Mayor's Task Force on Human Trafficking - April 23, 2014 - Meeting Minutes

Mayor’s Task Force on Human Trafficking Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, April 23, 2014   1:30 pm - 3:30 pm      City Hall, Room 305

Attendees: Tara Anderson (Office of District Attorney); Paniz Bagheri (SAGE Project); Ellyn Bell (SAGE Project); Amanda Berger (San Francisco Demand Collaborative); Mollie Brown (Huckleberry Youth Programs); Patrick Buckalew (Huckleberry Youth Programs); Frances Byrne (Freedom House); Irene Casanova (Larkin Street Youth Services); Charles Chan (Police Department); Cristy Dieterich (Department of Public Health); Ken Epstein (Department of Public Health); Johanna Gendelman (Department of Human Services); Carletta Jackson-Lane (Sojourner Truth Foster Family Services Agency); Minouche Kandel (Department on the Status of Women); Hyun-Mi Kim (Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach); Antonia Levine (National Council of Jewish Women); Richard Lee (Department of Public Health); Donna Mandel (Office of Labor Standards Enforcement); Joseph McFadden (Police Department); Emily Murase (Department on the Status of Women); Stephanie Nguyen (Department on the Status of Women); Diana Oliva-Aroche (Mayor’s Office); JaMel Perkins (Private Sector); Kristin Snell (Department on the Status of Women); Omid Talai (District Attorney’s Office); John Tsutakawa (Department of Human Services); Hediana Utarti (Asian Women’s Shelter); Ana Villagrán (Juvenile Probation); Trenia Wearing (Police Department) Marnie Webb (Caravan Studios).

Handouts:  Meeting Minutes (2/26/13); Data Collection Tool; Mayor’s Task Force First Year Highlights

Welcome, Introductions, Agenda Review
Attendees introduced themselves and approved the agenda without objection.
ACTION: Buckalew/Perkins/ALL        

Review of Minutes from February Meeting
Attendees reviewed and approved the February meeting minutes without objection.
ACTION: Lane-Jackson/McFadden/ALL
 

Review and Approval of Data Collection Tool

Member attendees reviewed the revised data collection tool.   A suggestion was made to change “suspect” to “suspected trafficker” and “victim” rather than “survivor” for the criminal justice agencies.  The police department also indicated that they cannot provide data on race.  The group agreed to collect date two times per year.

There was a discussion of whether there would be any way to ensure that individual cases were not “duplicated” in the data, as when one survivor seeks services from multiple agencies.  There is not really a way to do this without compromising confidentiality.

There was discussion of having a category for “other forms of trafficking.”

It was agreed to include sites of trafficking by neighborhood rather than zip code.  The “incident of trafficking” should be the first point of contact.  

The question of collecting data from federal agencies was raised.

There was a successful motion to adopt data collection tool. [Buckalew/Gendelman/ALL]

Update on SB 1193 Efforts

Ms. Kandel reviewed efforts to educate local business about their obligation to post the SB 1193 Anti-Trafficking notice.  In March, the Department on the Status of Women sent notice to 687 businesses that were identified as having to post the notice.  On April 5, 2014, the Department on the Status of Women coordinated a day of action in collaboration with Alameda County and San Mateo County to visit these businesses to ensure compliance.  They found most businesses did not have the poster up, and most claimed they never got it. The City needs to beef up the enforcement piece – so hopefully Department of Public Health can include compliance with SB 1193 in their inspections.
 

SafeNight Presentation

Marnie Webb from Caravan Studios presented on the SafeNight app they are developing to provide hotel nights to domestic violence survivors and now trafficking survivors.  The app allows donors to pay for a hotel night for a survivor in need, who is assessed by a domestic violence/human trafficking agency.  It will only be available to survivors 21 and older.

Department of Public Health – New Child Crisis Response Teams

Ken Epstein presented on the Department of Public Health’s expansion around child crisis services, and whether there is a way to leverage these funds for the 24 hour emergency response that the Task Force has identified.  San Francisco has received a $16 million grant from the state to prevent psychiatric hospitalizations, respond to children in crisis, and build more robust services in county.  The new funding will support: 1) a 24-hour warm line – where people can call and talk about their issues; 2) crisis triage and hospital diversion to a site where youth are having crisis can stabilize, be assessed, and if need be there will be a few beds; 3) 4 crisis triage teams designed to support current response to violence by providing more comprehensive treatment.  One of the requirements for the teams is that they have capacity to work with trafficked youth.

The group discussed how this might work with the proposal developed by the Task Force.  A majority of the group wanted to continue moving the Task Force proposal through independently.  Several people discussed importance of having a coordinate response to children in crisis and the benefits of having one single point of contact.

Update on Demand Abolition Project
Ms. Anderson reported that San Francisco was selected along with Denver, Colorado, and King County, Washington to participate in a two year initiative focusing on the demand side of sex sales.  The San Francisco project will focus on doing no harm to those working/being trafficked in the sex industry.  The project will include: (1) enhancement of the First Offender Program; (2) a public awareness campaign; and (3) developing a curriculum targeting young persons. The Police Department, SAGE, District Attorney’s office, Department on the Status of Women, and Zellerbach Foundation are part of the Core Team. Amanda Berger will be the Coordinator.

It was suggested that the curriculum coordinate with the Adolescent Health Education curriculum that started in all the high schools.
 

Department Updates & Announcements
San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking will be meeting next at the federal EEO to see how they deal with human trafficking cases.

Human Services Agency is having internal meetings about how to work with CSEC, and developing protocols where children are identified at the hotline.

Department of Public Health: Regular massage establishment task force inspections continue.  They identified a site in the Sunset which was a clear house of prostitution.  Some of the women working there were relocated by police to a safe place.  DPH has also been working on state legislation to eliminate exemption which allows massage parlors to avoid being regulated by localities.

Freedom House: Speaking at an event May 17, 2014.

Mayor’s Office is hosting a big job fair event.  There has been a rise in street violence in the Bayview in last few weeks – need support in moving forward with interventions in that area.

Police Department:  A trafficking survivor was found in the Berkeley Hills who indicated that trafficking started in San Francisco.  SFPD has investigated and found some suspected traffickers -- still in early stages of investigation.  Police Department will be also be running some human trafficking operations city-wide, reaching out to each district to identify greatest areas of need. They will be attempting to address survivors, arrests pimps if possible, and also address demand.

Mother’s Day event at City Hall on May 9, 2014 to rally in support of domestic violence services.

There will be a Restorative Justice curriculum in Washington High in the fall.

Next Steps

The next general meeting of the Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking will be held on:

Wednesday, June 25, 2014, from 1:30 – 3:30 pm, in City Hall, Room 305. Items to be addressed at the next meeting: an update on the emergency response proposal

The meeting adjourned at 3:34 pm.