ECPAT-USA

End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes

New York Gets Activated!

March 21st, 2012 | Comments Off

It is time for New York State to get serious about implementing its Safe Harbor Law. Tell your state representatives that you support funding for services for sexually exploited children.

1. Sign this Online Petition:

2. Or send a letter to your Assembly member or State Senator with the following text:

Greetings,
I write to ask you to support funding The Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act. If funded, this bill will provide many of our State’s most vulnerable children with desperately needed safety, housing and services.

The Safe Harbor Act was signed into law on September 25, 2008. This legislation is aimed at providing critical services for the growing number of children who are exploited and forced to sell sex.

Due to lack of funding, the promise of the Safe Harbor Act is still unrealized. There are thousands of sexually exploited youth in New York. There are currently fewer than 50 beds state-wide designated for trafficked youth. As a first step in implementing the Safe Harbor Act, we ask that the New York State Legislature fund:

1. Short-term emergency housing: Without a place to take sexually exploited children, police fail to keep them off the streets or put them in jail in an effort to keep them safe. We must provide emergency shelter for these vulnerable children.
2. A long-term treatment facility: A long-term safe house with specialized services is urgently needed to provide sexually exploited children with ongoing safety and support.
3. Specialized Services: It is critical that young people identified as sexually exploited begin to receive specialized services immediately, including but not limited to counseling, group therapy and assistance with public benefits.
4. Police Training: The police are currently being trained to better identify sexually exploited children. However, they are not being trained to connect those children with much needed services. Without a referral to a service provider and a bed to sleep in, these children are forced to go back onto the street.
5. Long-term, therapeutic specially trained foster homes: Evidence has shown that therapeutically trained foster homes can tremendously help a sexually exploited child.

We must fight to keep these young people safe and provide a comprehensive array of services. New York took the lead and was the first to pass legislature that required treatment instead of punishment with Safe Harbor. Now it needs to take the lead and actually fund the services.

Due to lack of funding, the promise of the Safe Harbor Act is still unrealized. There are thousands of sexually exploited youth in New York who are not receiving the shelter and services the Act promises. As a first step in implementing the Safe Harbor Act, I ask that New York State fund the Safe Harbor Act with $3 million for housing and services.

Now is the time to stand up and fight for these children.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

Senator Grassley discusses Domestic Trafficking of Foster Youth

March 12th, 2012 | Comments Off

Last Thursday, March 8, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley discussed the link between the child welfare system and domestic trafficking and the need for a comprehensive response. You can click here for a transcript of his speech or view a video of the speech below.

Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

March 8th, 2012 | Comments Off

In partnership with 55 other organizations, ECPAT-USA submitted a Report to the UN Committee on March 1. The report offers information to the Committee to help it evaluate the U.S. government’s activities to stop the “Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.” The U.S. government signed an Optional Protocol committing to take steps to end these abuses. This report gives our evaluation of the government’s activities so far.

Click here to read the entire report.

CNN on how Hotels can train to fight trafficking

February 29th, 2012 | Comments Off

In a recent article on CNN.com, Katia Hetter highlights the steps that hotels and the hospitality industry in general are undertaking in order to end the sexual exploitation of children.
The important take-away from this article is that a American hotels are getting involved and ensuring that their properties are not used to facilitate the prostitution of children. The numbers are still small, but it’s something that’s finally being discussed by the American Hospitality Industry in the public view. Let your voice be heard by handing over one of our Code of Conduct Postcards to the concierge whenever you stay at a hotel, to either push the hotel to Sign the Code or to let them know you chose them because they are a signatory.

Preserve Childhood through Growlers Beer Bistro

February 13th, 2012 | Comments Off

Wednesday, March 14th, Growlers Beer Bistro in Tuckahoe, NY will be holding a fundraiser to continue the fight against child sex trafficking and exploitation through ECPAT-USA. By clicking the button below you can donate directly to ECPAT-USA even if you can’t make it to the event.


For more information on Growlers Beer Bistro, click here.

