Where Does My Money Go: Protecting Vulnerable Youth
The impact made possible through the Dressember community is dynamic and powerful, particularly in the lives of vulnerable youth. Preventing human trafficking involves addressing root causes and changing systems. We look upstream to acknowledge factors that make certain groups more susceptible to trafficking.
Dressember is committed to addressing the link between vulnerability and issues like poverty, race, and sexual identity. By doing so, we have the opportunity to prevent more people from becoming victims of trafficking in the first place. We must acknowledge what vulnerabilities victims and survivors have in common to prevent trafficking in the future.
Tia’s Journey to Protecting Vulnerable Youth
Shortly after turning 18, Tia* began looking for a way to leave her trafficker. Tia ran away from a group home and the foster care system and did not have a safe place to stay. She saw a helpline for a Dressember Network partner in Milwaukee at a clinic and called to ask for support with leaving her trafficker. Advocates supported her through the challenging process of finding housing resources. With the help of our Milwaukee partner, Tia was able to start a permanent housing program so she wouldn’t have to worry about where she would stay year after year, which included onsite service support to address her mental health and basic needs. Once she was in a safe living situation, she could access resources for her medical needs resulting from the abuse she had experienced. She could more consistently meet with her therapist to work on addressing her trauma. By meeting Tia’s basic needs and addressing her vulnerabilities to trafficking, our partner helped reduce Tia’s chance for revictimization.
Dressember provides support for our Milwaukee partner’s survivor-led Youth Advisory Board, which creates a platform to empower youth survivors and influence how communities respond to young people who have been sexually exploited. Survivor leaders receive training around best-practice systems protocols, youth rights, and advocacy strategies in order to best meet the immediate and long-term needs of youth experiencing trafficking.
Tia is passionate about supporting other youth in her situation. She gives her expertise to staff on how to best support youth experiencing sexual exploitation and does outreach to teens at group homes about connecting to support. Tia is currently focusing on developing her employment skills to one day be an advocate in our Milwaukee partner’s program. When you support Dressember, you help empower survivors like Tia in their recovery journey’s as they strive to help other survivors as well—a ripple effect of healing!
You can help support Homeless and Housing-Insecure Youth
The Dressember Network serves thousands of homeless and housing-insecure youth annually. Without a stable place to live and unmet basic needs, exploitation vulnerability increases exponentially. Our partner in Milwaukee shared that 91% of runaway and homeless youth are approached by someone offering an opportunity for income that is “too good to be true.” The National Alliance to End Homelessness highlights that housing-insecure youth are especially vulnerable to trafficking due to their trauma histories, unyielding pressure to meet their basic needs, and negative relationships with adults. Young people experiencing sex trafficking are also often in situations where exiting exploitation is impossible unless a path to safe and stable housing is clear. The Dressember Network addresses these cyclical interactions through direct services to youth ages 11-25 in Milwaukee who have experienced sex trafficking such as providing basic needs, shelter, housing, therapy, and other prevention services.
Dressember partners with a Georgia-based Youth Services Center to provide trauma-informed case management, therapy, and court advocacy to youth who are traditionally underserved, including survivors who are homeless/runaway or identify as LGBTQ+. These youth are primarily referred by Fulton County Juvenile Court to our partner due to risk factors such as prior child abuse, educational disconnection, running away from home, and inappropriate adult relationships. The population served through this program is 99% Black or multi-racial and 23% LGBTQ+ identifying. More than two-thirds of these clients live in southwest Atlanta, where the average poverty rate is 32%. This program addresses gaps in locating and serving youth vulnerable to trafficking by equipping them with the tools to empower themselves, cope with trauma, and enhance healthy relationships. Programs are also available specifically for girls and boys who are currently on probation, assisting them with requirements placed on them by the court.
Dressember is also helping to establish our Georgia-based partner’s new Youth Recovery Unit with aims to serve all of Fulton County Juvenile Court's runaway, missing, and disconnected youth through enhanced services using a multidisciplinary team approach to implement services immediately upon the child's return with all parties. We are also working through the unit to compile and disseminate findings to inform the trafficking movement and other system-related gaps and services needed.
The work of the Dressember Community is worldwide and unrelenting
An estimated 60,000 children are involved in the Thai sex trade yearly (US State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practice, Thailand, 2009). A significant number are girls who come from the Northern region of Thailand, where poverty forces many to drop out of school. Uneducated yet expected to help provide for their families, these children are vulnerable to exploitation. Research shows that vulnerability to trafficking is often born out of poverty, low levels of education, and social isolation. With Thailand being a source, transit, and destination for child trafficking, education becomes paramount in combatting trafficking at the ground level. According to UNICEF, the children in Northern Thailand are specifically vulnerable, as 15% of all secondary school-aged children in the North are not in school. The Dressember Network provides educational scholarships, mentorship, and child development activities to empower at-risk students in rural Thailand to stay in school, achieve their dreams, and break the cycle of exploitation and poverty.
We have a responsibility to help protect the thousands of children who are vulnerable to human trafficking around the world. When you support Dressember’s prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment efforts, you are showing children that they are not alone in their journeys.
The Dressember Network is made up of 20 organizations that support programs in the following impact areas: advocacy, prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment. The Dressember Network partners with The Freedom Story, which provides resources and scholarships to empower at-risk students to stay in school, achieve their dreams, and break the cycle of exploitation and poverty. In Wisconsin, we partner with Pathfinders, a local agency-led homeless outreach and support program focused on youth ages 11-25 who are experiencing homelessness and are at risk of sexual exploitation. In Georgia, we partner with youthSpark, which provides trauma-informed case management, therapy, and court advocacy for LGBTQ+ identifying youth. When you support Dressember, you help dismantle trafficking holistically and in a way that prioritizes survivor needs and voices. Ready to join us? Register to become an advocate or make a donation today.
*Pseudonym used to protect the survivor’s identity
About the Author
Sarah Koller is a long-time advocate for the dignity of all people, from fair trade practices to body autonomy to fighting against human trafficking. She is currently a copywriter intern for Dressember while she pursues her master's degree in Mental Health Counseling at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado. Sarah is a mom, wife, and writer who loves to hike, practice yoga, dance in the kitchen, and share extended meals around the dining table. You can find her at @sarahmariekoller on Instagram or email her at sarah@healthyandwhole.us.