Tell Your Friends is a collaborative pilot program to reduce the risk toward commercial sexual exploitation of teen girls in Washington, D.C. The program is funded by the Yahoo Employee Foundation and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

The Program:

Tell Your Friends is a four-week educational workshop series that takes place inside the D.C. public high schools.  Each workshop is designed to facilitate discussion with teens on their perceptions of healthy and unhealthy dating relationships, commercial sexual exploitation, and human trafficking. 

FAIR Fund facilitators have partnered with Dr. Travis Wright of the George Washington University Education Department to build a community of trained and supported teachers and community-based organizations who can identify and assist D.C. teens at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.

Tell Your Friends is based on the real life experiences of teen survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, a form of human trafficking, and is led by FAIR Fund, in collaboration with the Polaris Project and the D.C. Public Schools.

Currently, there is a need for housing and supportive programs for female minor victims of trafficking in the D.C. area. 

Background:

The commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of any minor under the age of 18 is legally a form of human trafficking under the Trafficking in Persons Victim Protection Act reauthorized in 2005. Human traffickers and pimps play on the vulnerability, lack of knowledge, and desires of both foreign born and American children to lure them into the dark world of CSE, including prostitution and pornography.

In an April 2006 ABC news report, the FBI reported that Washington, DC is among the top 14 cities with a high number of commercially sexually exploited teens.  A 2001 study by the University of Pennsylvania (Estes/Weiner) found that between 200,000 and 300,000 youth are at serious and high risk of commercial sexual exploitation. 

Furthermore, in Washington, DC between 26 and 30 adolescent girls are arrested for solicitation (prostitution) annually.  These girls are merely those who are ‘caught’ while the majority remains undetected and without access to services.  According the U.S. attorney’s office, the average age for entry into CSE for Washington, DC teens is 14 years old.

Domestic Anti Trafficking Law

After Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in 2000 by the congress, there is significant increase in effort to combat human trafficking.  However, there is no law specifically against human trafficking or domestic sex trafficking in the District of Columbia. When a young person under 18 is picked up by police for solicitation or prostitution, they are sent to juvenile jail. However, under U.S. federal law any minor under 18 who has been sold for commercial sex purposes is considered a victim of human trafficking.  Any young person, whether they are from Boston or Bosnia deserves services and support if they have been victimized by traffickers or pimps. 

Recent Convictions of traffickers of domestic minor sex trafficking:

July 7, 2008: Levar Simms, a 30 year old resident of Washington, D.C. was sentenced to 96 months of jail for the interstate transportation of a 16 yr old minor for the purposes of prostitution. He held the minor girl for 2 weeks and forced her to have sex with 200 men.

In March 2006, a 27-year-old DC native, Jaron Brice, was convicted for child sex trafficking including a14-year-old girl.  He forced these girls into prostitution through threats and violence over 2 years in Washington, DC, Maryland, Florida and New York.

Pop Culture and Prostitution

In contemporary American culture, the exploitative relationship between a pimp and his victims is often glorified by music lyrics and popular entertainment industries. While popular culture sometimes legitimizes the practice of prostitution, the real harms, risks, and struggles that accompany commercial sexual exploitation are serious and according to the U.S. Government, “prostitution is inherently harmful and dehumanizing, and fuels trafficking in persons, a form of modern-day slavery”. Young people who are often inundated with conflicting images about prostitution, pimp control, and brothels deserve the opportunity to learn what commercial exploitation really means, who is at risk, what the consequences are, and how to protect themselves.

In an effort to combat commercial sexual exploitation, FAIR Fund believes that it is important to train and educate youth themselves about this issue while they are still in school.  Providing the education and support prior to a level of involvement in CSE is vital as there is an existing community that they are still connected to, and consequently have support enough to protect themselves while also serving as peer advisors for friends that are no longer in the District’s school system.

Community-based Partners:

The Arc, Beacon House, Community of Hope, Covenant House, D.C. Area Rape Crisis Center, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, Latin American Youth Center, Polaris Project, Sasha Bruce, Smyal, THE (Transgender Youth Empowerment), Washington Area Women’s Foundation, WEAVE, Young Ladies of Tomorrow, Young Women’s Project