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.

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.

150 years later, organizations like Polaris Project are striving to undertake that same battle again. Each day 42 staff members come to work to fight modern-day slavery and human trafficking to ensure that all people have access to that same human right of freedom.

So today, I invite all of you to take a moment to reflect what this day marks in American history, and what’s still left to accomplish. If we freed enslaved people once, we can do it again. There are action steps you can take as an informed citizen to make this happen. Here are 3 to get you started.

1. Sign up for the Polaris Project grassroots network. Learn about local ways to get involved and help survivors rebuild their lives.
2. Check out the activities taking place today, I’ve included a list below for your convenience.
3. Share this blog!

Events taking place around D.C.

• DC Emancipation Day 150th Anniversary Debate
• DC Emancipation Day Celebration at Lincoln’s Cottage
• DC Emancipation Parade down Pennsylvania Ave
• Emancipation Day Scavenger hunt

Photo Credit: Washington City Paper

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.

When we met Claudia, she didn’t know where she was. Her traffickers had moved her around and she was unfamiliar with her surroundings.  For all she knew, she could have been in New York, Miami or any other place in the United States. She didn’t speak the language, and she was very afraid that something was going to happen to her if she were to try and leave the place where her traffickers were holding her.

Claudia had several immediate needs. We transferred her from emergency housing into one of our transitional housing units.  She had some health concerns and we needed to get her health insurance so that she could get the medical attention she needed. We also began looking into different educational programs that would meet her needs. She wasn’t able to access school for a long time and she wanted to continue her education, so we connected her to a school.

We also began providing Claudia with emotional support. Providing comfort, assistance, and companionship was crucial for her to continue looking into her future and feeling that she had hope.

The transitional housing played a fundamental role in Claudia’s recovery. She was able to focus on other needs without having to worry where she was going to live the next day. Claudia would constantly tell us that her apartment brought her the peace of mind that she needed after leaving her trafficking situation.

Now, it is exciting to see that she is taking GED classes and will be taking the exam in just six months!  Claudia is determined to go to college next year. After college, she wants to go to law school. It’s her deepest desire to be an advocate for victims who have gone through similar situations. We are now working on a plan to help her accomplish her goal.

Here in the Client Services Department, we are transforming individual lives. When the survivors we’ve been able to assist look back at who they were when we met them, they do not recognize themselves.  Today, they see a completely different person. They are full of hope for the future and our role was to be there for them.

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.

We decided to start with West Virginia. For the next seven months, we devoted ourselves to building a coalition of advocates and constructing a legal framework to end human trafficking in that state.

Our efforts focused on three fronts: (1) Legislative Advocacy; (2) Coalition Building and Mobilizing Grassroots Community; and (3) Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Engagement. We set out in November 2011 to meet with Delegate Bonnie Brown, Delegate Tim Miley (Chair of House Judiciary), and Legislative Counsel. After giving our assessment of the law and receiving a favorable review by the Chair we turned over our initial draft to help inform the legislative counsel’s official draft.

Over the next several months we focused exclusively on building a coalition and gaining the support of prosecutors. We first reached out to Professor Newfield of West Virginia University who in turn put us in touch with Mr. Sam Hickman, the Executive Director of the West Virginia branch of the National Association of Social Workers.  I travelled to West Virginia to meet with Mr. Hickman along with  several advocates in the community who shared their knowledge about the inner workings of the West Virginia legislature.  We then joined forces with the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, several other law professors, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services, and additional members of the Sexual Assault Coalition. On the law enforcement side, the Sexual Assault Coalition worked closely with law enforcement from Morgantown and we reached out to Paul Sheridan, head of the Civil Rights Division in the Attorney General’s Office, for their support as well. Working with our partner organization, International Justice Mission (IJM), we began mobilizing grassroots efforts by getting supporters more engaged in the legislative process.

Over the next 60 days Polaris Project and IJM worked in concert with the dozen or so individuals and organizations that had dedicated themselves to this cause. We testified several times before the House Judiciary Committee, educating members on the crime of human trafficking and what effective legislation should look like. We worked closely with the subcommittee and legislative counsel to develop a strong human trafficking bill for West Virginia. We met with individual members on the House Judiciary and Finance Committees, as well as leadership on both the House and Senate sides to encourage support for the measure when it came up for a vote. The West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence also hosted a lobby day to show public support for the bill.

On the last day of session, Saturday, March 10th an 11th hour deal was struck. Under the new bill labor and sex trafficking would be criminalized, there would be no requirement of proving force, threat, or deception for minors induced to engage in commercial sex, and training for law enforcement officers on human trafficking investigations was authorized. The bill is currently awaiting the Governor’s signature. You can still add your voice to the fight by signing our petition on change.org and ensuring that human trafficking is finally made a crime in West Virginia.

We are thrilled that West Virginia is joining the fight against modern-day slavery after the guidance, determination, and tenacity of a strong and effective coalition. While we all approached the issue from different angles, for 60 days we spoke as one voice with a message of hope that a new law would one day finally protect victims and, ultimately, stop the criminals who profit from the exploitation of vulnerable people.

