Jen Robinson | TEDxUniversityofNevada
We are so excited to share with you a TEDx talk by Awaken’s Co-founder, Jen Robinson. We ask you to take 13 minutes and watch this amazing, informative talk about the realities of sex trafficking and how you can make a difference in the life of one person. Who is your one?
The Awaken Banquet was a huge success thanks to you!
With your support, we’ve witnessed hundreds of lives changed, women and children healed, and a community begin to unite. Together we’ve accomplished so much. This year at the Awaken Banquet you blew us away by helping us raise over $340,000! Victims who once wondered if their lives mattered to anyone discovered there are people like you, who do care about them.
As one client noted:
“I just wanted to tell you how blessed I am to have you in my life. How extremely grateful I feel to have the help and support I have through your services…I haven’t ever been in a safe place where I feel loved, wanted, and welcome the way I feel here…You make a big difference. You have made a big difference in me. THANK YOU!”
In case you missed the banquet, you can watch Jen share the story of one brave youth that was exploited, along with Awaken’s 2020 plan to open up a specialized holistic educational and restorative school for youth who have been trafficked. You can also watch my banquet talk where I share about the parallels of our community breaking our silence while a survivor breaks hers. I also share additional 2020 initiatives to increase our services by creating programs specific to the women we work with. These programs will offer a continuum of services that range in therapeutic opportunities so that many more women will have access to the perfect level of care they need.
The women and children we work with come to us having experienced the darkest side of humanity. Your contribution makes our work possible. The fight to end exploitation in our community is not easy, but because of you, it’s also not ours to fight alone. You can help us stop this abuse and succeed in our 2020 initiatives by donating before the end of the year. Your contribution will help victims and get us closer to achieving our vision of one day ending the prostitution and trafficking of women and children in our community. Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Melissa Holland
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Today 55 survivors, all whom had been sold and exploited in Nevada unified their voices to tell the Washington D.C. City Council they wholeheartedly disagree with fully decriminalizing the sex trade. Their words below describe the horrendous results of having lived and been exploited in a state where a legal sex trade exists.
Dear Chairman Allen and Members of the Committee:
We, the undersigned are survivors of the commercial sex trade in the state of Nevada. We have written this letter in opposition to the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019. Nevada is the one place in the country that has implemented something similar to what D.C. is proposing to do; however, what Washington, D.C. aims to do with decriminalization is actually worse than legalization. Many in our state also believed legalizing prostitution would help make it safer. That has not been the case for survivors of the legal sex trade. Nevada’s legal prostitution has rolled out the red carpet for sex buyers from all over the world. Traffickers use many avenues to sell their victims, including legal brothels. For many of us, that meant being trafficked into and out of Nevada. For others, it meant we were groomed into prostitution simply by being raised in a state where it’s legal.
We hope that our lived experiences and voices will be taken into consideration coming from a state where the buying and selling of sex has become normalized. The women who have shared their experiences here represent many others in the legal sex trade who are not yet free to speak their minds. We fully understand the unintended consequences when the buying of sex is normalized and prostitution is treated like a job. The verbal, physical and sexual abuse is always minimized as a result of legalization. Numerous studies show that between 70 and 90 percent of children and women who end up in the commercial sex trade were sexually abused prior to entry. There is no other industry that is dependent upon a regular supply of victims of trauma and abuse. Prostitution is not like any other “job”; this experience is often times full of violence, trauma and pain and not one that the women or children can simply walk away from without serious danger.
Many of us couldn’t keep count of how many times we were assaulted and too scared to fight back. To cope with the rapes, physical assaults, verbal degradation and the humiliation of prostitution, the majority of us abused drugs. Treating prostitution as a job like any other only leads the “customer” to believe he is always right and can get away with any fantasy he desires. Sexual assault is only one of those fantasies. For those of us of color, it was fantasies of racism. We can’t count the number of times we were called a racial slur. Racism from sex buyers is commonplace. Many of our sisters have committed suicide from the trauma we endure in prostitution. Decriminalization will only make this worse.
Legalized prostitution has increased the market for commercial sex in our community; this increase benefits criminal enterprises that profit from sex trafficking. Your community will become a playground for men to live out their fantasies, just like ours has. Please understand that just because the sex was paid for does not mean it was consensual. Passing this bill will hurt the very people you are claiming you want to protect.
Many supporters of the bill testified about harsh treatment by law enforcement. Let’s put serious effort and funding into training law enforcement officers to respectfully help the victims, add accountability measures for those who act out of line and violate women and children and punish the criminals: the pimps and buyers.
We ask that you listen to survivors; pimping and buying sex are behaviors that should not be encouraged or tolerated. The premise of decriminalization and legalization is wrong. Legalization has given men who buy sex permission to be degrading, harmful and violent to women. Full decriminalization does not make prostitution safer. Being bought for sex is not harmful because its’ illegal, it is illegal because it’s harmful. We know firsthand the life-long trauma that occurs from being bought and sold for sex. We urge the committee not to pass the cleverly disguised Community Health and Safety Act of 2019.
Written by Melissa Holland and Laila Mickelwait
Forty-eight years ago prostitution was legalized in Nevada and as a result, Nevada has developed into a breeding ground for sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
In fact, Nevada has the highest rate of prostitution in the country—its illegal sex trade is 63% higher than the next highest state. It also ranks in the top 10 states for trafficked and exploited youth.
