New Funding Will Support Early Identification of Vulnerable Youth Throughout the United States to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and Identify Victims Quickly
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA March 6, 2020 — WestCoast Children’s Clinic today announced a $900,000 grant from the NoVo Foundation to support WestCoast’s project to increase national use of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Identification Tool (CSE-IT) through training and new technology solutions.
Author Archives: hannah
4/26/19 Understanding Privacy Practices for Foster Youth with Amelia Grosu, MA & ASW
Service providers attending this training will learn about privacy practices relevant to youth in care.They will be exposed to strategies for protecting youth privacy and other related processes.
Continue readingA Guide to Mental Health Treatment for Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth
After a decade of providing community-based mental health services to youth who are commercially sexually exploited, WestCoast Children’s Clinic, in collaboration with the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the National Center for Youth Law, has developed a new framework for treatment: Psychotherapy for Commercially Sexually Exploited Children: A Guide for Community-Based Behavioral Health Practitioners and Agencies.
The guide describes the core components of treatment, the impact of ongoing trauma, and the importance of understanding exploitation in the context of social injustice and systemic oppression.
As awareness of child sex trafficking grows and systematic screening for signs of exploitation improves, the need for information about how to serve youth who are sexually exploited is all the more urgent. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley heard this echoed throughout California:
“The Human Exploitation and Trafficking (H.E.A.T.) Institute held seven summits across California in 2015 – 2016. In every community we visited, professionals called for more guidance on effective mental health treatment for trafficked youth. This framework advances our ability to help children who are sexually exploited and those professionals who provide psychological counseling and support.”
You can download the Guide here.
Thank you,
Stacey Katz, PsyD
Chief Executive Officer, WestCoast Children’s Clinic
Jesse Hahnel, Esq.
Executive Director, National Center for Youth Law
Julian Ford, PhD
Director, Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice, University of Connecticut Health Center
Where we stand.
“Truth and the ability to have our voices count is still something to which we have unequal access; #MeToo and Black Lives Matter are both movements to rectify this. [This hearing has] demonstrated a commitment to rape culture, to a culture in which the voices of women will be ignored no matter what, regardless of the facts, in which men will be believed no matter how much evidence there is against them; and the racial equivalencies are everywhere we look, if we choose to.”
– Rebecca Solnit
Dear WestCoast Community:
We watched Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. We watched Brett Kavanaugh’s response. And Lindsey Graham’s.
What we saw, and what continues to play out on the national stage, is the silencing, the retribution, and the denial by those in power when victims of sexual assault come forward.
At WestCoast we hold the truth for the many clients we serve who have been sexually assaulted.
We stand with survivors of sexual assault, sometimes in the court room, sometimes in the therapy room.
We stand with those who come forward and those who cannot because of fear, pervasive hostility, or threats against their lives.
And we speak out.
Join us.
- Click here for Indivisible’s Daily SCOTUS Senators tracker to find out where your Senator stands.
- Don’t like what you see? Give them a call.
- Forward this email.
Thank you,
Stacey Katz, CEO
Stacey Katz, CEO
4/2/18 Creative approaches to Engage and Work with Children and Youth with Truc Nguyen, MFT
This presentation will explore the foundations of a unique and innovative engagement method drawing from Developmental Transformations (DvT). Continue reading
What is WestCoast doing in Texas?
Dear WestCoast Community:
Thanks to your support, WestCoast increased our impact on efforts to end child trafficking in California and nationally. As noted by a Texas human trafficking leader, “Victims don’t self-identify as victims. The responsibility is on us to get better at recognizing if it’s happening.” WestCoast’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation – Identification Tool (CSE-IT) helps providers do just that – identify trafficked youth. Eighty child welfare, juvenile justice, and non-profit partners in 4 other states – Texas, New Jersey, Montana and North Carolina now use the CSE-IT.
NBC-Austin reported this segment on Texas’s statewide adoption of the CSE-IT: Texas will start using screening tool to identify youth sex trafficking victims
WestCoast study highlights who is most vulnerable to trafficking.
“Making exploitation visible is a first step toward taking action. As a result of universal screening, professionals identified 635 trafficked children. That means 635 opportunities to intervene.”
-Danna Basson, PhD, MPP
Director of Research and Evaluation
Child sex trafficking is hard to see. As a result, most youth are exploited for more than two years before anyone notices. To address this, we developed a screening tool: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation – Identification Tool (CSE-IT, pronounced “see it”).
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In response to Charlottesville
Dear WestCoast Community:
Over the weekend white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville to protest the removal of Confederate symbols. Carrying torches, chanting Nazi slogans and waving Confederate flags, they incited violence that culminated in a car mowing down counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 people. This open convening of proud white supremacists was unmistakably emboldened by the election of Donald Trump. The President condemned hatred “on many sides,” grossly equating white nationalists and their counter-protesters.
There is only one side here—bigotry. It goes against everything we value in our work with children and our community.
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Final Podcast Episode: Race, Gender, and Child Sex Trafficking
Episode 5: “Building a Race and Gender Conscious
Anti-Trafficking Movement”
In our final episode, our panelists share concrete ways to address racism and misogyny in our response to child sex trafficking.
Our panelists, from left to right: Holly Joshi, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, the Honorable Stacy Boulware Eurie, Malika Saada Saar, and Minh Dang.
Bios at www.westcoastcc.org/
Child Sex Trafficking
Who is for sale and at what cost?
Podcast Series
On November 29th, 2016, WestCoast Children’s Clinic hosted a panel to discuss how racism and misogyny drive child sex trafficking in the United States. As women and their allies across the country voice opposition to policies that explicitly endanger women and girls, the need to address the impact of the child sex trade on girls of color is greater than ever. We created this podcast from a recording of the evening. Please listen to this important conversation with five national experts in the anti-trafficking movement.
Download the podcasts and see more information from the event atwww.westcoastcc.org/
Episode 5: Building a Race and Gender Conscious Anti-Trafficking Movement
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