Rob Morris
In this report, what we hope impacts you the most are the voices of children. Too often I hear children referred to as “voiceless” or “silent.” I don’t think that’s accurate.
We’ve asked children in our programs what they think of the term “voiceless,” and they passionately insist that they have a voice. What we need are more people listening — and then adding their own voices to amplify the voices of children. In 2002 during the UN General Assembly’s Special Session on Children, two young delegates representing the children of the world made the following statement: “We are children whose voices are not being heard: it is time we are taken into account.”
Jimmy and Crystal, two of the children whose voices are heard in this report, talk about what they see as beautiful in the world: things like friends, new shoes, swimming, and an education. At Love146, we believe the most beautiful things in the world are actually children.
In the content here, we look at the last year and celebrate what we have accomplished together. I hope you are as thrilled as I am when you see the impact we’ve had and the significant strides we are making toward creating a safer world for children. Jasmine, a 9-year-old in our care, sums things up by stating that there are more people in the world who love and care about children than there are those who seek to harm them. Thank you for being part of that majority. Thank you for listening to their voices in this report, and for amplifying their voices by investing in their futures.
Our Approach to Survivor Care
We don’t take a “one size fits all” approach to any child. We listen to their needs and desires. We shape programs to consider different vulnerabilities and cultural backgrounds. While many things are different for each location, in all our global Survivor Care work...
*Child pictured is a model and not known to be exploited.
AS OF JUNE 2015
survivors were served by our Survivor Care programs globally.
survivors were served through our Round Home in the Philippines for girls.
survivors were served through our White Home in the Philippines for boys.
children of our Round Home clients in the Philippines were served.
survivors were served through our U.K. Survivor Care.
survivors were provided with long-term support through our U.S. Survivor Care.
youth received “rapid responses,” one-time support meetings through U.S. Survivor Care.
case consultations were provided to caregivers and providers regarding at-risk youth.
Local and Global
Love146 is at a unique vantage point: we started in Southeast Asia and expanded to the US and UK. Our experience in the developing world informs our programs in the developed world, and vice versa. Things we learn in the Philippines impact the way we think about working with children in Connecticut.
By working in different geographic locations, we are able to identify which components of care are regionally relevant and which are universal. For example, many of us imagine the best way to care for trafficking survivors is through a safe home, but a safe home may not be what is needed in a community with low population density or where a range of high-quality direct services already exist. In the Philippines, we provide complete care for children in safe homes where we meet all of their basic and victim-related needs — we have a dietitian, counselor, and nurse on staff. In Connecticut, we provide a trauma-informed advocate who journeys alongside the child, ensuring access to all of the available services necessary for recovery. While the format through which services are provided may differ, in both contexts, we’ve found trauma-informed care is critical. It’s also critical for survivors to know that Love146 services will not cease when they turn 18 or 21 — they will have support and love as they mature and walk forward.
In The Philippines
Our Round Home in the Philippines is uniquely built and designed to facilitate the restoration and holistic health of every girl entering its doors. A tree house is regularly the venue for therapy sessions. A volleyball court is available to play on. There’s even a punching bag for children to work out their aggression. The physical structure of the Round Home is intended to promote reflectiveness, a sense of peace, freedom, dignity, and self-esteem, as well as playfulness so that children can simply be children again.
The approach to our care in the Philippines is attuned to the needs of the exploited and traumatized child. It is characterized by efforts to keep the child safe and well-provided for. We work to instill hope, effect healing, promote growth, facilitate the release of potential, and enable them to come full circle, liberated from traumas and suffering to realize their innate worth.
After years of providing direct care to dozens of girls, Love146 began working to reach street children who were at an incredibly high risk of being sexually exploited or who had already been trafficked. We opened a temporary feeding shelter in an area where we suspected that the business of child sex trafficking and exploitation was thriving. Through this effort, we were introduced to boys who came through our doors asking for care. We knew we had to respond, and we created the White Home.
Since opening its doors in the spring of 2014, the Love146 White Home has cared for exploited boys, providing them with holistic care, including medical attention, nutrition, therapy, formal and informal education, and vocational training, all to help them walk toward recovery and prevent future exploitation.
In The United States
Over the years, we have heard stories about exploitation and trafficking of children in the United States. We also heard our supporters ask, “When will you help kids here in our own backyard?” We began by listening. We talked with survivors of child sex trafficking in the US, asking them what sort of care they would have liked to have. We listened to government officials, asking them what was actually needed.
After much research, we realized that while many services for children exist in the US, service providers are generally not familiar with human trafficking, and few survivors have a trauma-informed advocate who understands human trafficking and can help them gain access to the services they need. Youth who have been trafficked are at higher risk for further exploitation; thus, one of the first things we tell a youth is, “We go where you go. If you move placements, or foster homes, or run away and come back, we will always be there.” By journeying with the youth, Love146 helps ensure that youth receive victim-centered services and the support they need to become self-sufficient and flourishing adults, which includes freedom from revictimization.
In addition to offering long-term services, our US Survivor Care program also includes Rapid Responses, providing youth who have been identified as trafficked, exploited, or at high risk with information and safety planning. We talk about the grooming process traffickers use, internet safety, healthy relationships, and solutions to potentially unsafe situations. We leave the youth with a backpack filled with items that have been identified as critical for this population: a blanket, a journal, a rain poncho, toiletries, hotline numbers, an emergency phone, and more. Some of these youth end up in our long-term care, but for those who don’t, our Rapid Responses provide information and resources to help keep these youth safe.
The feedback from youth we’ve served, as well as the local child protective services, has been phenomenal; this care is different, and it’s providing not what is expected, but what is actually needed.
