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Open Doors and Open Hearts

Pairing Faith-Based and Private Agencies for Hope and Healing

**This is the fourth guest blog in a series of posts by the 2018 JuST Faith Summit speakers. Check back for new posts highlighting the critical topics that will be featured at this year’s Faith Summit. Join us, June 20-22 at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for this exciting Summit. Visit this link to see the full agenda and lineup of speakers.

By Robyn Metcalf, Statewide Director, Voices for Florida’s Open Doors Outreach Network 

One of my favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein – “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

That’s why I was drawn to working for Voices for Florida and absolutely love coming to work each day. Voices for Florida specializes in bringing people together to apply innovation and out of the box thinking to solve complex social problems – including improving Florida’s response to sex trafficking.

Einstein’s quote also accurately depicts the “why” behind our most recent innovation, the Open Doors Outreach Network, a public-private partnership to improve care, coordination and collective impact for commercially sexually exploited (CSE) children and young adults in Florida.

Florida ranks 3rd in the country for the prevalence of human trafficking. In 2016, 356 child victims of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) were verified in Florida, representing an increase of 54% from the prior year. It is expected that this number is very low in representing the true magnitude of this complex problem. Throughout Florida, large gaps exist within restorative services, cross-sector collaboration, professional training and trauma-focused crisis intervention that meet the complex needs of sexually exploited and trafficked victims.

In recent years, state agencies, thought leaders, and direct service providers throughout Florida have all acknowledged that to provide high quality services to CSE victims in a diverse, heavily populated state, an all-hands-on-deck approach from a variety of stakeholders and sectors would be required. Government alone cannot solve this complex social problem.

Voices for Florida has answered this call for a new, coordinated systems approach by developing and rolling out a pilot called the Open Doors Outreach Network.

For Open Doors, Voices serves as the backbone organization by guiding vision and strategy, supporting aligned activities,  establishing shared measurement practices, and advancing policy, training and funding.  We partner with direct service providers throughout the state to deliver immediate and on-going victim-centered, survivor-led services 24/7/365.

How does the Open Doors Outreach Network care for victims?

Upon identification, a highly trained professional team, referred to as the Open Doors Outreach Team consisting of Survivor-Mentors, Regional Advocates and Clinicians work together to offer quality immediate and ongoing services to each exploited and trafficked victim. Each team member serves a unique role in meeting the distinct needs of everyone served. Our treatment model uses a survivor-led lens that is also community-based and trauma-informed. Members of the Outreach Team are on-call 24/7 and available to assist victims upon identification and referral to the Open Doors Outreach Network.

Being survivors of sexual exploitation themselves, Survivor-Mentors have similar lived experience to the population being served. As such, they can better identify their needs and build a trusting relationship through shared experiences. Regional Advocates are well-connected advocates and experts on the available services throughout their region.  They work closely with Survivor-Mentors to ensure the individuals being served receive appropriate referrals to meet their needs. Clinician provides important individual, family, and group counseling that can help all involved process the grief and trauma that has been experienced due to the victimization.

Why is it important for faith-based and private agencies to partner on the Open Doors Outreach Network?

Our philosophy is we’re better together. That’s why one of the many partners that we work with is Florida Baptist Children’s Home, also knows as, One More Child. We believe bringing the faith-based community to the table is critical to achieving true collective impact for improving victims’ lives. Faith-based organizations have an important voice and unique access to resources needed to fully build strong community safety nets of support for victims on their journey to survivorship. In meeting the needs of this population, everyone can and should be involved.

[easy-tweet tweet=”We believe bringing the faith-based community to the table is critical to achieving true collective impact for improving victims’ lives.” user=”SharedHope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

So, what can you do?

  1. Become informed and learn to recognize the signs of sex trafficking. If you see something – say something and make a report! To become more informed about Voices for Florida and the Open Doors Outreach Network, follow us on Facebook @VoicesForFL and visit our website, voicesforflorida.org to sign up to receive our monthly updates.
  2. Think outside the box! Voices for Florida Open Doors Outreach Network seeks to address sex trafficking by connecting organizations that have never worked together before. This creates collaboration and community in an innovative way that has paved the way for real solutions.
  3. Attend our session at the Faith Summit and learn how vital it can be for faith-based organizations to partner with public and private organizations to provide solutions to some of our most complex issues, including sex trafficking.

