THE POLARIS PROJECT BLOG

Often times as a society we want to push for overall systemic change – new laws, international treaties, or government structures that can address the problems we seek to end. However, there is a danger that we can lose sight of what these changes mean on the individual level for those who have suffered. We must ask ourselves, how does international recognition of the issue or new policies translate to the services we provide for survivors? For this reason, it is imperative to have survivors’ voices be heard and to have their unique perspectives recognized in every aspect of our fight against human trafficking.

With this in mind, the Client Services department at Polaris Project embodies the values of service, empowerment and a holistic-centered approach in the support that we provide the survivors we serve.  Survivors’ input and perspective is important in the programs we develop and the assistance that we provide. We also recognize that the language we use and the tools we implement can impact the transformative change that a survivor may undergo from survivor to leader.

We grapple with these concepts in our approach to better serve survivors and address their needs. Three months ago the DC Client Services department asked staff to help create workshops and empowerment tools to assist our clients in their healing process and teach them any skills that they would like to learn.  With this in mind the Polaris Project staff members helped create the following workshops to address particular areas that the clients had expressed interest in wanting to learn.

• Knitting circle
• Creative Writing Workshop
• Computer skills Workshop
• Budgeting Skills Workshop
• Job training/employment Workshop
• Spanish Therapy group

The goal of these workshops is to provide both a form of therapy through which the survivors can express themselves and to teach a skill that they can use in their own professional development. In each of these workshops, I have witnessed the formation of a sisterhood through which survivors have built close-knit relationships while providing each other with the much-needed support that each one deserves. As we work alongside survivors to brainstorm and create survivor-led workshops and partnerships with outside organizations, survivors will continue to view themselves as leaders and understand that they are the true voices of the anti-trafficking movement.

Your contribution to this program would be greatly appreciated and would directly impact the survivors of human trafficking that we serve.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), introduced in 2000, greatly increased America’s efforts to protect victims, assist survivors, improve prevention methods and successfully prosecute traffickers. Even though the TVPA has been reauthorized three times by bipartisan majorities, it was allowed to expire in September of 2011.

To help move this critical legislation forward, Polaris Project, World Vision, International Justice Mission (IJM), and Safe Horizon are joining together to urge Congress to renew the TVPRA and help end slavery.

TAKE ACTION NOW
Now this is where we need you to take immediate action. Help us get the attention of Senators from across the country to co-sponsor the TVPRA by April 30. All you have to do is click on the buttons below to instantly tweet at your Senators and urge them to take action for victims of human trafficking.

To see a full list of current co-sponsors, please click here.

For more information on critical anti-trafficking legislation click here.

Community Members Learn About Trafficking in Their Own Backyards

NJ Community Members

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Last month, Polaris Project New Jersey hosted a community summit on human trafficking. More than 160 New Jersey community members and leaders were in attendance! The summit was tailored to educate local community members about human trafficking, prevalence of the crime on a local level, and ways to get involved.

Presenters included Polaris Project New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), human trafficking survivors, and leaders from the community. The presenters provided a well-rounded education and discussion about human trafficking with community members, including fieldwork narratives from law enforcement and moving stories told by two local survivors. Both of these survivors were incredibly brave to stand up in front of the crowd and explain to the audience how they were manipulated into commercial sex by their “boyfriends” and how hard it was to escape their situations. (Read more about the survivor stories from one summit participant, Trauma Therapist Andrea Goldberg, who described the summit on her blog.)  These stories were essential in reminding audiences why we work every day to fight human trafficking and help survivors recover and regain control over their lives.

Participants also heard detailed accounts of DHS’s involvement in the Afolabi hair braiding case that occurred in East Orange, NJ. The agent described the methods of manipulation and control used by the traffickers, the countless hours the victims were forced to work, and the months of preparation that went into prosecuting the family network of traffickers.

This summit exceeded expectations for us. Every day we work with women and girls who were forced into commercial sex or labor in every county of New Jersey. The individuals we serve in our Newark office were primarily born in the United States and trafficked right here in our state.  Our goal with this summit was to engage community members to help them learn how to identify human trafficking and to participate in finding solutions.  The turnout from the community was amazing and the impact of the training on the participants was palpable.

For those of you who attended the summit, and even for those who didn’t, you can continue the fight against human trafficking by visiting our website for ideas on how to stay engaged in your local community. We also created an online form that you can complete to help us brainstorm new and innovative ways to fight human trafficking locally. I strongly encourage you to discuss these questions with your organization, community group, family, or friends and I look forward to sharing these innovative ideas at future summit events.

