Recently in Washington State, there has been a massive, multi-pronged coordinated effort to address Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) across systems. As this effort made its reach to child welfare, I was reminded of a documentary I watched years ago about two girls who were swept into a life of sexual exploitation, kept from their families and everything familiar. One of the girls was in and out of foster care and group homes, the other had run away from her family home, both were sold in truck stops across the Midwestern United States and locked up with other girls in a house for years. I don’t remember much else about this documentary, but I do recall how striking it was at the time, as I thought of the youth in foster care on my caseload.
While commercially sexually exploited children come from all walks of life, youth involved in child welfare are disproportionally represented in the life of sexual exploitation. Childhood trauma and other adverse experiences, combined with unmet needs for permanency make foster youth particularly vulnerable to the life. The attached Child Welfare Information Gateway issue brief references 2013 statistics from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) indicating multiple studies show a range of 50-90% of victims of sex trafficking have had child welfare involvement.
I’m so encouraged by the widespread, legislatively-based efforts to address this disproportionate involvement in sex trafficking by supporting, rather than punishing victims of sexual exploitation with trauma-informed, victim-centered approaches. The issue brief attached at the bottom provides a lot of great information about Safe Harbor laws across the country, as well as specific programs in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.
I’ve uncovered sparkling webs of deeply coordinated efforts in my own community, and across my state. Project Respect at the Center for Children & Youth Justice coordinates a statewide network of victim-centered regional task forces taking a trauma-informed approach to addressing the needs of victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Evaluation of the programs being delivered through King County Superior Court – home of the local task force in my area, is being conducted by researchers at the University of Washington through an ACYF funded grant. All the pilot programs across Washington State addressing commercially sexually exploited youth are following the Washington State Model Protocol for CSEC to ensure consistency in meeting the needs of youth and young adults victim of commercial sexual exploitation.
Because we know how pervasive the life of commercial sexual exploitation can be for foster youth, I was really excited to learn of one small prong of the locally coordinated effort in my community – a partnership across King County providers recruiting specialized foster homes for commercially sexually exploited youth - the Puget Sound Foster Care Pilot Program. Working together to recruite and support these foster parents are the State child welfare agency, Casey Family Programs, King County, the YMCA, and YouthCare, a local agency working to get youth off the streets. Check out the flyer I’ve attached below to get a taste of local-level system coordination to cohesively address the needs of commercially sexually exploited youth in foster care.
Are you aware of any similar local efforts to address the needs of foster youth who are at risk of entering, or returning to a life of sexual exploitation?
Does your state have a protocol which supports collaboration across systems, including child welfare? Is it trauma-informed?
Is your area supporting any programs linking ACE sciences and treatment/services for youth or young adults who've been commercially sexually exploited?
Please comment below if you have information to share about trauma-informed programs designed to meet the needs of this particular population in your area, especially those with a focus on foster care. I would love to pull together a comprehensive list of ACE-focused resources to have available for the group!
I still wish I could remember the name of the original documentary I watched years ago. It truly was eye-opening, encouraging, and horrifying all at once. A perfect recipe of emotions to raise awareness and motivate action. I recently happened across a newer documentary which provided a similar glimpse into the life of sex trafficking in the United States. Aired in 2015, A Path Appears is a three-part PBS documentary series. Episode one is about sex trafficking. If you don’t know much about sex trafficking and the strong connections between commercially sexually exploited children and foster youth... If you want to better understand how vulnerable youth are captured by the life... This documentary is a good place to start. I don’t think the series is available to watch streaming for free, but it is available for purchase by episode, or the entire series on DVD.
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