[easy-tweet tweet=”What can you do? 1) Learn to recognize the signs of trafficking, 2) Think outside the box! 3)Attend out session at the Faith Summit and learn more about our model.” user=”SharedHope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

By Robyn Metcalf, Statewide Director, Voices for Florida’s Open Doors Outreach Network

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Healing from the Inside Out

**This is the third guest blog in a series of posts by the 2018 JuST Faith Summit speakers. Check back for new posts highlighting the critical topics that will be featured at this year’s Faith Summit. Join us, June 20-22 at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for this exciting Summit. Visit this link to see the full agenda and lineup of speakers.

By Michelle Thielen, E-RYT,  Founder, YogaFaith International, Complex Trauma Specialist

Survivor Story:

During the second session with a new therapist, she told me to close my eyes and “just breathe”. I remember thinking okay, today might be the day that I could actually do either of these things in the presence of someone else. I was terrified to try. If I could only do one of these things it would be incredible, and I know she was only trying to help me, but she was asking me to the two things I dread the most.

I have been unable to close my eyes unless I’m alone, exhausted and going to sleep.

Every time I hear the word ‘breathe’ I cringe.

My abusers would always tell me to  “just close my eyes and breathe”. I heard this everyday for I don’t even know how many years. I don’t want to close my eyes. I don’t want to breathe.

Today the word breath or breathe remind me of the days I was immobile and being sexually assaulted day after day, night after night. The smell of alcohol and the breath in my ears.

I don’t want to close my eyes.

I don’t want to breathe.

—

Many survivors can identify with feelings and experiences like this survivor’s story.  This is why many of our trauma students have found the unity of breath with body movement, along with the focus on Scripture meditations and Christ, very therapeutic and healing.

At YogaFaith we want to help survivors as well as equip others to aid in the healing efforts on a local and global scale. So often the attempts to help are innocent and good, but the truth is that we must handle all types of trauma with loving care so as to not cause triggers or create more trauma.

[easy-tweet tweet=”So often the attempts to help are innocent and good, but the truth is that we must handle all types of trauma with loving care so as to not cause triggers or create more trauma.” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

Every person and every trauma is unique. Connecting breath with body, as you see in this person’s story, requires that we must take a different approach to interoception (the sense that helps you understand and feel what’s going on inside your body). We used other words for breath with this student such as; inhale, airflow, exhale and air. At YogaFaith we have the freedom to talk about Holy Spirit, because Spirit means breath and inspiration, we can say things such as; “Bring in His Spirit, inhale inspiration, inhale Spirit.”

YogaFaith has had the incredible opportunity to help hundreds of trafficked and abused survivors all around the world. Because poverty breeds human trafficking, we have traveled to many third world countries to visit and assist with trafficked survivors as young as five years old. In many cases, the mothers are the ones to sell their daughters to attempt to find a way to survive. Though these facts are difficult to understand and heartbreaking, they happen every single day. One needs not have to go to a third world country; these things are happening in our own backyards in America

When we combine healing and somatic experiences with Jesus at the center of all we do, survivors of trafficking and other types of trauma can find true healing through the blood of Christ.

In Acts 17:28 scripture declares that we live, breathe, move and have our being in and through Christ. Matthew 22:37 Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”.

This whole body worship is what we have the privilege and honor to introduce to survivors of various types of trauma of all ages, shapes, gender, color, and religions.

Survivors are introduced to a man named Jesus for the very first time, or they reconnect with Him. Our prayer is that through the postures of prayer, breath work and time together, they find true healing, peace and joy. We have observed this so many times and there is nothing quite like it. We see smiles and hear laughter. We hear the word “Hallelujah” sung with songs playing in what is usually a foreign language to who we are working with.

God is so great and He is the Master Physician.

Nothing is impossible with Him.

Healing from the Inside Out session at JuST Faith Summit will provide simple, real and practical methods to connect broken fragments of the self that happen with trauma. We will explore interoception, connection internally with self and God, and externally with others.

3 Things You Can Do in Response:

  1. Pray.
    • Pray for all the abused and their abusers. [Even the abusers are made in the image of God]
    • Ask God to show how He wants to use you specifically.
  2. Donate to any organization on the Front Lines.
  3. Attend the JuST Faith Summit June 20-22, 2018 at Bethel University, St. Paul, MN. Enjoy a night of incredible worship, amazing day sessions and experience Trauma Sensitive YogaFaith with Founder Michelle Thielen.

 

By Michelle Thielen, E-RYT,  Founder, YogaFaith International, Complex Trauma Specialist

 

 

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9 Reasons Why Men Solicit

**This is the second guest blog in a series of posts by the 2018 JuST Faith Summit speakers. Check back for new posts highlighting the critical topics that will be featured at this year’s Faith Summit. Join us, June 20-22 at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for this exciting Summit. Visit this link to see the full agenda and lineup of speakers.