On this day, 150 years ago, more than 3,000 people were freed from slavery in Washington, D.C. Nine months in advance of the full Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln granted slaves in the District of Columbia the most precious human right, freedom. [Read more →]

Two years ago, we met Claudia. The local police had contacted us because they needed us to provide emergency services for a victim of human trafficking.  When we arrived at the station to pick her up, we gave Claudia food, clothes and secured emergency housing for the night. [Read more →]

Collaborative Effort Urges West Virginia to become the 49th State to Criminalize Human Trafficking

In the summer of 2011, Polaris Project’s Policy Team reflected on a year of great accomplishment after helping pass 17 new anti-human trafficking laws across the country, including criminalizing human trafficking offenses for the first time in Hawaii, Virginia, and Vermont. Despite these victories, we looked across our State Ratings Map with a sense of overwhelming urgency of what the next year would bring. Two states remained that had never criminalized human trafficking – West Virginia and Wyoming – and we were committed to addressing this gap. [Read more →]

When I tell people I work on the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline, the most common reaction I get is, “Wow, that must be hard.”  Usually I respond that no, it’s not hard, because I love being able to help people.  But the truth is, sometimes it is hard.  The hardest part, after hearing a story of cruelty and abuse, is doing your best to help but not knowing how the story ends.  But then there are those moments when we learn about a victim who was able to escape and find shelter after she called us, or a trafficker who was brought to justice, and the hard work becomes so worthwhile.

Thanks to the work of our law enforcement contacts in Chicago, IL, we now know the successful end to one more case.  After more than a year of waiting, we learned that a trafficker, Rubicela Montero, was prosecuted and sentenced as a result of a tip to the national hotline! She was sentenced to eight years in prison for forcing young women and girls to provide commercial sex.

The anonymous woman who called our hotline one summer night to get help must have had many things going through her mind before dialing the number.  Reading the news reports  which followed her trafficker’s conviction, you can see all the reasons she had not to call.  She had been threatened with shame – her own family might reject her if they found out she had been involved in prostitution, even if it was by force.  She had been threatened with deportation – she might be unable to provide for her children and might never see them again.  She had been threatened with death.

In spite of all this, she bravely chose to call us anyway.  I can’t presume to know what was in our caller’s mind that night, but I believe maybe it had to do with the fact that she was not the only victim.  In addition to everything that had happened to her, she knew that at least one underage girl was also being abused.  And so she called, not just for herself, but for all of them.

The NHTRC reported the information provided by the woman to our contacts on the Chicago Human Trafficking Task Force.  She had given us so little – just a partial address, and a phone number.  And so, the waiting began.

The task force did not give up on the case, even with so little to go on.  For months, they scoured the local Spanish-language dailies until they finally found a hit. First, the number showed up in an ad offering jobs to young women.  Then, it turned up again in the classifieds, offering men “VIP Fantasies.”  Shortly thereafter, the task force arrested Montero and identified the victims, including a 16-year-old girl, and the woman who had bravely called the NHTRC so many months earlier.

Because of the creative investigating of the Chicago Task Force, one more trafficker is behind bars.  Because the NHTRC answered the phone in the middle of the night, the Task Force had a lead to follow.

Working in the human trafficking field is hard, but it’s also full of successes like this case.  Success is about teamwork among service providers and law enforcement.  Success is about prosecutions making human trafficking a less-profitable and higher-risk career.  Success is about making sure that those who have been exploited receive help and the opportunity to live out their dreams.

Success begins with a call.

Photo credit: Marc Fischer

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything,” said Aaron Siskind, a revered American photographer of the 30s and 40s. What each photographer chooses to catch on film is a creative outlet for that individual; an inspiration that withstands the test of time. And for victims of trauma; this art form can be therapeutic. [Read more →]

“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature – opposition to it, in his love of justice,” President Lincoln said in an 1854 speech. This weekend, President Lincoln’s Cottage has partnered with Polaris Project to launch an exhibit that will open people’s eyes to the realities of modern slavery and human trafficking. [Read more →]

On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, January 11th, Polaris Project launched a month-long campaign to raise awareness about trafficking through photographs. We asked you to make a sign and tell the world that you want to take a stand against human trafficking. We received pictures from church groups, swim teams, artists and many others who joined together in the common desire to end human trafficking.  There were submissions from as far as Chab Dai, an anti-trafficking group based in Cambodia. [Read more →]