Check out the Facebook Event here

City of Oakland Sues To Close Sex Trafficking Hotels

February 13th, 2012 | Comments Off

Child sex trafficking is changing and moving indoors in the United States. It is up to the hotel industry to be vigilant and informed about how to stop this vicious exploitation of children from taking place on their premises. We are finally making some progress, with the recent signing of the ECPAT Child Protection Code of Conduct by Wyndham Hotels and by Nix Conference and Meeting Management.

But this news about a horrific situation in Oakland makes us aware about how bad it can get if companies do not step up and do the right thing. In this case, the City of Oakland is suing the company to close the businesses involved. While it is an extreme case, we are gratified that the authorities are using every possible tool to help ensure that children are not being exploited while companies profit.

When a company signs our Code of Conduct, they are agreeing to take five steps to ensure that they are doing everything they can to stop it from happening. Signing the Code also ensures that monitoring of its activities will take place. Other signatories in the U.S. are Carlson Companies (owners of Radisson and other brands), Hilton hotels in a pilot project in two cities (Washington, DC and Seattle, Washington), Delta Air Lines, Reality Tours and the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis.

Last of the Documentary Extended Interviews

February 1st, 2012 | Comments Off

In this final extended interview from our documentary, Karen Countryman-Roswurm of the Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable for Community Action (ASERCA) and Laurel Edinburgh of the Midwest Children’s Resource Center talk about local responses to child sex trafficking in Kansas and the midwest. They specifically talk about what governments and NGOs are doing to help rehabilitate victims of commercial sexual exploitation and survival sex.

This was the last of our extended interviews from our documentary. We hope that you have been following along the releases of these extended excerpts and have seen the documentary. Most importantly, we hope that you have shared these videos with your friends and family. Too often, we are asked ‘what can I do?’. So many people want the hands on experience of being a councilor for a victim, of volunteering at a safe house, and other direct methods of help. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. While caring for one victim is noble, there are tens of thousands every year in need of help. These children need to stop being re-victimized by the judicial system, and given access to a multifaceted support network, which includes counseling, housing, healthcare, education, job training, and financial support. Certainly, one person can make a difference in one person’s life by offering them direct support, but the needs are far greater than that. The best thing you can do is inform others, and together push your legislators to change the laws and finance the support these victims need. You can make a difference in thousands of children suffering right now, and better the future for hundreds of thousands yet to be harmed.

Click here to read the full details of our documentary project

New York Times Takes on Backpage

January 27th, 2012 | Comments Off

Nicholas Kristof’s great article in the New York Times yesterday went very far in educating Americans that commercial sexual exploitation of children happens right here in the U.S. Most people think it is only happens in other countries, caused by intractable poverty. But we are not a poor country, and yet children under 18 are bought and sold in prostitution every day. It happens because 12 or 13 year old children are naïve and easy to coerce. Pimps are seeking out such youngsters because there is a huge demand for fresh flesh in a prostitution market that is very vigorous. We need to create a social safety net that insures that every child has protection and assistance as they navigate the difficult teenager years, especially abused, runaway or throwaway children who are so vulnerable. We need to create strenuous information campaigns aimed at all men with the simple message that child exploitation is illegal, both in the U.S. and abroad. This is not rocket science. This is not impossible. It just requires the political will to do so.

Bart Lubow Speaks to ECPAT-USA

January 25th, 2012 | Comments Off

Bart Lubow, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, took the time to talk to us about about what the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI), and how it has changed the way children are handled by the justice system.

This interview was part of our documentary project. To find out more about the project please click here.

JL’s Story

January 18th, 2012 | Comments Off

While our documentary was officially released last week, that’s not the end of the story. One film could not possibly capture and detail the heart-wrenching saga of every youth, let alone the full story of the survivors’ lives used in the film.
While the following is little more than a minute long, it captures much of the emotion and heart-ache being a child victim of commercial sexual exploitation.

What I Have Been Through is Not Who I Am Extended JL’s Story

Click here to read the full details of our documentary project

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