EUM Church Silent Auction A Success!
August 18, 2010 by Katie
Filed under News and Events, Newsletter, Recent Press: Gracehaven, TV
Thank you to everyone from Darke County who participated in last Friday’s Silent Auction to benefit Gracehaven. Wonderful Hors d’oeuvres were provided along with live worship music. Katie Talbott, Executive Assistant at Gracehaven spoke on the topic of human trafficking. A short music video produced by Take No Glory was shown.
The event was covered by local WCTN News.
ONN News Article Featuring Theresa and Tabitha Woodruff
August 2, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Newsletter, Recent Press: Human Trafficking, TV
Theresa is interviewed about her experiences; Tabitha explains pending Ohio legislation (currently Ohio is one of just 14 states without anti-human trafficking laws in place)
Read entire ONN News Article:
Thank you to JP Morgan Chase!
July 15, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Fundraising Progress, News and Events, Newsletter, Print
With 1,705 votes, we landed the #102 spot in 200 slots for $20,000. This grant will help pay for utilities for the first six months when the house opens, before state funding kicks in.
Thank you to JP Morgan Chase for your generosity. Thank you to everyone who braved the confusion of the facebook application maze and voted for us!
Check out the Columbus Dispatch Article
Congratulations to the other 199 organizations who also made it to the top – may God Bless your efforts!
2010 TIP Report
June 15, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Newsletter, Print, Recent Press: Human Trafficking
Here is the link for the 2010 Tip Report:
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/142979.pdf
“The Report, for the first time, includes a ranking of the United States based on the same standards to which we hold other countries. The United States takes its first-ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America. This human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it.” (H. Clinton)
According to UNICEF, as many as two million children are
subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade.
International covenants and protocols obligate criminalization
of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The use of
children in the commercial sex trade is prohibited under both
U.S. law and the Palermo Protocol as well as by legislation in
countries around the world. There can be no exceptions and
no cultural or socioeconomic rationalizations preventing the
rescue of children from sexual servitude. Sex trafficking has
devastating consequences for minors, including long-lasting
physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/
AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition,
social ostracism, and possible death.Page 13, 2010 TIP Report
Case Study: United States:
Harriet ran away from home when she was 11 years
old and moved in with a 32-year-old man who sexually
and physically abused her and convinced her to
become a prostitute. In the next two years, Harriet
became addicted to drugs and contracted numerous
sexually transmitted diseases. The police arrested
Harriet when she was 13 and charged her with committing
prostitution. They made no efforts to find her
pimp. Harriet was placed on probation for 18 months
in the custody of juvenile probation officials. Her
lawyers have appealed the decision, arguing that since
she could not legally consent to sex, she cannot face
prostitution-related charges.
Page 30, 2010 TIP Report
Report: Victim services lacking in human-trafficking cases
June 10, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Newsletter, Print, Recent Press: Human Trafficking
Residential treatment vital, commission says
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The story of a 14-year-old girl from rural Ohio might sound like the plot of a bad movie, but it’s a real-life human-trafficking horror story.
The girl was befriended by an older man who plunged her into sex trafficking in a nearby city. When she was arrested in a hotel with another older man, police charged her with a curfew offense that was a probation violation and sent her to a juvenile-detention center. The “john” and the trafficker were not charged.
“It was a very sad thing to see this little girl in handcuffs and ankle shackles,” said a victims’ advocate who interviewed the girl.
Because no services were available to her, she disappeared when she was released from detention.
Advocates said the girl’s tragic story, recounted at a meeting of the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission yesterday, underlines a critical need for services for sex- and labor-trafficking victims.
The commission convened by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray nearly a year ago said the state should prop up inadequate victim services by spending $4million to hire specially trained case managers, establishing 10 residential-treatment programs across the state, and training law-enforcement and social-service personnel.
“These stories – and there are thousands out there – are tragic,” Cordray said. “Each case represents a failure in our system. … I strongly urge local law enforcement and victim advocates to work in tandem with our program to confront modern slavery.
