6/22 WEBINAR: Reducing Demand for Commercial Sex

HHS Rescue & Restore to Host WebEx Training
“Reducing Demand for Commercial Sex”

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Summary
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is hosting a series of free, online WebEx training sessions on a variety of topics related to human trafficking.  The information session on Wednesday, June 22, will focus on how to reduce demand for commercial sex and address the following:

• San Francisco's First Offender Prostitution Program (FOPP), commonly known as the "John School";
• Benefits of the FOPP for the community and the criminal justice system; and
• Intervention services for prostituted adults.

Presenter

Ms. Kristie Miller, Administrative Manager

Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) Project

The Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) Project is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization with one primary aim: to bring an end to human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of children and adults. SAGE contributes to this goal by raising awareness about trafficking and CSE issues and by providing treatment services for survivors. 

Ms. Miller has worked for the SAGE Project since 2002, where she had the privilege of being personally mentored by renowned CSE expert and SAGE Project Founder Norma Hotaling. Currently SAGE Project’s Administrative Manager, Ms. Miller coordinates and moderates San Francisco's FOPP.

How to Register: 

To register for the Wednesday, June 22th, 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) training session, please click on the link below (or place it into your Internet browser):

https://mman.webex.com/mman/j.php?ED=148133757&RG=1&UID=1167883417&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D

Multiple participants from an organization are encouraged to register one individual for the session; participants can view the training through one computer and a speaker phone. 

For those of you not familiar with WebEx trainings, all you need is access to a computer, the Internet, and your phone. 

After you register, the WebEx system will send you a confirmation e-mail with login information for both the web and the teleconference portions.  Please save the confirmation email because it includes the following information:

• Toll-free phone number and participant passcode for the audio portion of the training session;
• and Web site link and passcode (same as the phone passcode) so you can view the PowerPoint (ppt) presentation as it is being presented.  The ppt will advance automatically during the training session. 

As part of the WebEx session, you can ask the presenter questions.  Once on the call, the technician will guide you on how to ask questions orally.  The speaker will answer questions during the last 15 minutes of the presentation.

Why I'm Pursuing a Masters In Mental Health Counseling - From Our Founder

As I have shared with some people the clear direction God has given me to pursue a Masters in Mental Health Counseling, their doubt and bewilderment is something most cannot easily hide. For what it's worth, had someone recommended a year ago for me to do this I would have laughed and said all we need is Jesus and the Word, (pridefully confident that my license as a minister was suffice) dismissing the value of a professional and specialized education. Without going into all the detail of having dreams for the past 2 years of me being in a classroom studying for my Masters (although I had no idea what I was studying....it was obvious it was not art), prophetic words being spoken over me and the overwhelming support of my husband and the advisory board of Beauty From Ashes have provided me, I began taking graduate level courses this summer at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).

The reason I chose FGCU is because their Mental Health Counseling program was recommended by some of BFA's advisers (Doctors, mental health practitioners & college professors [not at FGCU]) as one of the best local schools for such. (The fact that it's literally down the street less than 15 minutes was not even factored in until after the decision was made).

Additionally, 5 months ago I began taking a 2 year course in Transformational Prayer Ministry, a therapy model that has been used successfully on me for over 6 years. I am walking proof of its effectiveness. I'm also taking courses with the American Association of Christian Counseling, of which I've been a member of for over 5 years.

I knew that 2010 meant that God was moving me into a season of new beginnings and manifestation as it was the 8th year since I rededicated my life. Just like God, it certainly has proven to be exceedingly abundantly more than I dreamed, imagined or prayed for.

The following is my official statement of purpose for grad school. Although I am already taking graduate level courses for this Master's program (registered by the head of the department = favor), to be officially admitted to it I have to complete a standardized test, the MAT, which I plan on taking 6/18. (Please pray for me as it's very intimidating to even study for). Once I complete it and have been accepted, I will be able to apply for financial aid, work study, etc. It's worth noting that my summer school funding was provided for 100% and it served as yet another confirmation that this indeed is what I need to be doing for this season in my life. I expect to receive my degree May 2013.

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Statement of Purpose
Florida Gulf Coast University Mental Health Counseling Graduate Program

“What about me and my life has influenced my decision to become a counselor?”

It is because of who I am today, what I have overcome and what my personal and community goals are that I know for certain that acquiring a Master of Arts Counseling – Mental Health Counseling from Florida Gulf Coast University is exactly what I need to do for this season in my life.

In 2005, I founded the not for profit, faith based, public charity, Beauty From Ashes Ministries, Inc. Based out of Lee County, Florida, we work with victims of commercialized sexual exploitation and trafficking locally and nationally. Our purpose is to EDUCATE the community, ADVOCATE for victims, implement REACH, RESCUE and RESTORE programs and provide safeHOMES (residential recovery homes).

