Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking

Child Sex Trafficking Subcommittee

Wednesday February 10, 2016     1:30 pm-3:00 pm

25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 330A, San Francisco, CA

Attendees:

Mollie Brown, Huckleberry Youth Programs; Vanessa Cerda, SFDA Victim Services; Kim Coates, San Francisco Unified School District; Emily Dauria, University of California San Francisco; Lorena DeJesus, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department; Carly Devlin, Huckleberry Youth Programs; Johanna Gendelman, Family & Children’s Services; Kelly Gillian, NALLS Foundation; Alan Gutierrez, LYRIC; Minouche Kandel, Department on the Status of Women; Rebecca Marcus, Public Defender’s Office; Jamel Perkins; Toni Powell, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department; Venus Rodriguez, Not for Sale; Ed Santos, SFPD Special Victims Unit; Cyrena Shirley, CA Attorney General; Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, SHADE; Abigail Stewart-Kahn, Child Abuse Prevention Center; Ehb Teng, MISSSEY & The Wren Initiative; Michael Thomas, St. Mary’s Medical Center; Maria Tourtchaninova, Department on the Status of Women;  Maya Webb, San Francisco Unified School District; Alia Whitney-Johnson, Emerge Global.

 

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

Family and Children’s Services is in the final phases of collecting signatures for the Interagency CSEC Protocol MOU between 13 agencies to create a coordinated response to commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC).

As part of the MOU, Huckleberry Youth Programs has been developing a round-the-clock CSEC Advocate program. Carly Devlin is the newly hired CSEC Advocate Services Coordinator. As of March, Huckleberry will be able to deploy the full CSEC advocate team. Huckleberry has also added two new therapists for minors through an Office for Emergency Services Grant. The new team will be introduced at the next meeting of the Mayor’s Task Force.  The Child Abuse Prevention Center will run the MDT meetings required by the CSEC protocol.

3. Presentation on Trafficking Services at LYRIC (Alan Gutierrez)

LYRIC is a youth center located in the Castro district serving LGBTQ youth ages 12-24. LYRIC receives funding from the Department on the Status of Women for their survivors of trafficking program and partners with both API Legal Outreach and Asian Women’s Shelter. LGBTQ trafficked youth are unique as they deal with not only exploitation violence but structural violence as gender non-conforming individuals.

LYRIC hosts a prevention group that meets weekly and teaches youth their rights, builds awareness around resources, and promotes leadership. Paid leadership programs for youth are available to promote self-sufficiency. Case management is provided to address housing, mental health, and connections to education. A partnership with Dimensions Clinic (catering to trans and gender non-conforming youth) allows youth to receive hormone replacement therapy. Annually, around 1,500 youth are engaged in all of LYRIC’s programs and school based initiatives. Currently, LYRIC is working with 16 trafficked youths, primarily ages 18-24.

 

4. Update on SFUSD Implementation of Trafficking Resolution (Kim Coates and Maya Webb)

SFUSD is developing a human trafficking training (labor and sex) for all adults in the SFUSD school district as required by the Trafficking Resolution passed last fall. An internal body is looking at creating language on how to report child abuse and CSEC. SFUSD currently has an online training for all staff on mandated reporting, which includes a small section on CSEC. A module is being developed to expand the CSEC portion. SFUSD is developing a two-tier approach, with an online training for all staff and an in-person, more in-depth training for staff most likely to engage with CSEC. The training is estimated to launch in the 2016-2017 academic school year.

Since 2013, SFUSD has administered a training targeting social workers and community health outreach workers on trauma informed practice to address complex trauma and how it manifests in schools. This training has been used as a baseline to train staff in SFUSD including counselors, teachers, and principles. As a direct result, a professional group of informed trauma leaders has formed in order to have a leader at every school.

SFUSD is also working to integrate CSEC language into the current Healthy Relationships Curriculum for students.

5. CA Attorney general’s Curriculum on Human Trafficking (Cyrena Shirley)

The California Attorney General’s Office is working with 3-Strand, Love Never Fails, and Fredrick Douglass Foundation to develop protocol, training, and curriculum surrounding human trafficking for schools in California.

Protocol - focuses on uniting different county stake holders in order to exchange information on current projects and efforts.

Training – teachers will be trained on the red flags of human trafficking. A website is currently being developed to administer the training so teachers may complete it on their own time.

Curriculum – aimed at grades 5, 7, 9, and 11, the content is designed for students to gain more knowledge as they mature. Students start out with key signs and red flags of trafficking and advance to become modern day abolitionists by the time they reach 11^th grade. The California Department of Education is partnering on this project and helping to develop the content. The curriculum will pilot in five rural counties for the 2016-2017 academic school year. The counties participating are funding this effort themselves. The goal would to be to extend the program to all 24 rural counties, however that will depend on available funding.

 

6. Not for Sale (Venus Rodriguez)

Not for Sale is a global anti-trafficking organization working in Romania, Thailand, Vietnam, Peru, and currently looking into Columbia, and now in the United States. A work readiness program for survivors based in San Francisco is Not for Sale’s first project within the USA.  It is an eighteen week trauma informed empowerment program divided by six weeks of training and 12 weeks of work experience. Not for Sale provides food, professional clothes, transportation, bank account, and anything else a survivor would need to be successful. Survivors of any age or gender are admitted into the program, with 5-8 per class. Referrals are received from Girl’s Court, Juvenile Hall, Social Workers, and Witness Protection among others. Currently, the program’s sixth cohort is graduating.

Since 2014, Not for Sale has had contact with over 75 survivors, 57 of whom have completed the training program. Ten survivors were able to obtain employment following the program. Employers and staff who partner with Not for Sale are trained to be able to receive survivor employees. Not for Sale believes if survivors are given the essential tools and matched with work experience, they will successfully begin a new path. Not for Sale is looking to open a business run by the program’s survivors selling Fair Trade products cultivated by survivors in other countries.

Not for Sale is currently receiving grants from the Department on the Status of Women and Ebay. Moving away from grants by focusing on high asset donors and getting Not for Sale products into stores would provide unrestricted funds.

7. Other Updates (Minouche Kandel)

Assembly Bill 1760 has been introduced in California to decriminalize prostitution and other non-violent trafficking related crimes for minors. CAST in Los Angeles is behind a 3-piece package of legislation, with one bill specific to youth. AB 1760 is both broad and comprehensive. The bill covers any non-violent crime a youth is forced to commit because of their trafficker. The proposed legislation requires a lot of support from the community in order to pass. The City of San Francisco has approved support for this bill. Organizations are highly encouraged to write letters of support.

8. Next Meeting: April 13, 2016, 1:30-3:00 pm, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 330A