New Video on Ohio case

Hoodies on Sale!

Stay warm this winter with a Gracehaven hoodie!

As it finally feels like winter here in Columbus, what better way to stay warm than
with a soft, thick hoodie. Take note: Valentine’s Day is right around the
corner!

Show your support for Gracehaven while grocery shopping, walking the dog, snow
sledding or just hanging around the house.

The sweatshirts are dark heather grey, 10 ozs. with the Gracehaven logo in orange.

The hoodies are $42, which includes shipping.

To order, please email info@gracehavenhouse.org for instructions or buy a hoodie online!

Calling all teachers!!

If you work in a middle or high school (or know of anyone who does) Please go to the attached link and fill out the short survey. We are trying to gather data on the needs of students and administrators for Human Trafficking education!

Under-Age Prostitution on the Rise

Oakland is trying to reduce the number of teenage girls who are on the street and controlled by pimps.

Bay City News — On a gray, drizzly afternoon last March, it was mostly empty along Oakland’s “Track,” a section of International Boulevard in the middle of the city that is known as a hub for prostitution.

As the sun occasionally pierced through the clouds onto the bars, restaurants and shops that line the street, a young African American girl in a T-shirt and skinny jeans stood behind a bus stop at 29th Street, rubbing her arms against the cold.

“There’s one,” Oakland police Officer Hamann Nguyen said as he drove by in an undercover police car.

Click here to finish reading the story.

Human Trafficking everywhere

I work mostly with domestic minor victims of sex trafficking. Occasionally I will have an international victim. But day in and day out my life revolves around reading about trafficking, working with victims, training others to identify victims or understand them. I do this here in Central Ohio.

My younger brother lives in Thailand. He sees trafficking every day. He said he is so used to it that he is worried he will become desensitized to it. He can’t walk down the street without seeing young girls hanging out around the “bars” they are forced to work in.

My sister- in- law is Filipino and went home to her village to get some papers needed for a visa so she can move to the United States from where she currently lives, in Thailand.  When she was there,  doctors from another country were there who were smoke bombing “houses” of villagers so they could go in and take the internal organs of children to sell on the black market – another form of human trafficking.

In one week, I was either working with or hearing about Korean traffickers, Thai victims, Filipino child victims, African child victims, domestic child victims from Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton.

Yet in any given week, I hear from people in our city who belligerently proclaim that this does not happen today, does not happen here or does not happen at all and that we are making too much a big deal about nothing.

I have heard about cases in Alaska and Akron, Atlanta and West Virgina, Kenya, Mauritania, Philippines and Philadelphia, Thailand, Cambodia and Cincinnati. Human Trafficking is everywhere.

I am a firm believer that just because you don’t know about something, does not mean it does not exist. It means you are choosing to not know. You can choose to get informed. Just because something is not on the news does not mean it is not happening. The news does not cover everything. You can be as informed as you want to be. You can research and read about the problem of trafficking just as you can make yourself more knowledgeable about any subject you care about. It is amazing how some people know the names and stats of football players on numerous teams and the college that the pro player came from, but those same people say they can’t know about other issues. You know what you want to know about.

Because the information is out there and human trafficking is everywhere.

Gracehaven T-Shirts Now on Sale!

Support Gracehaven’s mission and create awareness at the same time by purchasing a Gracehaven t-shirt. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Gracehaven. The t-shirt is a 4.2 ounce, pre-shrunk 50/50 ringspun cotton/polyester blend.

The t-shirt logo is something simple, yet comforting, so the font represents comfort and the the house was sketched in a rough freehand so that
it was one of a kind. Each girl who comes is an individual with a soul and some people in their past have in some way tried to take that away from them. This house is like no other for that reason. Finally the words go in the house to show protection.

To order a t-shirt, head over to the buy a t-shirt order page and follow the two step ordering process! If you have any questions, please email Kendra at kpetrill@gracehavenhouse.org

As seen on WBNS 10TV…

Residential Shelter Provides For Teen Girls

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The first residential shelter in Ohio to provide beds for girls under age 18 who were victims of trafficking needs a grant to finish the building project.

Gracehaven needs to win a quarter million dollar charitable grant from Vivant based on the number of daily votes Gracehaven gets on Facebook.

Executive director, Dr. Jeff Barrows, said the problem is so big that the state could use at least 100 beds.

To finish reading: http://www.10tv.com/live/content/femalefocus/stories/2011/07/18/story-columbus-gracehaven-vote-for-grant.html?sid=102

 

Night of Hope

Walk A Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes

I spend a great deal of time trying to help others walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.

One of the greatest gifts I was given as a child was to not take anything I had for granted and to be taught that other people live life differently than me. I was lucky enough to be raised in a multicultural setting and see many other cultures, races, and socioeconomic levels.

I have lived my life, largely, taking a moment to think of what it would be like to be “someone else”; To imagine what the factors are that make up how a person got to be in the state they are today. This been a helpful thing now that I am a social worker who is trying to help the general population understand domestic sex trafficking of minors.

Lately I’ve got into some conversations that go something like this: “They made their bed, now lie in it.” Or, “They are just bad kids.”

I feel passionate about helping others understand that these girls (MY girls!) are not bad kids. Some of them have made some bad decisions, sure, but they are not bad kids and they are a product of so many other things. We all are. I am a product of my environment.

This video helps you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes for a bit. I think it’s helpful to get a more well rounded glimpse of how domestic minor sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation is so accessible with girls who are vulnerable. I show this video in trainings I do sometimes to set the scene. I wanted to share it with you. Click on the link and it should open in Quick time. The Making of a Girl(2)

If you have trouble opening the video, you can watch it on youtube, here

In celebration of all those who walked in our Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event, take a moment, please watch the video (it’s short) and for those few minutes, walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Thank you

Run for Gracehaven

About Run for Gracehaven

Run a marathon, change your world. Support Gracehaven House, change forever the world of a young woman.

We are a team of athletes running in the 2011 Columbus Marathon to raise awareness and support for Gracehaven House.

Our goal is to recruit 26+2 athletes to raise $26,200 for Gracehaven House.

Run a full, or run a half. Dare to run with us and make a difference.

For more information: http://www.crowdrise.com/run4gracehaven

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