Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking

Wednesday October 28, 2015 1:30pm-3:00pm

City Hall, Room 305

1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Attendees:

Julia Arroyo, CYWD; B. Patrick Buckalew, Huckleberry Youth Programs; Vanessa Cerda, SFDA Victim Services; Emily Dauria, UCSF/SFGH; Sergeant Tony Flores, San Francisco PD; Johanna Gendelman, FCS; Kelly Gilliam, NALLS Foundation; Laura Hackney, Annie Cannons; Minouche Kandel, DOSW; Tatum King, Homeland Security; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT/NCYWSF; Leina Lefiti, CYWD; Caitlin Meyer, Senator Feinstein’s Office; Eileen Morales, CYWD; Dr. Emily Murase, DOSW; Gena Rodriquez, SFDA; Alana Rotti, DOSW; Ragnhild Schaap, Mayor’s Office; Niki Severson, DOSW; Maria Tourtchaninova, DOSW.

Meeting Minutes:

1. Agenda Review

• Attendee introductions and approval of agenda.

2. Review of Minutes from August 26, 2015 Meeting

• Minutes approved. [Flores/Gendelman]

3. Update on School Board Resolution on Child Sex Trafficking (Dr. Emily Murase)

• The School Board for the San Francisco Unified School District adopted a resolution to address child sex trafficking on October 13, 2015. There was an amendment which added an educational component addressing the sexual slavery of Asian women during World War II. The resolution has 3 main components: (1) The Superintendent will work with community partners to change the existing mandated reporting policy to include human trafficking; (2) Human trafficking training will be administered to all adults in the school system; (3) Teen leaders will help raise awareness amongst their peers.
• A recommendation was made to retrain the Wellness Center staff in schools (who have already had preliminary human trafficking training).

4. Update on No Traffick Ahead Campaign (Minouche Kandel)

• The campaign grew out of reginal efforts around organizing for human trafficking prevention for the Super Bowl and beyond. Being mindful that human trafficking happens all the time, the campaign was changed to No Traffick Ahead, in order to focus on the overall problem of human trafficking and to put structure in place even after the Super Bowl ends. The campaign is being coordinated out of the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking.
• The first component includes a local government resolution, which leverages local government buying power by not hosting events at hotels and restaurants unless those venues have trained their staff on human trafficking, adopted a code of conduct (hotels only), and conducted risk analysis for human trafficking with their suppliers. The resolution also requires the training of certain government departments. Fourteen cities/counties have passed this resolution so far: San Francisco, Belmont, Cupertino, Daly City, Gilroy, Half Moon Bay, Menlo Park, Morgan Hill, Pacifica, San Carlos, San Mateo City, San Mateo County, San Bruno, and South San Francisco. Cities in Progress: Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Millbrae, Oakland, Redwood City, San Jose.
• The second component addresses training of the hospitality industry.
  • Last week, a training for hotels was held for around 50 personnel, representing at least 11 different hotels.  The training was sponsored by the Hotel Council, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, SF Travel and the Super Bowl Host Committee. SFPD Sargent Tony Flores, Minouche Kandel, and the South Bay Coalition Against Human Trafficking’s Sharon Dhanoa all presented. Many hotels sent more than one person, including staff from security, housekeeping, and managers. Hotels present included: St. Regis, Marriott Marquis, Intercontinental, Hyatt Regency, Park Central, Westin St. Francis, Clift Hotel, Comfort Inn, Chancellor Hotel, Hilton Financial District and Union Square. There was both a labor trafficking and sex trafficking component.
  • There was discussion around outreach to Airbnb.  Dyanna Quizon has a contact there, and will connect with Minouche to outreach to Airbnb.  
  • The Department on the Status of Women is working with Global Freedom Center to develop an on-line training, which will be hosted by Stanford University.  This kind of training is optimal for the restaurant industry who cannot get their entire staff into one room for an in-person training on human trafficking. The training will address both sex and labor trafficking, in the various stages of the “farm-to-table” chain. The training will incorporate videos from local human trafficking survivors. It will be translated into Spanish and Chinese. The hope is to have the training up and running by January for human trafficking awareness month.
  • The Super Bowl Host Committee will also include a short human trafficking segment in the orientation they will do for their 5000 volunteers.
• The third component is a website that will include resources, training opportunities, and will map the restaurants and hotels who have received human trafficking training, as recognition.
• The final component is a public outreach campaign that is being created pro-bono by Suzanne Boutilier, the same artist who did the Protect Oakland Kids campaign last year. THORN has agreed to pay for the actual costs (art images, focus groups to inform the campaign, etc.). This campaign is geared towards the general public with the message of trafficking is happening here and there is something you can do about it. It will address both sex and labor trafficking and will be ready to launch in January 2016.