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.

Polaris Project New Jersey has developed a photography program for the victims of human trafficking we serve. The one-year program starts with beginner-level classes and advances through five stages. Four to six clients will be in each class.

The goal of this photography program is to help our clients not only tell their stories, but the stories of others. This medium gives them the opportunity to share the voice they want to share, and invest in concrete skills they can use in building their future.

We are excited to have already received donations of multiple disposable cameras to help us implement our program. The first beginner class was earlier this month. The survivors who have enrolled are incredibly enthusiastic about their work and the future possibilities. As they learn how to effectively operate a camera, understand the complexity of photography, and continue to develop their craft, we hope other venues and individuals may be willing to donate more cameras to the cause.

Starting this fall, we will be partnering with New Jersey and New York art therapy programs and local artists to create a sustainable artistic program in the New Jersey office. We greatly appreciate this initiative. As this partnership continues, we hope to make advanced classes available for clients who have completed our program so that they can continue their education with resources The New School can provide. By that point, participating clients will have a concrete and marketable set of skills that they can use to sell their photography and also gain scholarships into local universities. It is also our hope that the survivors that graduate from the program will feel empowered to teach beginner courses of photography to other survivors.

This program has been designed using the survivors’ input. It is not only a therapy program, but also promotes social change and economic stability.

If you would like to help these survivors build a foundation from which they can propel themselves into stable, independent lifestyles, please visit our Amazon wish list and purchase a camera that survivors can use throughout their yearlong course.

Photo credit: RiverOfGod

“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.

Can You Walk Away? Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in the United States is part of a year-long commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was developed at Lincoln’s Cottage.

I was able to attend a preview event of the exhibit, where Erin Carlson Mast, the Director of President Lincoln’s Cottage explained that the Cottage has an obligation to explore the modern impact of Lincoln’s presidency and his ideas. Looking at how slavery manifests today is a key element of that.  “Plenty of Americans see slavery as an issue that was resolved during the Civil War or by the 13th Amendment in the war’s aftermath, not as a growing humanitarian crisis,” said Mast.

I was involved in some of the exhibit planning, but I still found myself moved by the exhibit. I walked into a dark room, and was immediately introduced to the issue with video footage of interviews with survivors. After watching a woman explain how she was forced into domestic servitude in Falls Church, VA,  or a girl describe how she was forced into the commercial sex trade, I then saw three books along the wall, each illuminated by a single spotlight. These books explain: What is modern slavery?  Who is vulnerable? How do we end human trafficking?

After reading this information, I could then tear off a card attached to the wall to learn how I can personally help combat trafficking. Some of these actions include reporting a tip to the national human trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888, sending a postcard to President Obama or signing up for the email lists of Polaris Project and President Lincoln’s Cottage. It’s rare for a museum to have such an interactive piece – visitors can actually remove something from the display itself! And it’s definitely my favorite aspect of the exhibit.

At the preview, Polaris Project Executive Director Bradley Myles expressed his appreciation for being invited by Lincoln’s Cottage to partner on this exhibit. He then described why so many people consider human trafficking a modern form of slavery.  “Those who traffic vulnerable people for profit are actively looking to take away that person’s freedom. They use force, fraud and coercion to manipulate people into the sex trade, to work in factories and fields, to become domestic servants.”

According to the UN, at least 12 million people are held against their will in compelled service across the globe. While Mast acknowledged that there are clear differences in slavery past and present, she also emphasized that, “Fundamentally, the same issue is at stake: People’s right to freedom.”

Bradley Myles said he hoped visitors will understand that they are an important part of the solution. He outlined some of the progress that has already been made in recent years. President Obama named January Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In 2000, Congress passed the first federal law against human trafficking. Forty-eight states now have criminal laws against trafficking. And of course, our own hotline has helped some 5,500 trafficking survivors connect to services all over the country.

“Doing this work for the past ten years, we have learned that when we show people the realities of what victims of human trafficking face every day, it is nearly impossible to walk away without wanting to join the growing movement to fight these human rights abuses,” said Myles.

You can visit the exhibit at the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center at President Lincoln’s Cottage during their hours of operation: 9:30am-4:30pm Mon-Sat, 10:30am-4:30pm Sunday. Tours of the Lincolns Cottage itself are available on the hour.

For more information on President Lincoln’s Cottage, visit: www.lincolncottage.org.

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.

In particular, we want to give special thanks to a group of international students attending United World College, USA. They sent in our largest submission with a total of 36 photos!

This compilation of photos demonstrates how one idea can resonate across borders and bring people together from all walks of life. As a group united against trafficking, we can create a powerful force against slavery. If you haven’t already, please join us and become a part of our Grassroots Network.

Many thanks to everyone who submitted a picture. Your enthusiasm and dedication are an inspiration and can help unite us all against human trafficking.

To show our gratitude to all of you who submitted photos or took our Human Trafficking Awareness Day pledge, we have randomly selected five people to receive a DVD copy of Not My Life. These people will be notified shortly.