings justice and ensures protective responses to victims. Beginning in 2011, the organization leveraged its position as a nationally recognized leader in the fight to end domestic minor sex trafficking through the Protected Innocence Challenge–report cards grading states on the fundamental fabric of laws that address child sex trafficking. Now, Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking will motivate states to move beyond fundamentals and consider effective protection and services. This project, announced on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 serves as the blueprint for the next phase in Shared Hope’s campaign for State Action. National Change. and the catalyst for stronger state legislation to protect commercially sexually exploited youth.

“When Shared Hope first issued state grades in 2011, 26 states earned failing grades. Many did not have a child sex trafficking law or make it a crime to buy sex with a child; today, just a decade later, all states have a child sex trafficking law and a legal framework for holding buyers of sex with children accountable” said Linda Smith, founder and president of Shared Hope. “Analyzing state laws for a decade revealed where gaps remain. Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking addresses those gaps by shifting focus to the inadequate protections being provided to these survivors.” This video showcases the look towards the future.

With states playing a critical role in eradicating child and youth sex trafficking, the original framework sought to lay the foundation for transformational policy, practice, and culture change by advocating for laws that protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable. Through grassroots mobilization, legislative advocacy, technical assistance, and consistent collaboration, this vision has largely become a reality. Critical gaps in state laws have been addressed, with thirty-five states, and D.C., earning an “A” or “B” grade in 2019.

Looking towards the next decade, with the support of stakeholders, Shared Hope International will build on the strong legal foundation laid over the last 10 years to push states further, with a more robust focus on policies that strengthen victim protections and prioritize true prevention. This includes addressing and funding specialized services for victims as well as focusing on gaps in demand enforcement.

Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking consists of 40 key points of law, grouped into six issue areas, that are needed under state law to provide a protective response to child and youth survivors of sex trafficking.

The six key issue areas are:

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.
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.
Continuum of Care: To break the cycle of exploitation, state laws must provide victims access to funded, trauma-informed services.
Access to Justice for Trafficking Survivors: A range of civil and criminal justice remedies must be available for victims under the law.
Tools for a Victim-Centered Criminal Justice Response: Criminal justice procedures for the benefit and protection of victim-witnesses must be provided under the law.
Prevention and Training: To help prevent trafficking and promote just responses to child sex trafficking victims, training must be required by law for child welfare, juvenile justice, law enforcement, prosecutors and school personnel, and prevention education required for students.

“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 fully respond to child and youth sex trafficking,” said Smith. “At the core of this shift is stopping the victim-blaming that prevents children from being recognized as victims and accessing needed services. There is clearly much work to be done. Nineteen states still allow child victims to be charged with prostitution; in nineteen others the buyer can assert a defense that he didn’t know how old the child was; in nineteen more, buyers are not considered offenders under the child sex trafficking law. While we recognize changing laws to ensure greater protection for victims can be a heavy lift for states and providing services presents resource challenges, we’ve seen some states take the lead on this and we’re confident others will learn from their example.”

To stay up to date on this exciting project, sign up here to guarantee the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking will be delivered directly to you.

To support the implementation of this advanced framework, 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.

ABOUT SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL

Founded in 1998 by then U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith, Shared Hope International strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, promote restoration for survivors of sex trafficking, and bring justice to vulnerable women and children. A non-profit Christian organization, Shared Hope engages in diverse activities that confront sex trafficking in communities throughout America. Our efforts include training first responders and community members to identify warning signs of trafficking and employ intervention techniques to appropriately respond to child trafficking victims; providing restorative services to affected children and women; and offering legislative support to those focused on strengthening laws that fight child sex trafficking. Our vision is to coordinate a national U.S. network of protection to improve the response to victims of trafficking. We believe we can create a world where every survivor is surrounded by trained professionals, an alert community, just law and policy, knowledgeable service providers and appropriate shelter options.

MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Porter, Senior Director of Creative Strategies for Shared Hope International, mark@sharedhope.org, 202-963-2601 x408.

November 18, 2020 by Mark Porter

Shared Hope International launches Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking: State Action. National Change., an advanced legislative framework and blueprint for action.

