Youth Trafficking Committee - May 10, 2017 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
May 10, 2017 - 1:30pm
Location: 
25 Van Ness Avenue
Room 70
San Francisco, CA 94102

Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking

Youth Trafficking Subcommittee Minutes

Wednesday, May 10, 2017                           1:30 pm - 3:00 pm          

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

 

Attendees

Patrick Barresi, Larkin Street; Gena Castro Rodriguez, District Attorney’s Office; Karen Catalona, District Attorney’s Office; Jen Daly, LSC; Sareom Choi, API Legal Outreach; Lorena De Jesus, Juvenile Probation Department; Carly Devlin, Huckleberry Youth Services; Jayson Dowkes, LYRIC; Sabrina Forte, Bay Area Legal Aid; Lili Gamero, Violence Prevention Services; Laura Hackney, Annie Cannons; Emily Hinsey, Love Never Fails; Robynne Jeisman, Old Skool Cafe; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT; Rebecca Marcus, Public Defender; Maggie McHale, Department on the Status of Women;  Sandra Nissim, Annie Cannons; Xar Oliver, LYRIC; Mirelle Raza, District Attorney’s Office;  Angelina Romano, San Francisco Unified School District;  Anastazia Skye, LYRIC;  Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, SHADE Project; Josette Ty, LYRIC; Alia Whitney- Johnson, Freedom FWD; Cris Youssef, LYRIC; Karina Zhang, Family and Children Services

 

I. March 8, 2017 minutes were approved. [Sabrina Forte, Alia Whitney-Johnson]

 

II. Announcements

  1. Wednesday API Legal Outreach is hosting a training on the best practices for advocacy.
  2. Annie Cannons are taking applications and referrals for training programs.

 

III. Stories from HART

Carly Devlin presented trends that HART has seen. HART supported 60 youth between January 1, 2017 and March 31, 2017. This quarter, more of the work involved crisis response and out of county response, with 14 response line calls and 25 total referrals. HART has been getting multiple referrals for the same young person and has seen an increase in youth ages 12 to 13—youth still at home—at risk or engaged in sex work.

 

HART has seen the variations of what mental health programs means for youth. Some young people do not want to jump into therapy and their mental health needs may be to stay in their communities versus sit down therapy. HART focuses on ensuring young choose the services they are ready for rather than the organization selecting on their behalf.  Carly shared stories from Huckleberry Youth Services and highlighted system failures that create barriers to young people receiving help and support:

  • Younger youth, who required different interventions
  • Identifying what youth's basic needs are
  • Cumbersome RFA process
  • Push/pull factors from various types of placement
  • Challenges with the speed of the placement process
  • Identifying strategies for capacity building with foster parents who already house CSEC
  • Engaging youth in mental health services

IV. Break Out into Workgroups

 

  1. Prevention Workgroup

 

Members: Karen Catalona, District Attorney’s Office; Carly Devlin, Huckleberry Youth Services; Lili Gamero, Violence Prevention Services;  Emily Hinsey, Love Never Fails; Mirelle Raza, District Attorney’s Office;Angelina Romano, San Francisco Unified School District; Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, SHADE Project; Alia Whitney- Johnson, Freedom FWD; Karina Zhang, Family and Children Services

 

Work Group Lead:

Mirelle Raza, District Attorney’s Office (Temporary)

 

 

Work Group Goal:

Develop a comprehensive city-wide prevention strategy, including the services that can be offered when a youth is deemed to be at risk of trafficking

 

  1. Setting the Intention

The group spent time aligning on the problem we are trying to solve in developing a trafficking prevention strategy. Ideas generated included:

  • Prevent the exploitation of young people in San Francisco (both sex and labor)
  • Prevent vulnerability as a whole
  • Reduce risk factors for trafficking
  • Focus on SF, while keeping entire Bay Area in mind
  • Considering the injustices of capitalism, and closing large gaps so young people can’t be exploited
  • Focus on developing more preventative measures within foster care and, whenever possible, preventing child welfare involvement and supporting young people’s home of choice

 

  1. Envisioning Success

The work group discussed what success would look like in San Francisco in 3 years. Ideas included:

 

  • San Francisco is no longer considered a top city for human trafficking

 

  • MDT and 24 Hour Response Protocol:
    • All service providers in SF are aware of requirement to report CSEC and the 24-hour response protocol
    • The MDT has the ability to talk about specific cases without confidentiality issues

 

  • Services:
    • Continuity of services for every step that a youth needs
    • SF has a “one stop shop” that enables youth to access resources when a crisis comes up
    • Resources that meet kids where they are before they are removed from their homes / are placed into foster care

 

  • Funding into the anti-trafficking space has increased:
    • Increased salaries for service providers delivering the work
    • Additional value placed on providers who mirror the community they are serving
  • Education:
    • All schools in San Francisco have age-appropriate programming on healthy relationships and human trafficking, including elementary schools
    • San Francisco has youth programming focused on preventing youth from becoming exploiters
    • All SF resource families and CASAs have been trained to recognize signs of trafficking
    • Education programs developed and targeted to those most at risk
    • Peer programs that enable youth to empower each other
    • Training of key businesses and health practices

 

  • Housing and jobs for families: if families could afford housing and basic needs for themselves, would take pressure off children to make money through situations of exploitation

 

What were some of the key improvements we made to achieve this success?