We meet and assist with victims’ practical needs by providing them and their families with support, life skill development, assistance with education, job placement, relocation, short term and/or residential housing, as well as addiction rehabilitation. We assist individuals in the transition out of and/or away from destructive and emotionally damaging lifestyles by providing guidance and direction for situations brought about by their choices such as substance abuse, pregnancy, occultism, prostitution, abortion, etc. We help them to deal constructively with the consequences their decisions to be involved with this industry and lifestyle have produced. Teaching them responsibility, character development and how to daily maintain a stable and productive life is our objective. It is also our purpose to network with and support other organizations dedicated to the same and/or similar goals in assisting individuals and families that desire a healthier lifestyle.

I have personal experience as a victim of commercialized sexual exploitation and human trafficking, as well as domestic and sexual violence. In addition, growing up without a father and having been divorced, I have benefited greatly from receiving professional counseling. When I was able to break free from the bondages of sex slavery, I determined in my heart to do something for the countless others I saw there hopelessly feeling trapped and abandoned by family and society.

More recently, the following came to my attention: The 2009 National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) stated that approximately 300,000 minors a year are being forced into prostitution here in the United States. These children are our citizens and currently the United States gives millions of dollars to assist illegal immigrants that are victims of human trafficking and to help victims internationally, but little to nothing for our own citizens. More than eighty percent of human trafficking is sex trafficking.

Domestic minor sex trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of American children within U.S. borders. It is the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” where the person is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident under the age of eighteen years. DMST includes but is not limited to the commercial sexual exploitation of children through prostitution, pornography, and /or erotic entertainment. DMST is child sex slavery, child sex trafficking, prostitution of children, commercial sexual exploitation of children and rape of a child.

The age of the victim is the critical issue - there is no requirement to prove force, fraud, or coercion was used to secure the victim’s actions. A child under eighteen years of age is automatically considered a victim of “severe forms of trafficking” due to the age alone. In fact, the law recognizes the effect of psychological manipulation by the trafficker, as well as the effect of the threat to harm which traffickers/pimps use to maintain control over their young victims. In the absence of a trafficker/pimp selling the youth, the perpetrator paying for the sex act with food, a bed, or a ride becomes the trafficker.

These traumatized children are typically being treated as criminals due to the lack of education and resources available for first responders. Sadly, there are currently less than fifty beds in specialized rehabilitation homes for domestic minor victims of human trafficking in the USA. There are also few specialized homes for adult women. Most are mainstreamed into shelters and/or residential programs that are ill equipped to properly meet the diverse needs of these people in order for them to recover. Studies show that ninety percent of adult sex workers were sexually abused as children. “The problem of prostituted children is growing because of funding cuts to mental health services, a lack of residential care programs for youth and a child welfare system that is unable to stop runaways.” (Mail Tribune Newspaper, May 26, 2010, “Rise in sex crimes involving children sparks concern”) The critical need of mental health care as an essential component to recovery is for this populace is obvious.

Becoming aware of this national crisis, the lack of federally funded comprehensive services available to these victims and facing the challenges of not being able to adequately provide for the needs of local girls and women is what has inspired me to pursue this degree. The victims and survivors are in need of long term, holistic, comprehensive services in order for them to have the opportunity to become over-comers of this social injustice. The complexity of the trauma that has occurred to these girls and women warrants specialized mental health care. I know from my own experience the benefits it served me through out my healing journey.

My experience in the commercial sex industry, working with survivors over the past five years, being a personal recipient of professional counseling for six years and Beauty From Ashes’ advisers have influenced my decision to pursue this degree. I have become painfully aware that I am not fully equipped to most effectively work with victims and survivors of sex trafficking. Although the survivors typically immediately relate to me, due to my past, I am still in need of professional counseling skills and licensing in order to best serve this populace. Having been an aftercare provider that has faced the heart shaking experiences and disillusionment of wondering why these survivors behave in the manner they do, I also recognize the need of the caretakers for sound counseling, which I hope that I can also provide once I am licensed.

From my greatest pain has come my most profound and significant mission in life. Beauty From Ashes’ vision is that domestic victims will be given the opportunity to receive the services they need in order to recover from the trauma and injustices done to them. My purpose is to acquire a mental health counseling degree and licensure because it will better equip me to accomplish this goal and professionally qualify me to work with this unique and extremely wounded populace. Because I am the founder and chief executive officer of the public charity, achieving this goal will also bring credentials to the organization as it better serves the community through education, advocacy and implementation of reach, rescue and restoration programs.