The six key issue areas are:

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.
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.
Continuum of Care: To break the cycle of exploitation, state laws must provide victims access to funded, trauma-informed services.
Access to Justice for Trafficking Survivors: A range of civil and criminal justice remedies must be available for victims under the law.
Tools for a Victim-Centered Criminal Justice Response: Criminal justice procedures for the benefit and protection of victim-witnesses must be provided under the law.
Prevention and Training: To help prevent trafficking and promote just responses to child sex trafficking victims, training must be required by law for child welfare, juvenile justice, law enforcement, prosecutors and school personnel, and prevention education required for students.

To stay up to date on this exciting project, sign up here to guarantee the Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking will be delivered directly to you.

ABOUT SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL

MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Porter, Senior Director of Creative Strategies for Shared Hope International, mark@sharedhope.org, 202-963-2601 x408.

November 4, 2020 by Christine Raino

After 10 Years, We Are Changing How We Grade States

Ten years ago, when Shared Hope developed the nation’s first legal framework to comprehensively analyze state laws addressing the crime of child sex trafficking, our field research on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking had indicated that there were fundamental gaps that needed to be addressed in states’ laws. That was confirmed when we launched the inaugural Protected Innocence Challenge Report Cards in 2011 and the majority of states received an “F” grade. At that point many states’ laws failed to even recognize the crime of child sex trafficking. Over the last 10 years, we have been working to lay the foundation for transformational policy, practice, and cultural change by supporting state legislators and stakeholders to enact the minimum fabric of laws needed to address this heinous crime. Now, 10 years later, no state receives an “F” grade and a majority of the country receives an “A” or “B” on their report card. The Protected Innocence Challenge project was our vision for mobilizing collective state action to ensure national change. Ten years of grassroots mobilization, advocacy, technical assistance, and consistent collaboration has allowed this vision to become reality. All states now have a child sex trafficking law and, collectively, the country has made exciting progress to provide imperative protections and access to specialized services for child survivors.

However, 10 years has also led to new research and opportunities to listen to survivors, providing waves of information that require us to confront where we are and where we should be going. What we have heard, and responded to, is a call to raise the bar for states…to build on the foundation of progress by further improving protections for child sex trafficking victims. On November 18th, we will release an advanced legislative framework for the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking, which will be the basis for new state grades beginning in the fall of 2021. This advanced framework will build on the original framework, preserving the most fundamental components while including new policy priorities that reflect feedback and research from the field.

One noteworthy change that reflects cultural and legislative transformations is the advanced framework’s shift in focus; in 2011, 75% of the framework focused on criminalizing trafficking offenders, including traffickers, buyers, and facilitators, with the remaining 25% focused on victim protections laws. Recognizing that most states have enacted the keystone statutes – the basic laws necessary for criminalizing offenders – the framework’s focus will shift to focus on the area where the largest gaps remain – victim protections. Under the advanced framework for the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking, 75% of the policies will address critical victim protections, including access to specialized services, non-criminal responses to survivors, and avenues to comprehensive care and justice – with the remaining 25% focused on criminal accountability for offenders, and victim-centered tools for law enforcement and prosecutors.

Additionally, this advanced framework will offer extra credit opportunities for state laws that recognize the intersection of child sex trafficking and labor trafficking as well as the impact on youth and young adults. These advancements in the framework are the product of years of input from the field and the expertise of survivors, as well as Shared Hope’s own research and advocacy. We are truly grateful for the collaboration of our state partners over the years, and highly value the incredible work that state advocates have done to help us build this foundation of laws! We are confident that, together, we can better protect those exploited through trafficking and continue working towards true prevention of this crime.

We invite you to attend the release of the advanced legislative framework for the Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking on November 18 at 1:30pm EDT. You can also sign up here to receive the new report and advanced legislative framework as soon as it’s available on 11/18!

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

We are thrilled to be starting this next chapter in advancing state laws and we hope you can join us in this effort!

September 24, 2020 by Marissa Gunther

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:

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.
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.
Continuum of Care: To break the cycle of exploitation, state laws must provide victims access to funded, trauma-informed services.
Access to Justice for Trafficking Survivors: A range of civil and criminal justice remedies must be available for victims under the law.
Tools for a Victim-Centered Criminal Justice Response: Criminal justice procedures for the benefit and protection of victims must be provided under the law.
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 18^th!

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.