“We are all out of excuses.”
In its third major report, the multi-agency commission concluded that trafficking-victim services are woefully inadequate or completely absent. For example, the state has no residential treatment facilities (one is planned to open in the Columbus area this fall), and only five agencies in Ohio provide specific services to trafficking victims.
Dr. Jeff Barrows, a commission member and the founder of Gracehaven, the Columbus-area residential program scheduled to open this fall, said such programs should receive first priority.
“If they need residential care in the long run and don’t get it, you really haven’t done much of anything,” he said.
The only cost calculated so far is $77,000 apiece for salary and benefits for 52 specially trained case managers, a total of $4 million.
The task force suggested that funding could come from federal victims-assistance programs, the U.S. Justice Department, programs for victims of crime and violence against women, private foundations, churches and the public.
The panel also called for improving services to victims provided by emergency first-responders, building anti-trafficking coalitions across the state, and offering trauma therapy and legal assistance.
Another suggestion was tapping Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social media to provide trafficking awareness and potentially to track victims.
The commission previously estimated that more than 1,000 children younger than 18 were sex-trafficking victims in Ohio in the past year and that thousands more, particularly runaways, are at risk. Nearly 800 foreign-born people were trafficked for sex or forced labor in Ohio, and 3,437 were at risk, the commission reported.
The panel also strongly recommended replacing Ohio’s admittedly weak human-trafficking law with one making trafficking a felony offense as 44 other states do.
Legislation has been introduced in both the Ohio Senate and House. Cordray said he hopes lawmakers will approve a new law by the end of the year.
Vote Now!!
April 22, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Recent Press: Gracehaven
Theresa Flores has been nominated for A Ruby Award. Vote now!!
The Ruby Award polls are open!
Go to the polls to learn more about these three wonderful women and cast your vote. Share the poll with your friends and family, and ask them to cast their votes as well. The federation finalist will be announced at the Live Your Dream Luncheon at convention in San Francisco on July 8. She will also receive a $5,000 donation from Soroptimist to her charity of choice. Remember, this is your chance to help choose the winner of the prestigious Ruby Award. Vote now! Sincerely, Soroptimist Headquarters |
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“Breakthrough” on April 20th
April 15, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Recent Press: Human Trafficking, TV
Theresa Flores will be featured along with Linda Smith from Shared Hope in Rod Parsley’s “Breakthrough” show on April 20th.
Tune in to DAYSTAR at 6:30am, 2:30pm, or 8:00pm and WSFJ-51 (TBN) correct at 10:00am or 4:30pm.
*We believe that human trafficking is a worldwide problem, and takes the cooperation of concerned citizens at every level. Gracehaven partners with many organizations and churches with varying belief systems across the country to raise awareness around the horrors of human trafficking. You can click here to view our statement of faith.
Special Report
April 2, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Program Progress, Recent Press: Gracehaven
from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center:
Office of Refugee Resettlement Issues State Letter on Requesting Assistance for Child Victims of Trafficking
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued a State Letter, which is guidance to State Refugee Coordinators and other interested parties, regarding the eligibility of potential child victims of trafficking for the benefits and services available to refugees. The State Letter describes the process by which an individual may request eligibility for federally funded assistance for an alien child who may have been subjected to human trafficking.
These documents are available on the ORR website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/policy/stltrs10.htm:
- Interim Assistance Letter – sample
- Eligibility Letter – sample
- Request for Assistance for Child Victims of Human Trafficking – form
- Process for Reconsideration of a Denial of Eligibility
HHS Issues Final Report on Human Trafficking
The HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) recently published a Final Report on its Study of HHS Programs Serving Human Trafficking Victims. The study addressed the following topics: defining human trafficking; characteristics of victims; challenges in identifying victims; outreach strategies; victims’ needs; availability and access to needed services; promising strategies to providing services; and desired outcomes for victims and evidence of achieving those outcomes. For the study, researchers interviewed staff from 117 HHS-funded programs across 11 states.