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The cost for graduate school will be approximately $25,000. Beauty From Ashes has set up a separate fund for my schooling. If you feel led to sow into my future & that of BFA, we can provide you a tax deductible donation receipt. You can give securely online through our website, http://www.beautyfromashes.org, or mail your check, money order or cash to Beauty From Ashes, 5100 S. Cleveland Ave., Ste. 318-148, Fort Myers, FL 33907. Please notate, Julie's Education Fund & thank you!

Julie Shematz

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Julie Shematz studied as Art Education K-12, Visual Communication Design, Fine Arts & Learning Disabilities at Purdue University. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana University. She plans on studying art & play therapy as a component to mental health counseling.

Beauty From Ashes Ministries

Complexities of Acquiring a ‘Normal’ Job for Survivors of Commercialized Sexual Exploitation

The following questions were asked to our Co-Founder & over-comer, Julie Shematz, by reporter Youngbee Dale of the Norfolk Human Rights Examiner. It's worth noting that in Julie's initial written response to Youngbee was the following statement: "...it's complex, as is each case individually and collectively the topic of sex trafficking and commercialized sexual exploitation. I could actually go into other factors that hinder their ability to transition into having a 'normal' job, but I'll leave it at this for now."

"Why [do] women who worked in sex industry tend to go back to the industry despite the exploitation?

Why can't they make a living out of waitressing or working at Walmart or something?" QUOTE

I believe, based upon my experience of being a woman that kept going back, even after acquiring a college degree, and of working with survivors of commercialized sexual exploitation, that a number of factors or influences pull them back into the exploitation.

One of them is the quick money, but most certainly one of the biggest challenges in reconditioning a survivor is restoring their dignity and teaching them self discipline. Most are accustomed to being told what to do or alternately, working very little to make the money they need to survive. Making healthy decisions and exercising self discipline is a huge hurdle, yet necessary for even a simple 40 hour a week job at Walmart or waitressing. Not to mention that working a 40 hour week to earn what one previously could make in an hour or two is a tough transition.

Wounding from trauma, both physical and emotional, and trauma bonding with their perpetrators/exploiters also contributes to the revolving door of sex workers, not to mention their need for affirmation and attention; although it’s unhealthy, many times it’s the only kind of affirmation they have received. When not provided with a consistently, unconditionally loving community/family/support system, they tend to return to what’s familiar, missing the only ‘family’ they consider themselves to have.

Victims and survivors are simply not stable individuals due to the fact that they have been severely wounded, abused, used and discarded often by the very individuals that were to provide them with love and protection. They do not trust anyone because they have been lied to, taken advantage of and exploited for so long. One of the first goals as a care provider is to establish trust and get them stabilized, both of which are more easily said than done.

Another factor, especially with international victims, is a lack of education (although it’s very common with domestic victims as well). Many times, their educational level is way behind their age and especially with minors, that produces the challenges of schooling them. We have had to register survivors in private schools and basically home school them because they would not attend public schools due the fact that, although body-wise they were an adult woman, not to mention street wise, but scholastically they had not completed kindergarten. We had a particular case in which the survivor consistently was expelled from school for her unmanageable behavior and inappropriate language. When someone is not disciplined, they will not be able to complete school at any level. Even completing a GED requires self discipline and in the USA, it’s needed to acquire even a basic minimum wage paying job.

You must also take into account that 80-90% of adult sex workers were victims of child sexual exploitation, which commonly results in psychological and mental complexities. Many of the victims/survivors are diagnosed with dissociative disorder, aka multiple personalities and/or borderline personality disorder, in addition to the typical diagnoses of bi-polar and ADD. Most cannot afford the mental health care they desperately need and their ability to make healthy decisions is often impaired.

Because of the deep and very painful events connected to the inner lies they believe to be true [sadly many times reinforced by society] (ie. I am not good. I’m a whore. I’m worth nothing. I am unlovable. I am only good for sex. I can’t do anything right. Nothing I do is good enough. I am dirty. I can’t trust anyone., etc.) that have been embedded into their souls, they tend to get emotionally triggered very easily and it’s natural for them to go back to what is familiar instead of committing to the long and often very painful journey of healing and restoration. We’ve seen over and over survivors placed into safe homes that they refer to as being ‘too normal’ and once they begin the journey of healing (uncorking the packed away pain,) they can’t handle it and run away, returning again to what they have known.

Additionally, you have to factor in denial for those that return. Denial that they can make a living working at Walmart or waitressing, that what they are doing is exploitation and not good for them, that they need help, etc. There are also drug addictions and until the root of the addiction is completely removed, like a weed, it will grow back & pull the victim/survivor back to self medicating the pain. A job at Walmart or waitressing cannot typically pay the cost of a drug addiction.