Our Approach to Prevention Education
Love146 has developed Not a #Number, an interactive five-module prevention curriculum designed to teach youth how to protect themselves from human trafficking and exploitation. What makes our curriculum unique? Not a #Number...
In The United States
One of the most hopeful things we do at Love146 is work to prevent child trafficking and exploitation. Prevention work is not glamorous. It’s tough to prove effectiveness and often difficult to explain to supporters. But we’re driven by the belief that child trafficking and exploitation is simply not inevitable.
Not a #Number is a child trafficking and exploitation prevention curriculum designed to teach at-risk youth how to recognize recruitment tactics, understand vulnerabilities, and develop skills to safely navigate potential and existing exploitative situations. Youth identify healthy support systems and learn how to access community resources when situations occur that increase their vulnerability or if exploitation is already underway. We also provide resources to educate parents, caregivers, and professionals about the issue and actions they can take to help safeguard children. Not a #Number has been embraced by schools, child welfare and juvenile justice agencies, and other youth-serving organizations.
We are working to reach youth before traffickers do. We dream of the day when the trafficking and exploitation of children is prevented from happening — at all.
FROM JULY 2014 - JUNE 2015
youth received prevention education
professionals and community members received training.
professionals were certified to facilitate Not a #Number.
SINCE THE PROGRAM BEGAN IN 2010:
youth received prevention education
professionals and community members received training.
A Story of Prevention
Carrie just turned 16 when her friend committed suicide. Anxious and shaken, she found a local center offering support services for youth who’d experienced trauma. She happened to visit the day the center began a Not a #Number group. The discussion got her attention, and she asked if she could come back. During the fourth week, Carrie shared how she had already used what she’d learned.
Carrie works part-time at a chain restaurant. One evening after finishing a shift, she sat down at a booth in the corner, waiting for her mom to pick her up. She noticed a man sit down a few tables over, but didn’t pay much attention. Exhausted, she took her cap off and put her head down.
Moments later, the man approached and said, “Hello, how are you?” Carrie glanced up, wondering if he needed help. “Do you work [here]?” he asked. “Are you a manager here?” Carrie was puzzled, since she was still in her uniform and clearly not old enough to be a manager.
“You just seem important, like you’re suited for a high-end position.” He went on, “I’m waiting for my friend here. She’s new in town – could you tell her more about working [here]?”
Feeling uncomfortable, Carrie moved closer to the checkout counter so fellow employees could see her. But a woman approached on the other side and blocked her. She began showering Carrie with compliments: “Oh my goodness, you’re so pretty.”
Carrie told the Not a #Number group, “I managed to get away. I made an excuse and went to get my manager, but moments later both the man and the woman were gone. Because of what we’ve talked about at Not a #Number, I paid closer attention and knew to trust my gut. The woman wasn’t looking well, and I wondered if she was trafficked. But I knew I didn’t want to be a victim, so I had to get out of there. Everything happens for a reason, you know? Maybe that’s why I came to this class, just for that moment so that I would be safe.”
Stay Safe Out There
To supplement our prevention education, in 2015 Love146 launched two Online Safety Guides: one for youth and one for parents and caregivers. Like it or not, the Internet is fully integrated into our culture. For many youth, it is a positive and powerful space for socializing, learning, and engaging in public life. Like anything else, there are risks and the Internet presents unique opportunities for harm. Traffickers and others who set out to abuse and exploit children often use chatting and social networks to recruit.
This year, Love146 launched web-based materials helping youth and caring adults understand risk, while providing some simple strategies for identifying red flags and staying safe. Within a few months of the launch in April 2015, Love146’s Online Safety Guides had reached nearly 8,000 online visitors. Twitter included a link to Love146 as a partner in its Safety Center resources and promoted our Online Safety Guide for youth. National Public Radio’s KQED included the Safety Guide in its piece, “What Makes the Internet Dangerous?”
For Hospitality Professionals
“Hi, would you like to hear about how you can help fight sex trafficking in your hotel?” So goes the introduction that members of Love146 local volunteer groups made to 104 motels and hotels in the last year. Volunteer groups in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas mobilized and reached out to the hospitality industry as a part of Love146’s Community Empowerment Initiatives. These initiatives are targeted at training the “eyes and ears” of a community so that child trafficking and exploitation can no longer go undetected.
Hotel and motel employees can play important roles in the fight against trafficking; for example, a hotel housekeeper may notice a constant flow of new people coming in and out of the room and make a call to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. As one participant noted, “Knowing that we had brought attention to the issue to hospitality staff was a rewarding experience for all of us. Knowing that this attention could translate to actions is what gives us hope and keeps us going.”
Additionally this year, the executive team at Preferred Hotels, the marketing arm for an international collection of boutique hotels, began working with Love146. Our partnership kicked off with a training for members of the executive team. This training is planned to reach throughout the organization in coming years.
Steve Martin
When the need is so large, focusing in is a challenge. With more than 13 years experience, we’ve learned how and where to best invest our time, people, and funding. During our last year, we strategically focused on growing our Survivor Care impact in the US, UK, and the Philippines, and thoughtfully positioning our Prevention Education to scale in the coming years. When we see the outcomes reflected in the lives of children, all the hours of deliberations and evaluations are worth the effort!
So as we look to our next year, we’re examining how each opportunity:
As our work grows, so does the need for increased cost-effective oversight and support processes. I’m humbled to work alongside an extraordinary global team that carries this responsibility with pride, while keeping the children we serve as the most important stakeholders in this organization.
We’re reaching more children because of the generosity of so many individuals, businesses, churches, foundations, youth groups, and schools. The voices of these partners, combined with those of the children we serve, is a rallying call growing louder each day, demanding Abolition! Thank you for adding your voice and making the world a safer place for children.
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