To view the final report, go to: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/HumanTrafficking/Final/index.shtml.
To view other publications that are part of this study, go to the following link: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/HumanTrafficking/index.shtml).
Sex Trade, Gracehaven on 700 Club
March 15, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Newsletter, Recent Press: Gracehaven, TV
This morning, the 700 Club aired “Sex Trade: Innocence Lost in America’s Heartland ” Link to entire article here.
“When it opens later this year, Gracehaven will break new ground. Not literally, but nationally. No other Christian-based shelter like it exists.
Gracehaven founder Dr. Jeffrey Barrows is also helping to oversee four similar up-and-coming ministries across the country through the newly formed Christian Trafficking Shelter Association.
“There’s just been a larger uprising, especially in the faith-based community, of people realizing ‘Hey, wait a minute. This is going on all around us and we need to rise up and do something about it,’” Barrows said.
That’s the challenge – what to do.
Gracehaven will provide residents 24/7 care for a minimum of nine months. It will offer individual counseling and training in life skills. But there’s a price to pay for breaking new ground. There is next to no research to help develop curriculum, education, and programming. Little has been done to understand the best way to rehabilitate the victims of trafficking.”
Columbus Dispatch: The Slave Across The Street
March 8, 2010 by Katie
Filed under Newsletter, Print, Recent Press: Gracehaven
“I met the devil, and lived in hell.”
So writes Theresa Flores in the The Slave Across the Street.
Were it a novel, her new book might be dismissed as unbelievable. But it’s a memoir – stunning and frighteningly true. The nightmare happened to a teenage girl living with her family in an affluent U.S. neighborhood.
Her ordeal began nearly 30 years ago when Flores was 15 and living in a Detroit suburb.
A shy newcomer to her school, she was befriended by a boy who was part of an Arabic ethnic group known as Chaldeans, from southern Iraq and Kuwait. He raped her. His cousins took photos and used them to blackmail her into becoming a sex slave.
When the traffickers called her at night, she would sneak out of the house, meet one of her persecutors in a car and be driven to places where she’d be forced to have sex with men – sometimes dozens a night.
“To the men who used me night after night, I was not a human being,” she writes. “As they performed the most intimate act a man and a woman engage in, I was only a dollar value. A commodity. To know this in my formative teenage years, during a period when a woman defines her worth and identity, was devastating.
“So many, many men . . . celebrated my humiliation, degradation and pain.”
Her nightmare ended when her family moved out of the state.
The Slave Across the Street describes the ordeal in gritty, understated detail. Her plain talk will make readers flinch, shake their heads and cry. Flores hopes they won’t turn away.
Her book is part confessional, part crime drama, part wakeup call. It is not easy or entertaining, but it is important.
In Ohio, a multiagency task force formed by Attorney General Richard Corday recently reported that more than 1,000 children younger than 18 were sex-trafficking victims in Ohio and that 783 foreign-born people were trafficked for sex or forced labor in the past year.
Law-enforcement officials and the judicial and social-services systems are just now understanding the scope of the problem.
Today, Flores, 44, works as a counselor, a licensed social worker and a founder of Gracehaven, a Columbus-area home for young female trafficking victims. She is divorced and has three children. Recently, she was featured in an MSNBC series on sex slavery and appeared on Today. She speaks nationally on the issue.
Decades ago, she didn’t tell her parents, a teacher or the police what was happening to her, she writes, because she was young, embarrassed, humiliated and afraid that her traffickers would hurt her or her family.
She credits faith and time with helping her heal.
“I am the woman I am today because I met the devil and lived in hell,” she writes. “I choose to use the past as a steppingstone for something good. I choose not to be quiet. I want to help save another young girl from being tied up and taken against her will until she loses consciousness.”
Dispatch Reporters Alan Johnson and Mike Wagner spent months researching the subject of human trafficking for stories published June 28, 2009. To see the stories and a related video, visit Dispatch.com/reports.