By Christopher Stollar
Demand Reduction Coordinator, She Has A Name & Author of The Black Lens

Why do men solicit? That’s a complex question, but one we must strive to answer if we’re ever going to reduce the demand for sex trafficking. While some women pay for sex, the fact is, most of that demand is coming from men who struggle with multiple, complex issues.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Why do men solicit? That’s a complex question, but one we must strive to answer if we’re ever going to reduce the demand for sex trafficking. ” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

As the Demand Reduction Coordinator for She Has A Name, I have personally taught dozens of these men through a “John School” program in Ohio. This all-day class is run by licensed counselors, survivors of sex trafficking and other people from the community. It targets men who are mostly first-time offenders with no record of violence.

Why a John School?

The goal of this class and similar programs is to “decrease the demand for prostitution, and hence, reduce the amount of human trafficking and sexual exploitation that occurs,” according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s John Schools Report. As of 2013, 50 cities in the United States were operating some form of a John School — including four in Ohio.

She Has A Name is trying to help these men understand the impact of their actions and address the root causes that drove them to solicit. This program aligns directly with our vision — “to see all those impacted by human trafficking restored into society and thriving in their community.” That includes men, even those who solicit.

One of the young men I taught told me he decided to solicit because for years he had been battling loneliness and depression, and “these struggles led me to make the worst decision of my life … Thankfully, I was arrested and stopped short of making a horrible mistake.”

[easy-tweet tweet=”One of the young men I taught told me he decided to solicit because for years he had been battling loneliness and depression, and “these struggles led me to make the worst decision of my life.” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

Why did these men solicit?

That young man is not alone. She Has A Name started collecting data in 2016 on why these specific men decided to solicit, and below is a list of reasons they have given so far in order of the most common response — including “loneliness and depression:”

  1. Lack of intimacy: 24 percent
  2. Loneliness: 24 percent
  3. Depression: 14 percent
  4. Pornography: 10 percent
  5. Lust: 10 percent
  6. Lack of discipline: 5 percent
  7. Sexually abused: 5 percent
  8. Stress: 5 percent
  9. Low sex drive: 5 percent

As you can tell, the reasons men solicit are complex and varied. It’s not just about porn or sex addiction. For at least these men, there are deeper issues of intimacy, depression and loneliness. Of course we should never treat those reasons as excuses or justifications for their crime, but they can help us understand what’s going on behind the scenes with some men so we can point them to helpful solutions.

Has the John School helped?

Almost 200 men have completed the John School program, and we already have once success story. That young man I mentioned graduated from the program, attended She Has A Name’s anti-trafficking training and has since joined a local church. Last year he sent me this letter of encouragement:

“Since this was my first offense and what will be my last, I was allowed to participate in the John School.  I knew going into the program that I wanted to get involved in the fight against human trafficking, but after participating in the program I knew I had to. The program opened my eyes to the world of human trafficking and in my heart I knew I wanted to help in anyway possible.


Through my experience I found a relationship with God and gained a better understanding of the awful world of human trafficking that prior to this experience, I knew nothing about. I wish more than anything I could take back my mistake but in a strange way it’s made me a better person. I now know I can move forward and raise awareness with dreams of ending this horrible issue.”

There are at least nine reasons why men solicit, but this young man’s story is all the reason we need to keep fighting the battle against modern slavery. He is living proof that God can turn even a solicitor into an abolitionist. And at the end of the day, that’s what this fight is all about.

What can I do to help?

Here are three practical ways you can help right now:

  1. If you are struggling with any of the issues listed above or know someone who is, find help through a local counselor and/or church support group
  2. Support the work of demand reduction groups like Demand Abolition, Fight the New Drug, XXXChurch and Covenant Eyes
  3. Attend the 2018 JuST Faith Summit and learn more about this issue in my 9 Reasons Why Men Solicit session

For more information about demand reduction, visit She Has A Name’s website. You can also learn more about Christopher Stollar and his work at http://christopherstollar.com/.

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By Christopher Stollar
Demand Reduction Coordinator, She Has A Name & Author of The Black Lens

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Shared Hope Statement Regarding FOSTA-SESTA and the Backpage Seizure

Today, with the President’s signing of H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, also known as FOSTA-SESTA, anti-trafficking advocates and survivors of sex trafficking and their families celebrate this long awaited progress in the effort to combat online sex trafficking. Today’s bill signing comes days after federal agencies seized Backpage.com—a website that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reported is knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking—and charged seven Backpage executives in a 93-count indictment. With FOSTA-SESTA signed into law, state prosecutors can prevent similar websites from taking over Backpage’s market share and courtroom doors have been opened to trafficking survivors who seek to hold exploitative websites civilly liable. These concurrent efforts by federal law enforcement, Congress and the President are drastically changing the landscape that, until now, has allowed the sex trafficking industry to thrive.

