Houston helping victims of sex trafficking

[ChazII]

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2012-07-16/new-facility-outside-houston-haven-victims-sex-trafficking#.UAQx6o591m4

Hopefully there will be safe harbor laws soon. At least this is a step in the right direction.

[seabeyond]

1. thank you chaz. this is a very good article and something i have been thinking a lot about lately.

we talk about slavery in the past as if the horror of it can never happen today. yet, here we sit, with it all around us and growing and we do not seem to see it. i really appreciate this article and seeing what they are doing for these girls. just a drop in the bucket, but of value to the few that can use it. and it is interesting in a state like texas, that they see beyond. also, it being a religious org seems to put this article and their efforts out of reach, per some on this board. this is another problem i am having here at du. if a person is christian, or participate in religion, we are suppose to dismiss them. well, that is about a strong majority of people. cannot be done. thanks chaz....

i hope more read and think about this piece. (sorry it took me so long. i took a bit of a time out.)

But the name of the recently opened facility, Freedom Place, cannot be found, and its address is undisclosed: It is the state’s first privately run safe house that provides long-term housing for American girls who are victims of sex trafficking. The shelter represents a new solution for state legislators and county officials as they try to figure out how best to support such victims.

“Typical emergency shelters, girls would just totally run from them,” said Kellie Armstrong, the executive director of Freedom Place, which can house up to 30 residents. The staff facilitates counseling, schooling and recreational activities.

In Texas, the effort to end sex trafficking of minors has shifted since the Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that domestic minors younger than 14 involved in prostitution should be considered victims rather than criminals. Recent legislation changed the label for kids charged with prostitution from “delinquent” to “child in need of supervision” and allowed for these records to be sealed.

Most girls are so, for lack of a better word, enslaved by their pimps and traffickers, including their minds, that as soon as you put them into a facility that is not secure or if you send them home that is just inviting them to go straight back to their pimp,” said Patricia Davis, a human rights professor at Southern Methodist University.

[ChazII]

2. seabeyond

Here are a few more links via FaceBook.

https://www.facebook.com/rebeccaproject

https://www.facebook.com/hookersforjesus

https://www.facebook.com/SCTNow

These are websites for other organizations.

http://www.foreverfound.org/#/the-aftercare-homes With this site they also help outside of the US
http://www.foreverfound.org/#/who-we-are

http://www.phoenix.gov/news/policebreakingnews/streetlight_081109.html
http://streetlightusa.org/

This one is for anyone who is interested in volunteering:
http://streetlightusa.org/volunteer/


I have hesitated from sharing these sites at DU for the reason you cited. Most of these have a Christian connection.
In fact, that is how I became involved with this issue. There is a lady at my church whose daughter was kidnapped about 4 years ago. The daughter was a young teen at the time, 15, I think. The daughter was forced in to prostitution and was missing for 2 years. The family was able to get their daughter back but the pimp found her and kidnapped her once more. The daughter was found a few months later as a murder victim. While I am not a close personal friend of the lady, we did share coffee between services and chatted at various church events, it hit close to home.

I do hope that more in this forum check out the links and read the Houston article. Take heart, seabeyond, more and more people are becoming aware and taking steps to stop human trafficking.

[seabeyond]

5. i am going out check out these sites you provide

and will probably come back for more of a comment. i have some thinking to do. over the years, i have found myself to be more and more isolated, by choice. but, with the things in my life, i feel it is time to step out. i appreciate you sharing this. this might be what is needed, for me. thank you.

[ChazII]

6. You are most welcome.

I am slowly getting involved. Right now I meet weekly with a small group of men and women and we prayer for the victims and the different organizations that are helping them.

[seabeyond]

7. good for you chaz.

we have a couple pretty good orgs in this area i need to find out about, and see what they are looking for.

[redqueen]

3. It really is disgusting, what some people prioritize. nt

[ismnotwasm]

4. Younger than 14? Argh

Still, it's a great article and I thank you for it. It seems as though the only time other than feminist sites I hear about sex trafficking is on some Christian radio station at a second hand store

On edit; I personally don't mind Christians who are fighting against this and it wouldn't bother me a bit to fight side by side with them. In my agnostic world, I'm used to being outnumbered, and I've met many good religious people in my life.