5. In-Person Human Training Outreach to Hotels (Antonia Lavine)

• San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking formed an interfaith committee two months ago that started working on a volunteer outreach project. Volunteers will be going to hotels to encourage human trafficking training. The teams of volunteers will be trained in November, with hopes of actual outreach by December. SFCAHT is collaborating with the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition.

6. Update on SFPD Human Trafficking Operations (Sgt. Flores)

• Operation Cross Country: Officers were on standby 24/7 surrounding Fleet Week. The focus was on exploiters (sex purchasers). By looking for specific online sex ads, officers were able to identify potential victims before running the actual operation. The operation itself consisted of fake sex ads put up by SFPD posing as possible young girls wanting to meet. Persons without warrants were offered diversion through participation in an 8-hour Saturday program where they learn about human trafficking. SFPD has only had 2-3 people who have been rearrested after attending the class. Second offenders are not eligible for this program and are referred for prosecution. The program is not available to persons seeking to purchase sex from a minor.  If the exploiter answers a fake underage ad, (knowing they are speaking with a minor, through fake texts) they are arrested. SFPD received 50-100 calls in response to their ad, and arrested 7 people from all socioeconomic groups.
• When SFPD comes into contact with victims they are treated with upmost respect and care. During the operations, when they scoured the ads for underage victims, they reached out to victims they thought might be under age.  They did not make contact with any underage victims, but two 18-year old dancers did answer an ad inquiry. They were offered services, food, and had their privacy respected.
• There is a current trafficking labor case, where a man has been holding individuals in a warehouse in Hayward and using them on a large construction project in San Francisco. SFPD is working with Homeland Security to address this.

7. Update on Child Sex Trafficking Protocol and 24hr Response (Johanna Gendelman)

• In this year’s budget the Mayor has allocated funding for a 24-hour response to CSEC.  The award for a child sex trafficking victim advocate program was made to Huckleberry House. This will be a pilot program. The process for hiring the right people for these positions will begin by December 1, 2015 with the hopes of having the program be up and running by February 2016.
• The Human Services Agency also received $550,000 from the state Dept. of Social Services to address CSEC. The award is specifically for cases involving child sex trafficking under the age of 18.  San Francisco however, is including youth up to the age of 21. Part of the process involved writing a protocol on how to handle identified CSEC victims. The protocol has been written and will be distributed once all partner agencies have signed it. The partner agencies themselves also have to write their own protocols and SHADE, (a human trafficking survivor agency) will provide input for them.

8. Further Discussion

• Caitlin Meyer spoke on behalf of Senator Feinstein’s office. The Senator has written a letter requesting more agents for human trafficking cases from the FBI. This has started a productive conversation with the FBI on how they could provide more resources. Senator Feinstein is focused on reducing demand and wants to know what she can do to better serve victims.
• The task force brought up the dire need for federal funding to create housing for victims of human trafficking. Emily Murase brought her idea of charging a nickel for every flight into or out of the United States. Those funds would then be used for anti-human trafficking efforts.

9. Next Steps

• Next meeting: December 16, 2015
• Please send agenda items to Minouche Kandel.