As anti-trafficking advocates and sex trafficking survivors have argued throughout the process of passing FOSTA-SESTA, the long term impact of civil and state criminal liability for Backpage and other websites that employ a Backpage “business model” is to limit the online marketplace for sex trafficking victims. As the federal government investigates and prosecutes Backpage for its role in facilitating sex trafficking, FOSTA-SESTA will enable state prosecutors to respond when smaller websites begin to employ the same business model. Just as the majority of human trafficking prosecutions occur at the state level, this legislation will enable a more agile, prompt response to similar websites, addressing the problem before the scale of exploitation matches the harm caused by Backpage.

Recent criticisms of FOSTA-SESTA and the Backpage seizure claim these efforts harm trafficking survivors who post ads on Backpage and similar sites for commercial sex. However, these criticisms fail to recognize the inherent harm that commercially sexually exploited individuals face every day—whether survivors are bought and sold online or on the street, they face rates of violence that dwarf the potential for violence faced by most other sectors of the population.[1] Research on the commercial sex industry and survivor accounts demonstrate how the majority of individuals sold for sex are under the control of a trafficker or pimp who often receives the money survivors earn from commercial sex transactions.[2]

The reality is that online advertisements do not insulate victims of sex trafficking from the harm of being sold, purchased and raped; conversely, online advertisements facilitate the violence. Online platforms, like Backpage, that facilitate access to marginalized individuals do not provide them protection from the harms inherent in the commercial sex trade.[3] Instead, an unchecked platform like Backpage heightens the risk of violence at the hands of sex buyers. Rarely do sex trafficking survivors have choices in their exploitation, no less sufficient autonomy to use Backpage as a tool to protect themselves from their trafficker or their buyers.[4] Thus, providing perpetrators with an easy, anonymous and relatively unmonitored means to sell and purchase survivors for sex creates more opportunities for them to face the risk of violence.

We look forward to a changed landscape that not only holds websites like Backpage accountable, but shifts our national dialogue about the exploitation of vulnerable individuals. Indeed, recognizing the harm caused by online platforms as facilitators of trafficking and exploitation is a critical step in shifting the broader narrative to recognize the scope of exploitation that occurs in the commercial sex industry. Through these efforts, the perception of online platforms as benign, passive tools for connecting consenting adults is a veil that has been lifted to expose the violent reality of the commercial sex industry. Lifting this veil should also shift the focus of anti-prostitution efforts from the most vulnerable and marginalized—those selling sexual services, often to survive—to focus instead on the perpetrators and drivers of this exploitative industry—the sex buyers, facilitators and pimps who exploit and profit from the vulnerability of those whose lack of choice traps them in the commercial sex industry.

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[1] Michael Shively et al., ABT Assoc., Inc., Developing a National Action Plan for Eliminating Sex Trafficking 5–6 (2010) (discussing research showing that 95% percent of trafficked women and girls internationally are physically abused, 59% are sexually abused and prostituted persons have mortality rates 200% higher than their peers) available at http://multco.us/sites/default/files/documents/developing_a_final_action_plan_to_eliminate_sex_trafficking.pdf.

[2] Melissa Farley et al., Online Prostitution and Trafficking, 77 Albany Law Rev., 104 (2014).

[3] Id. at 104 (“You are not safer because you work indoors. Craigslist is just the “internet streets,” where the same predators and hustlers are meeting you with the same intentions except they look like straight people who go to medical school and have Blackberrys. I consider myself in the same risk and danger zones as a street worker. I am an upper working class anonymous client worker.”) (quoting Marikopassion, An Outlaw’s Insurance Policy, Bound, not Gagged (Mar. 7, 2010), http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/an-outlaws-insurance-policy/.).

[4] Alisa Bernard, The Smoke Screen That’s Obscuring the Voices of Survivors—Why We Must Amend the CDA (“In reality, a result of the now internet facilitated sex trade is the intentional disappearing of both victims and traffickers….Identification of victims and perpetrators has become practically impossible.”) available at: https://sharedhope.org/2017/10/smoke-screen/.

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The Survivor’s Guide to Surviving the Bible

**This is the first guest blog in a series of posts by the 2018 JuST Faith Summit speakers. Check back for new posts highlighting the critical topics that will be featured at this year’s Faith Summit. Join us, June 20-22 at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for this exciting Summit. Visit this link to see the full agenda and lineup of speakers.