None of this is surprising because research has shown that legal prostitution increases the demand for prostitution and thus increases the market for sex. As a result, there is a significant increase in instances of human trafficking.
For example, in 2012 researchers Seo-Young Cho, Axel Dreher, and Eric Neumayer published their findings in World Development establishing that “The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking… On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.”
In 2005, another study1 on 11 European Union countries, requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, found that stricter prostitution laws seem to produce fewer human trafficking victims.
Furthermore, case studies published by researchers Niklas Jakobsson and Andreas Kotsadam2 support the connection between criminalizing buying sex and reduced human trafficking. Jakobsson and Kotsadam found that sex trafficking is least prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal and most prevalent in countries where prostitution is legalized.
Nevada is the only state in the US where legal prostitution exists and because of this, the entire state has a reputation for being a safe haven for pimps, traffickers, and sex buyers. As such, legalized prostitution in Nevada has created an enabling environment for sexual exploitation to flourish. In Nevada alone, there is a demand for over 20,000 innocent women and children sold online every year.
In order to abolish sex trafficking, we must eliminate the demand for prostitution. The demand elimination strategy is the only way to put pimps and traffickers out of business and protect the rights of women and children to attain a life free from exploitation.
Women in prostitution shouldn’t be arrested, they should be offered services to help them escape prostitution, heal, and live a life of dignity. Sex buyers, pimps, and traffickers should be arrested and their crimes should be felony-level offenses.
As Nevada trafficking survivor Rebekah Charleston articulates, “To put it candidly, we must stop any system that condones buying human beings for sex. It’s an injustice against our sisters, our friends, our neighbors, and our daughters.”
Legal prostitution in Nevada has brought severe harm to the women and girls who’ve been pulled into prostitution over the last 48 years.
One of the largest studies conducted on prostitution, published in the Journal of Trauma Practice, surveyed 854 prostituted women in nine countries. It concluded that 63% of women in prostitution were raped, 71% were physically assaulted, and 68% met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder in the same range as treatment-seeking combat veterans and victims of state-organized torture.3
It’s time to end the toxic prostitution industry in Nevada. It has to stop. Now. Until it does, Nevada is a haven for exploiters and Nevada is not safe for women.
Please support ending legalized sexual exploitation in Nevada and specifically ask the governor and attorney general of Nevada to withdraw their opposition to the lawsuit that would effectively abolish legalized prostitution in the state. Go to prostitutionharms.com to find out how you can take action today.
Footnotes
1. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2005/360488/IPOL-JOIN_ET%282005%29360488_EN.pdf
2. The Law and Economics of International Sex Slavery: Prostitution Laws and Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation
Niklas Jakobsson and Andreas Kotsadam No 458, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics
3. Farley, Melissa et al. (2003). “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Journal of Trauma Practice, Vol. 2, No. 3/4: 33-74; and Farley, Melissa. ed. 2003. Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress. Haworth Press, New York. ; Ramsay, R. et. al. 1993. “Psychiatric morbidity in survivors of organized state violence including torture.” British Journal of Psychiatry. 162:55-59.
As the school year has come to an end, Awaken has said goodbye to six of our spring interns and welcomed four new summer interns! These students are a vital part of the Awaken team, and every semester it’s tough to say goodbye. Both staff and clients become close to them. During the spring semester, most of our interns have not only had the opportunity to work at the office and with clients in our Drop In Center, but also with our house staff and residents.
During their last week at Awaken, we asked each intern a few questions about their experiences working at Awaken. We hope this interview helps you understand a bit more about our internship program, and also helps you see Awaken through a new perspective.
What has been the best part of your internship at Awaken?
Interaction with the women.
Interacting and helping each client that comes into Awaken. It also has been rewarding to see the progress within many of the clients.
The friendships I have formed with the clients who currently live at the house have been the best part. They may be in recovery, but they are the strongest women I have ever met. They often greet me with a smile, and enjoy teasing me about the fact that I struggle to shuffle cards whenever they have me join them in a card game. They have shown me that strength and healing comes in many forms.
What has been the most challenging part?
Not being able to have the answer to everything and not being able to have enough community resources for these women.
Finding free time to complete my internship.
Friendships I have formed with the clients. I want to see them succeed and continue on their path to recovery, but I have learned that there is only so much I can do for them and I pray that they can learn from their mistakes when they fall. They have opened up to me about their past, and although it is hard to hear at times and breaks my heart, I can only hope it helps them heal from their past.
What have you learned during your internship?
I have learned many things from my internship. Two main learning opportunities I was able to gain was conflict and empathy skills working with the different clients. There were many cases where empathy was needed when listening to client’s stories but there was also conflict that arose, so being able to handle those situations was a great learning opportunity.
I learned to stay flexible and enjoy every minute.
I learned to take time to make sure I am okay at the end of the day. There is nothing wrong with taking a break from the world, and practicing self-care constantly and consistently. I was taught that in the business of helping, I need to prioritize not only the client’s mental health, but mine as well.
What advice would you give to new interns just starting at Awaken?
I’d say do research on sexual trafficking in the United States and also Reno. It is important to be aware of this issue and educated on it to help better your experience as an intern.
We cannot save or rescue people, just do your best to help people understand their value. Make every interaction count and be genuine.
Thank you to all of our interns! We so appreciate you! We hope that your experiences at Awaken continue to drive your heart to serve others and make a positive change in the world.