End Sex Trafficking by Helping Foster Youth

[Music]

i stand before you today

to give you a crash course on the link

between foster care

sex trafficking and what we can all do

to create change

i need for you to be fearless today and

really dig deep

the conversation that we’re about to

have is probably one of the most

difficult

that you’ll ever hear but also the most

important

the reason why i’m so passionate about

this cause is after spending four years

working as president of a non-profit

helping former foster youth

prior to that i had no clue about the

foster care system or what happens

i spent so much time energy effort and

put my heart and soul into that

organization

i spent time with the youth learned of

their stories

learned about how broken the foster care

system is

and the link between sex trafficking

when you hear the words foster care

foster youth

what comes to mind for most

people probably not much and that’s

simply because

most people lack the understanding of

what happens to youth that go into the

system

what happens to their biological parents

or their foster parents

or a social worker it’s truly a world

that’s foreign to most there are two

books that i like to recommend

for people to read so they become more

acclimated

to the system one of those is by tiffany

haddish

called the last black unicorn and if you

know tiffany

you know the book will be entertaining

the other

is called foster girl a memoir

by georgette todd who is a lesser known

author

but not less important georgia’s story

was one of the most inspirational

stories that i’ve read that truly rooted

me in this cause

so you might be wondering well why is

this important and why should we

care there are 500 000 kids in the

american foster care system

and in california we have 70 000 kids in

the system

to bring it even closer to home right

here in los angeles

we have more than 30 000 kids in foster

care

more than any other city in the united

states

among experts it is no secret that the

system is broken

social workers are managing 30 60 and 90

cases at a time

this is simply unmanageable kids are

falling through the cracks

and so are families it’s one of the

main attributing factors that led to the

death of gabriel fernandez

most of you are probably familiar by now

with his name

and his documentary he was assigned four

case workers

who all failed to reach out to his cries

for help

and this led to his torture and death at

the hand of his caretakers

these are our children and we are

failing them

we need to become a society that cares

about all children

not just our own we need to care about

the children

that belong to our neighbors that are in

our distant families

and that are in our local schools you

might be wondering how does someone get

into the foster care system

usually it’s because they are in an

unsafe home environment

so a parent might be mentally ill might

be addicted to drugs

they might be in jail or even deceased

the goal of foster care is to reunite

the biological parent

with their child at some point

a lot of times it doesn’t happen parents

often

find it difficult to get their life back

on track and the system itself

is so bureaucratic it creates hurdles

for parents

and once the child becomes lost to the

system

unfortunately and usually that’s it

they will bounce from foster home to

foster home

and if they’re not adopted by age 7

they’re deemed unadoptable

they’ll end up in a group home until

they age out at 18.

these types of experiences create a lot

of trauma for these youth

the simple lack of access to affection

and love now don’t get me wrong

there are really great foster parents

out there that do amazing work

and have sacrificed so much to give to

foster kids

there’s also a lot of parents that do it

for the wrong reasons

they get a monthly government stipend

and instead of

using it to prioritize the child they

use it as an income source

and once the child reaches 18 and they

age out

that government stipend ends and the

youth is usually put out onto the street

a third of our homeless population is

attributed to youth in foster care

ninety percent of incarcerated inmates

have a history of being in the foster

care system

and this brings me to my next point that

eighty percent

of sex trafficking victims are kids from

foster care

and by this point it shouldn’t be

surprised when i tell you

that los angeles is one of the leading

cities in america for sex trafficking

currently the target age for a sex

trafficking victim is 8 to 14 years old

once a child is put through commercial

sexual exploitation

they have a life expectancy of four

years and the reason behind that

is for one they are sold over and over

to so many customers they end up

contracting hiv

or aids the other is that traffickers

are so violent many times they’re just

beaten to death

and lastly an eight-year-old a nine or a

ten-year-old

their little bodies are not even

developed to handle the act of sex

they experience so much physical trauma

that they die from just that

you might be wondering how does this all

come together and how does it really

happen

jeffrey epstein who we all know

ran a very famous criminal sex

trafficking ring

was quoted in usa today saying that

they specifically targeted foster youth

and girls from single-family homes

because they are the most vulnerable

i attended the human trafficking

conference earlier this year in san

diego

we talked about three main risk factors

that attribute

to who becomes a victim of sex

trafficking one of those

is youth that are living in unsafe

neighborhoods

so neighborhoods that have high crime

rates gang violence

the second one is youth that come from

poverty

so homelessness not having basic access

to food to shelter and the third one

is not having access to healthy and safe

adult relationships

when a child lacks security

love and safety

they become targets traffickers

target foster youth in schools

they track them in group homes so often

they’ll follow them home from school

offer them a ride offer to give them

something to eat

maybe give them a gift offer to take

them out and get their hair and nails

done

and these youth are lonely

and they are hungry for affection and

traffickers know this

and they use it as an opportunity to

create a bond

with the youth and establish trust and

that’s how they lure them

and once a youth is lost to sex

trafficking

the likelihood of them ever leaving or

getting out

it’s slim to none

the other thing you might be wondering

is well why does this happen

it’s because it’s a business not only

that

it is the second most profitable

industry

in the world it ties with the arms trade

so for me to stand here and look at you

and say we’re going to

fight this industry it’s very naive

they are far too powerful and far too

dangerous

but i have a solution

and it’s rooted in economics

and that is to cut the supply

when there is no supply there is no

business

and that’s how you end sex trafficking

in america

so you’re probably wondering how do you

cut the supply

the answer is very simple love

you give them love by being a foster

parent a mentor

and in my opinion in the opinion of many

experts

becoming a court appointed advocate they

have programs all over the country

you commit yourself to one year to a

foster youth

you volunteer 15 hours a month and you

become their eyes and ears

you become their voice in front of a

judge you are their lifeline

and you just might be the person that

prevents the next gabriel fernandez

in los angeles we have

about 3 000 court appointed advocates

being a foster parent or social worker

just really isn’t enough anymore

and who knows how long it’ll take to fix

the broken

system imagine if every one of these

youth

was assigned a court appointed advocate

we could change the game like that

los angeles we have work to do we can

solve this problem

we are tedx del thorne women and if

we’re ever going to come together for a

reason

let it be this one through using our

superpower

love and doing it fearlessly

and powerfully we can create change in

the world

so let’s start with our community and

let’s do this

thank you