Three Pillars
Awaken aims to accomplish its mission and vision through three areas: Prevention, Restoration, and City Transformation. Learn more about each pillar below:
Prevention
Awaken offers preventative education targeting the most vulnerable population: disadvantaged youth. Awaken staff present at school assemblies, deliver classroom-based curriculum to students, and work with youth groups to talk to local students about the realities of human trafficking and how to prevent it from happening to them or their loved ones.
Awaken has worked with victims of trafficking from each and every high school in the Reno/Sparks/Carson area and most of the middle schools. Youth victims who enrolled in Awaken programming in 2019 made up 49.5 percent of Awaken’s program participants, and many of Awaken’s older victims were first trafficked in their youth.
Those who have experienced the child welfare system have unique risks, especially during times when they run away from foster care. Foster youth who run may experience poor health, safety, education, employment, and justice system involvement. Approximately 60 percent of all child sex trafficking victims have histories in the child welfare system.
Lack of stable housing is also a risk factor for youth. More than 3,000 students in the Washoe County School District experience homelessness. Students experiencing homelessness are 87 percent more likely to drop out of school than those with stable housing; those without a high school diploma are 4.5 times more likely to experience homelessness later in life. One in five homeless youth are led into trafficking: estimates state 20 percent of homeless youth females are trafficked for sex.
Studies state, “on average, commercial sexual exploitation starts as early as 12-14 years old.” Yet, Awaken suspects that many youth are not being reached. Almost 50 percent of the youth reported never accessing services.
Awaken’s goal is that through prevention efforts, students would be able to identify unsafe situations for themselves and their peers and avoid becoming victims.
To request a speaker to come to your school or youth group, please click here
Restoration
Since its inception, Awaken has helped more than 700 women and children. Victims of sex trafficking and CSE struggle in Nevada. They are forced to navigate a culture that “mainstreams” and readily accepts the commodification of sex and yet offers little in the way of social services, mental health, housing or other programs necessary to help victims of trafficking rebuild their lives. Women in and out of the sex trade are sold, raped, beaten, assaulted, kidnapped and murdered at levels high above the national average. While Awaken works extensively with other community partners to help these individuals, the unique and complex circumstances of CSE and sex trafficking victims creates serious challenges and obstacles that require individualized and customized services not often available at domestic violence centers, drug/alcohol rehabilitation centers, or homeless shelters. The experiences, types of trauma, interventions, and outcomes are often quite different. Awaken has customized services for Adults and Youth. Please visit our Programs Page to learn more about the opportunities available.
Drop-In Center
In January 2016 Awaken, with the support of caring community partners, opened the Awaken Drop-in Center off 4th St. and Spokane St. — a hot spot for trafficking, prostitution, and CSE. Purposefully located, Awaken is removing barriers and increasing accessibility to its programs and services. The center serves individuals by providing case management, education, counseling, mentoring, food, and clothing. Awaken aims to be a place of safety by being a consistent presence that provides for immediate, tangible needs and offers resources for help and hope.
Day Program
The Awaken Day Program aims to improve well-being for program participants by increasing opportunities for participants to attain self-reliance and stability. The program consists of modules which the participants move through — the emphasis is not completing the modules, but instead on moving through the issues that are most relevant at that specific time (parenting, trauma, life skills, emotion regulation, etc.). Modules consist of several weekly groups along with activities and case management meetings. Participation is strongly encouraged through earned incentives in order to obtain each individual’s desired healthy lifestyle.
When the Nevada Governor’s stay-at-home order was issued in response to COVID, the Awaken Day Program moved to online accessibility. This meant that the twice-daily group therapy sessions which used to be offered exclusively to Awaken Transitional House residents were now open to all interested program participants, including drop-in participants.
Awaken Education Center
Awaken launched a new initiative to better serve trafficked youth during the 2020-2021 school year: the Awaken Education Center (AEC). For years, Awaken has tried to find the solution to help trafficked youth bridge the gap from their exploitation to their education. This fits into Awaken’s strategy by helping to restore victims of trafficking and CSE to their fullest potential.
The idea for the AEC first came about when Awaken’s directors noticed program participants would come back from different programs, and within a few days be expected to attend classes in a public school setting. The students would get overwhelmed with teachers and students, and, being daunted by the quick, overwhelming transition, they would return to their traffickers. Directors sat down with a handful of youth program participants and discussed what the ideal school experience would look like for them. They came up with a coffee shop design, allowing for freedom of movement and individualized instruction. By September, all of the youth who helped plan the AEC were enrolled in and benefitting from the program.
At the AEC, students who are participating in either the online or hybrid school programs complete their school day supervised by the Awaken School Advocate. Awaken is partnering with the Washoe County Human Services Agency and the Washoe County School District to provide the most supportive wraparound services and ensure vulnerable youth have what they need to thrive this school year. Without an education and support, these youth have a high likelihood of revictimization. With this new way of approaching education, it is Awaken’s hope to disrupt the exploitation cycle.
Housing
In January 2019, Awaken opened the very first restorative home in northern Nevada specifically designed for women affected by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). Awaken’s first-hand experience — backed by various studies — shows that long-term transitional housing is among CSE victims’ greatest needs. However, a recent survey found that there are less than 40 programs of this kind across the nation and many states lack any specialized residential programs. Awaken will ensure every resident has access to the services and opportunities she needs to heal.
All of Awaken’s services, including those that will be offered in the home, are focused on healing, empowerment and identity building. We aim for survivors to be restored to their fullest potential.
The Awaken home aims to:
- Provide a 12 to 24 month, rent-free, home environment based on a community living model;
- Help residents live honest, sober, and self-sufficient lives;
- Connect residents with services to help them heal, including alcohol and drug treatment programs, mental health services and physical healthcare;
- Provide education and job training opportunities;
- Nurture self-understanding through personal and spiritual growth;
- Offer the time and support needed to recover from past trauma.
In this home, women who were once told who they are, are given the chance to find their new identity and reclaim the lives that were stolen from them.
City Transformation
Nevada is a sex tourism state. People from around the globe come to visit Nevada, attracted by casinos, brothels, and 24/7 entertainment. Yet while tourists can return home after a long weekend of fantasy chasing, local residents are left with the effects of an economy that thrives on the availability of sex for sale.
Nevada’s sex trade is the largest in the country — 63 percent larger than the next largest state. A 2013 study in the European Journal of Law and Economics compared data from countries that had legalized prostitution versus those that hadn’t. It found that sex trafficking is “most prevalent in countries where prostitution is legalized.” Sex buyers in Nevada are notoriously unconcerned with accessing sex legally or illegally — and many don’t know the difference. Women and children have paid the price for Nevada’s laws.
The entire community has been groomed. Traffickers come to Nevada to recruit women and children for the sex trade, and have bragged this is the easiest state in which to recruit because the laws have done much of the grooming and desensitizing for them. When prostitution is a legal business and viewed as “a job like any other,” it gets the same access and opportunities as any other business.
An important aspect of Awaken’s work is focused on being an advocate for social change and engaging the community. Through the agency’s awareness and outreach efforts, Awaken is reaching a diverse cross-section of Nevadans from grassroots supporters to policymakers. We aim to educate and empower individuals with the information and resources they need to combat sex trafficking and CSE. Awaken offers year-round workshops and trainings for law enforcement, hospitals, social service providers, and faith-based groups. We perform outreach through special events and media campaigns.
Awaken’s commitment to reaching community members is a key component in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking in our area. We cannot combat this crime alone and need all our neighbors to be informed about this egregious human rights violation happening right here in our own backyard. Awaken aspires to be an inspirational model for other communities.
To request a speaker, please click here .