Prevention

+ Outreach and Support for Homeless Youth

This agency-led program focuses on youth ages 11-25 living at the intersection of homelessness and sexual exploitation to support safety and stability. Service for these homeless and runaway youth includes providing basic needs, shelter, housing, therapy, and other prevention services. Dressember also provides support for the 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.

+ Reducing the victimization of LGBTQ+ youth

Dressember partners with a Georgia-based Youth Services Center to provide trauma-informed case management, therapy, and court advocacy to youth. The population served through this program is 99% Black or multi-racial and 40% 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.

+ Mentorship and scholarship in Northern Thailand

An estimated 60,000 children are involved in the Thai sex trade every year (US State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practice, Thailand, 2009). The greatest risks to trafficking are related to poverty, family history of trafficking or sex work, a history of abuse, and family breakdown. This program addresses these risks by providing support, outreach, mentorship, and scholarships to young girls at risk of trafficking and their families. Local youth leaders of this program fill the gap of access to education in the Thai education system by providing sexual education workshops to speak on healthy relationships and raise awareness of the “Romeo trafficker” scenario often seen in Thailand.

+ Preventing Exploitation in Agricultural Work

Through the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program, Dressember helps prevent human trafficking, sexual assault, sexual wage theft, and other human rights abuses of agricultural workers. The Fair Food Program is uniquely effective at preventing human trafficking and exploitation because it was designed by the workers themselves to address some of the most pernicious problems in the industry. The FFP is built on an interdependent set of mechanisms that combine to create “wall-to-wall” human rights protections for workers.

+ Preventing Trafficking in Eastern European Source Countries

Romania is a source country for 44% of all sex-trafficking-related prosecutions in Europe—but according to Europol, less than 50% receive any assistance from the government. Our partner aids the local Romanian government in protecting children, women and men across Europe who are vulnerable to trafficking, and provides trainings on standard prevention and combative practices to a robust network of collaborators. Dressember is supporting the expansion of our partner's cross-border protection to other "source" nations like Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland, while continuing to work hand-in-hand with “destination” countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Dressember is also supporting the establishment of a European Anti-Trafficking Center for Excellence, a critical piece to strengthening the local and regional justice system that will protect millions across the region.