Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking

Child Sex Trafficking Subcommittee

Wednesday December 9, 2015     1:30pm-3:00pm

25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 70, San Francisco, CA

Attendees:

Julia Arroyo, Young Women’s Freedom Center; Patrick Buckalew, Huckleberry House; Vanessa Cerda, SFDA Victim Services; Lorena DeJesus, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department; Sherry Ezhuthachan, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center; Tony Flores, SFPD Special Victims Unit; Danielle Fluker, San Francisco Adult Probation; Johanna Gendelman, Family & Children’s Services; Kelly Gillian, NALLS Foundation; Minouche Kandel, Department on the Status of Women; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT; Rebecca Marcus, San Francisco Public Defenders Office; Eileen Morales, Young Women’s Freedom Center; Ade Ngenu, MISSSEY; Lisa Peckler, Dignity Health Foundation; JaMel Perkins; Toni Powell, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department; Sheela Ramesh, Bay Area Legal Aid; Alana Rotti, Department on the Status of Women; Maria Tourtchaninova, Department on the Status of Women.

 

1. Introductions/Check-in/Shared Success
2. Update on Family & Children’s Services Protocol & CSEC Advocate (Johanna Gendelman & Patrick Buckalew)

Over the course of this year, 13 different partners came together to formulize and sign the Interagency CSEC Protocol MOU. Right now the protocol is in the final stages of completion.  Family & Children’s Services is beginning to develop policy and procedure on how actual implementation will look like on the ground. All individual signees of the MOU must also develop their own internal protocols for their departments.

As part of the new protocol, Huckleberry Youth Services will develop and employ the CSEC Advocate program. The goal is to get the program up and running on February 1, 2016. Right now, Huckleberry Youth Services is in the process of hiring a coordinator for this new program, with interviews starting next week. Community partners are encouraged to recruit qualified candidates for the position in order to hire the right people. The recruitment for advocate positions will begin after the New Year. Huckleberry is looking for bilingual applicants with experience working with CSEC. Survivors of commercial exploitation are highly encouraged to apply.

Huckleberry’s contract recently got expanded by the Department of Public Health, allowing Huckleberry to also start hiring for a trauma-informed therapist in the near future.

Since the Interagency CSEC Protocol is a pilot program, only half of the budget to fund it has been distributed by the Mayor’s office. Since proposing and receiving the budget takes a lot of time, the process to ask for the remaining budget amount needs to begin now. Agencies are encouraged to advocate for this program to receive the full budgeted amount by writing letters of support to the Mayor’s office.

3.  Presentations from Agencies

Kelly Gilliam: NALLS Foundation

The NALLS Foundation Home is a six-bed residential home for females, transgender, and LQBT youth ages 15 to 19, many of whom have been sexually exploited. The average length of placement is six-nine months thought some youth end up staying for two years. The NALLS Transitional Home is designated for youth ages 18-24, except for Alameda County youths who are eligible to stay up until 21 years of age. NALLS is also planning on opening a third home for youth in the near future.

The NALLS Foundation attributes the success of their program to their great staff, some of whom have been there for nine years, and to their youth stabilizing program. Currently, Kelly Gilliam is shifting her position to focus on anti-human trafficking training as a NALLS Foundation consultant. Possible groups who would benefit from human trafficking training include foster parents, the San Francisco School District and group home providers. There is particular interest in group homes in light of the recent passing of AB403. Under this new law, group homes will undergo an accreditation process, retrain staff, and serve children strictly and intensively on a short-term basis in 2016. Many group homes are expected to close their doors or turn into residential facilities due to this new policy.

M.I.S.S.S.E.Y

MISSSEY supports and advocates for youth who have been commercially sexually exploited in Oakland, Alameda County, and throughout California. After referrals are received from community members, an assessment process begins to flag current CSEC or at-risk CSEC youth.

MISSSEY’s last evaluation report pertaining to prevention and intervention was in 2011. This report showed data surrounding girls in the juvenile system or the foster care system who were at high risk of exploitation. These girls had already come into contact with an exploiter and were recruiting or being recruited by friends.

MISSSEY has begun piloting a mentor program, which may be paired with a possible scholarship to add structure. A lack of long term housing remains a high concern since it destabilizes youth making them more vulnerable to exploiters.

 

4. Strategizing for 2016

• In 2016 the CSEC committee will meet on an every other month schedule.
• Prioritize continued funding from the city.
• Focus on CSEC prevention efforts.
• Determine a way to distribute the state’s allocated money for CSEC directly to CSEC (possible gift cards for needs).
• Consider policy ideas that would allow for the monitoring of foster families who neglect foster children.
• West Coast Children’s Clinic is currently piloting a CSEC screening tool called CSE-IT until May 2016. CSE-IT is intended to flag at-risk youth ages 10-13, however the tool missed these children after screening 164 cases. Input is needed on what the tool is missing.
• Next meeting Feb 10^th, 2016 at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 330A. 1:30-3:00 pm