  • Decriminalizing minors for gang involvement and drug trafficking
  • Map resources that are relevant to trafficked youth and effective prevention, highlighting gaps
  • Map referral processes of youth who have been exploited and understand interactions with the system before trafficking began
  • Hire / advocate for a central person in the city who knows all the systems and can be a connector across groups

 

  1. Role of the Prevention Work Group

The work group discussed 3 primary activities that it could take on to achieve these outcomes:

  1. Create a city-wide trafficking prevention plan to present to the Mayor’s Office
  2. Make policy recommendations that could help reduce exploitation in San Francisco
  3. Aggregate and coordinate resources available within the city to ensure effective and coordinated delivery of (1) trafficking trainings and (2) services for survivors and those who are at risk of exploitation
    1. Ensure all services and resources are mapped, ideally leveraging technical tools like One Degree
    2. Ensure system easily enables groups to know who to contact for different needs, and which services are good
    3. Create resource list for city workers
    4. Ensure coordination across different prevention programs to maximize impact

 

  1. Next Work Group Meeting

July 12th, 2017

  1. Housing and Placements Workgroup

 

  • Legal Services for Children; Lorena DeJesus, SF Juvenile Probation; Jayson Dowker, LYRIC; Sabrina Forte, Bay Area Legal Aid; Robynne Jeisman, Old Skool Café; Rebecca Marcus, Juvenile Public Defender; Elisabet Medina, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center; Xariah Oliver, LYRIC; Anastazia Skye, LYRIC; Josette Ty, LYRIC; Cris Youssef, LYRIC;

 

Workgroup lead:

Elisabet Medina, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center

 

Work Group Goal:

Develop and align on a comprehensive housing roadmap for all children and TAY in San Francisco who have been trafficked for sex and/or labor, from emergency to long-term support, both within and outside of the foster care system. Align on goals, roles of individual service providers, and ideal timeline to be able to apply for funding as a group of organizations to bring our plan to life. By December 2017, the work group will have a list of housing and placement recommendations.

 

  1. Setting the Intention

The work group brainstormed answers to the following questions:

  1. What does success look and feel like for SF? What are the major outcomes and results we’ve achieved?
    1. Housing first model defined by stability in order to progress with school, therapy etc.
    2. Youth gain a sense of safety and connection
    3. Navigation of system through peer support
      1. Work 1:1 with youth in a peer model to help navigate housing options
      2. Peer advocates are well-paid and have benefits

 

  1. What were some of the key improvements we made to achieve this success?
    1. What housing resources exist? Identify and bridge gaps. Having a list of options accessible-real time availability online.
    2. Accountability and collaboration for systems.
    3. Training for housing providers
    4. Information sharing between systems
    5. Low barrier-requirements to provide documentation of diagnosis, transportation to intake.
    6. Name and address barriers-for example: specific to CSEC-How defined? Can be a barrier to accessing services and a complicating factor if a youth’s experience is not represented by the definition.

 

  1. What was the role of our work group in creating or inspiring these outcomes and strategies?
    1. Learn from other locations and use evidence based practices
    2. Trauma-informed: Avoid Triggering
    3. Understand where there is discretion in accessing housing with the systems involved.

 

  1. Initial Stakeholder and Landscape Mapping
    1. Youth
    2. Health Care Providers
    3. LYRIC
    4. LGBT centers
    5. Community Based Organizations (frontline staff and leadership)
    6. Foster Care
    7. Juvenile Justice
    8. Department of Children, Youth and Families
    9. Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing
    10. Department of Public Health
    11. Lawyers who represent youth (East Bay Law Office was mentioned as an example) to inform what youth are entitled to mental health and other services.
    12. Judges who make decisions about where youth live
    13. Schools

 

 

  1. Job Readiness and Job Placements Workgroup

Members: Sareom Choi, API Legal Outreach; Laura Hackney, Annie Cannons; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT

 

Workgroup lead:

Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT

 

Work Group Goal:

Expand employment and vocational training services for survivors

 

Notes:

The group began by discussing the current landscape for job placement in San Francisco. Barriers to successful job training and employment identified by the group included: language, education level, cost, and successful job placement. The group would like to survey existing job placement programs. AnnieCannons facilitates trainings in technology for survivors at no cost and ultimately creates independent contracted work for survivors through AnnieCannons.  Antonia will look into the Jewish Vocational Services.  The group discussed how a job readiness/job placement program could be structured.  The ideal program would have training services in several businesses which ultimately have the potential to lead to permanent placements.  These training and placement programs could live on a sort of job board for case workers to access and search through when helping clients.  The placements could have either a specialized field focus (vocational training) or a further education pathway. 

 

The next steps for this workgroup are as follows:

 

  1. Identify 5 service providers- Love Never Fails, API, Annie Cannons, Huckleberry House, Larkin, and Jewish Vocational Services. Survey on frustrations, existing protocol for job placement, whether they receive feedback from clients for preferred job placements and job trainings, whether they partner or send referrals to any existing businesses, whether they train on life skills.

 

  1. Identify Stakeholders- Juvenile hall, non-profits, foster care, family and children’s services, school districts, large businesses.

 

  1. Address barriers to successful job placements (GED balance, language barriers, and work permits).

 

  1. Identify best practices and analyze the survey. Discuss the long-term goal of creating a database with updated open positions and training for case managers to access and connect clients with. 

 

V. Next Youth Trafficking committee meeting is July 12th from 1:30-3:00pm