When you’ve been purchased like some toy on a store shelf, hearing or reading that “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price”, is not such good news. Scriptures such as that one were a stumbling block for me in my healing journey. You might be thinking that there aren’t that many verses like that, but you would be wrong.

[easy-tweet tweet=”When you’ve been purchased like some toy on a store shelf, hearing or reading that “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price”, is not such good news.” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

Everyone likes Psalm 23, right? “He makes me lie down in green pastures”? No thank you. My pastor taught on that verse in October of 2011, comparing it to being a child going to bed at night with no worries – secure in the knowledge that mom and dad were in charge and would keep them safe. He couldn’t understand why that verse made me angry and hurt – until I told him that as a child, going to bed at night was the most dangerous part of my day. 

That was Pastor Josh’s “aha” moment. He had never realized how certain scriptures looked, seen through a survivor’s eyes. Thus began a long process of my identifying problem verses to my pastors Josh Causey and Megan Kelly, and them contextualizing, discussing, explaining, rewording, and forever changing how I saw the Word. Exchanging truth for lies, that’s what it’s all about, right? I believe that juvenile sex trafficking is the enemy’s number one weapon in this world. It’s widely known that the best lie is one which contains a little truth. What better way could there be to undermine God than taking love, family, gender, and sex, twisting them into a gross caricature of the Kingdom, and using them as weapons against vulnerable children? And the crown jewel in the enemy’s arsenal? Twisting the meaning of scriptures into fiery darts.

“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” is no joke. I believe that a deep relationship with Christ is the only path to true healing for survivors. When I first arrived at Living Hope Fellowship, I had been out of the industry and “functional” for ten years. I wasn’t healed, though, and I certainly didn’t have abundant life. The only reason I even went to church was so my daughter would grow up alongside church people and so belong and be accepted as I never could be (I thought). Like many survivors, I had a warped view of the Gospel. I thought the Father was angry at me and wanted to crush me, but as long as I believed in Jesus, then Jesus would protect me from Him and I would get to go to Heaven when I died. Working through Josh and Megan, Jesus brought the scriptures alive for me and I truly began to heal and live as a branch connected to the true vine.

Together, we wrote a guide for you to take back to your church. This guide will equip ministers and advocates to look at scripture through the lens of trafficking and apply sound, spirit-led interpretation in a way that brings life and healing to survivors.

[easy-tweet tweet=”This guide will equip ministers and advocates to look at scripture through the lens of trafficking and apply sound, spirit-led interpretation in a way that brings life and healing to survivors.” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

I didn’t ask what these verses meant because I was afraid of the answers. People at church would tell me that God loved me, but those people didn’t know the things I had done. Even as they got to know about my story, they still didn’t know all the stuff. Trust doesn’t come easy to survivors, and it certainly doesn’t come quickly. I was at Living Hope for roughly four years before I trusted Josh with my doubts and my questions. We want to put the truth into survivors’ hands in a non-threatening format. We will be giving the guide out free of charge, along with permission to copy and distribute it as long as you do so in its entirety and do not make any changes to it.

We cannot possibly identify all of the scriptures that hit survivors in a hurtful way, but we want to equip ministers and advocates to go after the hard questions. No two survivors’ stories are the same and we want church members and leaders to be able to see scripture through the lens of trafficking and apply sound, Spirit-led interpretation in a way that brings life and healing to survivors. We also want to equip survivors with the skills and resources to do their own sound, biblical research whenever a verse hits them weird. We want everyone to know that there is no scripture that is contrary to the character of God.

[easy-tweet tweet=”We want to equip ministers and advocates to go after the hard questions.” user=”sharedhope” hashtags=”FaithSummit2018″]

The Word has such power to heal and deepen relationship with Christ. Psalm 23 has become my favorite Psalm, but it took going deeper. On the surface, God allowed me to be placed in a family where I was surrounded by abuse and pain. Where was my green pasture – my “good”? I think the green pasture is not analogous to circumstance, that God is working hard to ensure that I have what is best for me, which is God working in my life to mold my character to be Christ-like. It is God using all that was meant for evil in my life to shape my passion against injustice and my love for the oppressed – to make my heart like his. And a heart like His is the ultimate good and the greenest of pastures.

It is beyond wretched that the enemy would use God’s own words to harm His children. We can take this weapon out of his hand for good.

3 Things You Can Do Right Now

  1. PRAY! Always the first action.
  2. Get involved with local efforts to fight trafficking .
  3. Come to the JuST Faith Summit and get equipped!

By Deb Haltom, Survivor Advocate, Living Hope Fellowship

 

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