Consequently, it comes back to the initial goal of care providers and victims advocates: to restore dignity and establish trust. It’s not a simple process, it’s actually very complex, often extremely ugly and much easier said than done. However, until a healthy self esteem is established and they learn to trust, they most likely will not be able to maintain a ‘normal’ job. The need for specialized care of these victims/survivors is obvious. It’s not a quick fix and will require years and years of restoration. Many times it’s taken years to get them where they are mentally and emotionally and most likely will take just as many, if not more, to undo all the harm that has been done to them. Until that healing process is complete, justice has not truly been rendered to them as victims.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that even when they are able to acquire 'normal' jobs often times they don't hold them down for very long due to their mental & emotional instability, lack of self discipline and/or inability to establish and maintain healthy relationships. It's very common to see them go from job to job, church to church, even community to community that will embrace them, if they don’t isolate themselves. Sadly some frequently take advantage of caring folks (ie. church groups, shelters, individuals, etc.) and often end up exploiting the very individuals that are trying to help them by manipulating, using, hustling and/or stealing from them. Many times there is a destructive lifestyle cycle that desperately needs to be broken, yet the survivor is not willing to commit to the process it will take to break this. More often than not, they will seek out people that will enable them versus those that will legitimately assist them in what needs to be changed other than just a job or profession. Because their pain and inner healing never takes place, returning to the sex industry seems easier to them than facing their own stuff and committing to the journey of healing and change. Even for the ones that persevere in not returning to the sex industry, due to depth of their wounds, you can imagine how their unhealthy choices effect their self esteem. Consequently, we're back to their basic need of dignity being restored, yet the decisions they frequently make prohibit and/or significantly hinder this from happening. It’s like a vicious cycle they need to desperately break out of but often find themselves trapped in it.

Like I said, initially, it’s complicated. From my perspective as an over-comer of commercialized sexual exploitation and trafficking, and a care provider/victim’s advocate, there are two common factors regarding human trafficking: complexity and injustice. Regardless of the diverse variables that pull the survivors back into the exploitation, they deserve the basic human right and opportunity(s) to be restored.

Julie Shematz
CEO, Beauty From Ashes

Norfolk Human Rights Examiner Story: Safe Housing Is More Than a Roof Over the Head of Sex Trafficking/Industry Survivors

REACHing Victims of Commercialized Sexual Exploitation

FORT MYERS OUTREACHES

As you are aware we have increased out outREACHes significantly now to include weekly STREET OUTREACHes and monthly STRIP CLUB OUTREACHes to victims of commercialized sexual exploitation & trafficking.

On Wednesday, September 23rd, the FOOD MOBILE went to LeHigh Acres & 12 more names were added to the Lamb's Book of Life! A whole lot of food, including frozen turkey breasts, was given out and lotsa prayer to hungry people. There were two individuals who received prayer for healing & were healed of their pain on the spot! To God be all the glory!

On Thursday, September 24th, the STRIP CLUB OUTREACH TEAM served home made fried chicken, Jamaican ribs, rice & pigeon peas, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh fruit, garlic dill pickles & cheese cake to all the employees of our Fort Myer's adopted strip club. Warmly met by all, the team got down to business right away ministering God's truth to the ladies as they started sharing their hearts, pain, struggles, dilemma and asking questions about God, religion & the Bible. 7 women were prayed for & 1 re-dedicated her life to Christ! The manager at one point told the team (in the locker room) as he passed through smiling largely, that there was 'too much talk & not enough prayer!' He even came in & sat down a couple of times sharing his desperation of being in the industry for 20+ years, how tired he was & his desire to be out of it with the team. There were tears, hugs, prayers, encouragement, phone number exchanged & the ladies told us they want us to come back more often!

Please continue to pray for the precious souls. We are astonished at the favor we have & the work we see God doing in their lives. Agree with us that the captives be set FREE, in the name of Jesus, to be all that God destined & purposed them to be.

We'll be back on the streets next Wednesday & our next club outREACH will be next Friday nite.

Please consider becoming a monthly FREEdom™ Partner with us. Your financial support enables us to EDUCATE the community, ADVOCATE for the victims, implement REACH, RESCUE & RESTORE programs and provide safe HOMES & shelters. To make secure online tax deductible donations: CLICK HERE. Mail cash, money orders or checks made out to Beauty From Ashes Ministries to: 5100 S. Cleveland Ave., Ste. 318-148, Fort Myers, FL 33907 & THANK YOU.

We appreciate your encouragement & support. Together we are better & are making a difference!

In His love & passion to see victims become over-comers,

Steve, Pastor Julie Shematz & the FREEdom™ Team