Mayor's Task Force on Human Trafficking - August 27, 2014 - Meeting Minutes
Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, August 27, 2014 1:30pm- 3:30 pm City Hall, Room 421
1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102
Attendees:
Paniz Bagheri, SAGE; Jessica Bird, BAATC; Meaghan Beattie, CASARC; Amanda Berger; B. Patrick Buckalew, Huckleberry Youth Programs; Frances Byrne, Freedom House; Irene Casanova, Larkin Street; Tonya Chaffee, CASARC/SFGH; Annemarie Conroy, USDOJ/USAO; Julius DeGuia, SFDA; Sharon Dhanoa, South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking; Cristy Dieterich, SFDPH Newcomers; Lt. Michael Dudoroff, SFPD; Melissa Geiger, Family Builders; Johanna Gendelman, FCS; Nancy Goldberg, SFCAHT; Capt. Teresa Gracie, SFPD; Pratima Gupta, St. James Infirmary; Susan Houser, CASARC; Carletta Jackson-Lane, Sojourner Truth Foster Family Service Agency; Minouche Kandel, Department on the Status of Women; Lupita Lopez; Donna Mandel, OLSE; Emily Murase, DOSW; Diana Oliva-Aroche, Mayor’s Office; Dr. Megan Parker; Elizabeth Pederson, SF City Attorney’s Office; JaMel Perkins; Toni Powell, SF Juvenile Probation; Dyanna Quizon, Supervisor Katy Tang; Carolyn Reyes, Family Builders; Andrea Rush, SFCAPC; Stephan Sonnenberg, Stanford Law School; Hediana Utarti, Asian Women’s Shelter; Lt. Trenia Wearing, SFPD; Brian Wo, BAATC
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Emily Murase at 1:32pm
Attendees introduced themselves.
Minutes from Wednesday, June 25 were approved [Buckalew/Perkins/All]
Report on Research and Other Super Bowl Anti-Trafficking Initiatives
Professor Stephan Sonnenberg from the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School presented on research he supervised to investigate the experience of other cities that have put together anti-human trafficking efforts in connection with large sporting events talked briefly about the efforts in the South Bay. They examined what worked well and what cities might do differently if they were to do it again. Some agencies were more willing to talk than others, so information is not comprehensive. The cities examined were: South Africa (2010 World Cup), London (2012 Olympics), Super Bowls in Tampa (2009), Dallas (2011), New Orleans (2013) and New York (2014).
South Africa: 2010 World Cup
Major prevention efforts, major awareness campaigns to identify vulnerable populations (i.e. if there are trends about trafficking along trucking routes, the outreach was focused around there). As a result of so much outreach, there was an issue with “media fatigue.”
London: 2012 Olympics
Efforts were regarded as overkill, as the outcomes did not match the expectations. One problem with the effort was that it was limited to 2012, and the efforts of coalition making ended in 2012. Collaboration with service providers and police dissipated after the event. The exclusive focus was in sex trafficking. There was realization that they should have included labor trafficking. Had there been more of a focus on labor trafficking, they may have made more of headway. (Ex. Hotels industry- how are they employing the temporary needs). The trafficking group didn’t work with the International Olympic Committee as early as it should have.
Tampa Bay: 2009 Super Bowl
They were able to do a lot of the preventative work before the media getting involved, so they were able to prepare in advance. There was successful collaboration engaging with their law enforcement. The focus was primarily in sex trafficking and particularly child trafficking.
Dallas: 2011 Super Bowl
This was the event where the Super Bowl trafficking myth went viral (that the Super Bowl is the largest trafficking event in the country). Some small business owners indicated that all of the hype around trafficking only pushed it further underground and made victims more vulnerable.
New Orleans: 2013 Super Bowl
There was massive advance outreach. The intervention focused on criminalization, with many prostitutes arrested, without any specialized services necessarily being offered. The lesson to take from this case is that there needs to be further collaboration between service providers and the police.
New York: 2013 Super Bowl
There was a concerted effort in New York to help shape the media discussion on trafficking – an op-ed that delinked connection between sex work and sex trafficking and criticized myth that many men being in one space will lead to increase in human trafficking, and the model that sex work is the same as sex trafficking. A focus on labor trafficking was also lacking.
Major themes consider for Bay Area Super Bowl preparation:
- Correlation between Super Bowl and human trafficking continues to be a major controversy. Good data is lacking. What are the metrics for measuring human trafficking?
- Labor trafficking needs to be addressed. It is a major problem in the Bay Area, particularly in the hospitality, construction industry.
- Media sensationalism is a major concern, and it is important to determine common messaging and talking points, and how to react to media requests for sensationalist stories. There is also a potential for media fatigue.
- A lot of activists feel that simply arresting sex workers will not address any long-term issues.
- Collaboration is critical.
Sharan Dhanoa of the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking talked about what has been done in the South Bay to create synergies with other anti-trafficking efforts in the Bay Area. A Super Bowl working group has been created to address the issues. A few of the goals include:
- A cohesive strategy to respond to trafficking and a community needs assessment to make sure there are sufficient services for any victims that are identified;
- Clarity and integrity with data, and a thoughtful approach to messaging with media;
- Creating information packets for elected officials;
- Working with the Chamber of Commerce and doing outreach to businesses, and asking them to examine how they will deal with need for more workers to respond to spike in services (i.e. do they contract out services and how do they verify the labor practices of contractors)
- Outreach to community groups that work with populations that might be vulnerable to being trafficked (i.e. homeless shelters, CRLA, Salvation Army, groups that work with particular immigrant communities);
- Hotel trainings – ensuring they include labor as well as sex trafficking information.
- Focus groups with youth about what message work.
There was a discussion on how to define “success,” which is not just how many people were arrested but could be how many cases were deterred.
Stephan and Sharon will look into the effectiveness of the UN GIFT box, and businesses establishing code of conducts.
Upcoming Conferences
September 14th: Marin County’s Office of Education will be sponsoring a trafficking training.
September 17, 2014: the South Bay Coalition will be sponsoring a training.
December 3, 2014: the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking will be hosting a conference looking at Labor Trafficking.
Update on Child Sex Trafficking Committee
The 24 Hour Crisis Response for CSEC has still not been funded. The proposal to the DPH RFQ is still pending.
Family & Children Services is still working on their protocol. Funding from state will probably not be available until July of 2015. The internal working group will continue developing the protocol in the meantime.
Update on Demand Abolition
Grant received at the end of April from the Hunt Alternatives foundation to be part of a 10 City Initiative with focus on demand of the buyers of sex. San Francisco group identified four strategies:
1. Individuals who seek sex from minors;
2. Revamp first offender program for persons who are arrested for buying sex;
3. Address violence against sex workers;
4. Educational campaign with youth.
As a team, it was decided to withdraw from the national initiative as San Francisco could not agree with the core principles that the foundation required of all funded projects. Group will try to find alternative funding, as there was consensus that the identified strategies were important.
Stemming from this work, there is a meeting with the District Attorney’s office on August 29 to discuss strategies to help create an environment where victims can come forward and report violence without fear of being arrested.
Next Steps
Next meeting is October 22, 2014. Agenda Items for next meeting:
- Super Bowl planning
- Update from Child Sex Trafficking committee
- Update on data collection tool.
Not next meeting but in the future, getting a report on the Pilot at Mission High School on educating the youth.
Updates from departments/agencies:
Statewide CSEC Action Team has completed their needs assessment.
The SFPD Special Victims Unit will be increasing staff, and increase focus on human trafficking efforts.
