Intervention

Because the need for intervention was so high in 2015, SAFE put all its funds in Phase One into an Emergency Receiving Center (ERC) – a 24/7 place to help victims get out of sexual exploitation.  Many victims were able to come to the ERC and get healing, hope, and a pathway to a brighter future.

Prevention

• Bringing trafficking prevention curriculum into public high schools in King County.
• Diverting men from purchasing sex by placing ads on websites where men frequently buy sex, as well as driving buyers to websites emphasizing anti sex buying messaging.
• Changing social norms around sex buying and sex trafficking by involving employers in prevention.
• Sustaining the local Ending Exploitation Collaborative so they can continue moving the needle in Washington and replicating their success nationally.

Intervention

• Continue supporting the Emergency Receiving Center (ERC) in Seattle as a low-barrier entry point for women who have been exploited to get safety, rest, care, short-term housing, and help to determine the best long-term plan to meet their individual needs and goals.
• Increasing buyer’s accountability through courses that aim to decrease recidivism and gender violence.
• Adding another Community Advocate on the eastside of the state in order to:

1) provide crisis intervention and case management for victims;

2) identify gaps in local services and make recommendations to fill them; and

3) build partnerships with area providers to increase collaboration along the continuum of care for victims.

Restoration

• Providing jobs to survivors.
• Creating a fund that service providers can draw upon to provide for a victim’s or survivor’s material needs as she is getting out, or trying to stay out, of the life. These dollars were used for housing, substance use treatment, clothing, medical treatment, and transitioning into a long-term restoration program or facility.

Prevention

All of the prevention and demand reduction efforts SAFE has supported in the past are continuing in Phase Three but are being funded through their organization budgets.  We never want to duplicate other donors’ funds, so we are focusing our Phase Three resources on critical needs in the movement where not as much funding is available.

Intervention – Victim Services

• Short-term housing/beds to give victims a place to get out of the life.
• Work within tribal communities to provide survivor led, culturally based training and implementation support to enhance victim services and pathways out of the life.  These pathways included victim support, legal support and cultural healing activities.
• Additional Community Advocate in the Greater Seattle area to:
• 1) provide crisis intervention and case management for victims; and
• 2) connect victims to local services to help them get out of the life.
• Additional Community Advocate in Eastern WA to:
• 1) provide crisis intervention and case management for victims;
• 2) connect victims to local services; and
• 3) build partnerships with area providers to increase collaboration along the continuum of care for victims.
• Community Advocate in the South Sound Region to:
• 1) provide crisis intervention and case management for victims;
• 2) identify gaps in local services and make recommendations to fill them; and
• 3) build partnerships with area providers to increase collaboration along the continuum of care for victims.

Restoration – Survivor Services

• Jobs for survivors.
• Long-term housing options for survivors to live in healthy places so they can stay out of the life.
• Client assistance funds to meet a victim’s/survivor’s material needs as she is getting out, or trying to stay out, of the life, including housing, treatment, clothing, transitioning into a long-term restoration program, etc.

We were about to launch our exciting Phase Four strategy when the pandemic hit.  We decided it was important to pivot Phase Four to meet the more immediate needs that were arising for victims and survivors of sexual exploitation across the state.

We quickly learned that many trafficking survivors who recently gained employment, had been working multiple part-time jobs and therefore were not eligible for unemployment.   They needed funds for groceries and to care for their children so they weren’t forced to engage in “survival sex” to meet their basic needs.  SAFE stepped in to meet those needs.

In addition, we learned that many youth who would normally find safety in school and extracurricular activities, were now facing being trafficked by family members because they were all sheltering at home together.   SAFE stepped in to help keep drop-in centers open so these youth had a safe place to go.

We met other important needs in Phase Four as well, and stood by our partners across the state as they served the victims and survivors who don’t deserve to have their bodies exploited and lives ruined.

Prevention

• Preventing the decriminalization of buyers, pimps and brothel owners and legalization of the sex trade in WA state.
• Providing trafficking prevention curriculums to more youth.
• Providing training and interventions across the foster care system so foster youth don’t end up in the sex trade.

Intervention & Restoration

• Providing training and interventions in the juvenile justice/detention system to help identify youth who are (or are at risk of) being sexually exploited, and prevent future victimization of currently incarcerated youth.
• Adding Community Advocates in the South Sound to serve the increased number of identified victims and survivors in that region.
• Providing Direct Client Assistance funds to meet immediate needs of victims and survivors, and serve as a connection to services and hopefully an exit from the life of forced prostitution.
• Building out technology that finds male victims of exploitation online and facilitating outreach to them.
• Providing much needed outreach, resources, services and housing to male victims and survivors of exploitation.

Restoration

• Long-term housing to help survivors heal and prepare for a healthy life.

Restoration

• Helping survivors attain stable housing, education/training, and a viable career path that will lead to fiscal independence and true economic freedom: Empower Her Network.
• Providing re-entry support for survivors of exploitation who are incarcerated in Washington women’s prisons – this helps bring full restoration and prevention from re-entering the sex trade: Scarlet Road.

Restoration