A COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO END THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN

 
"Against Child Trafficking and Teen Prostitution in Our Neighborhoods"
(THE ACTION NETWORK)
Text Box: One million teens in the U.S. are involved in prostitution each year. Everyday over 1.4 million teens are homeless or runaways and vulnerable to sexual exploitation Each year 5,000 teens will lose their lives on the streets due to assault, rape, suicide and illness Up to 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk of falling prey to the sex trade each year A child is propositioned for sex within the first 72 hours that she/he is on the streets At any given time there are up to 2000 homeless and runaway children in San Diego County SAN DIEGO YOUTH & COMMUNITY SERVICES B-SAFE Human Trafficking Program Manolo Guillén Phone: (619) 325-3527 ext. 209 Fax: (619) 325-3534 E-mail: mguillen@sdycs.org

What is the ACTION Network?

 

The Action Network is a coordinating body that brings together a multidisciplinary group of governmental and non-governmental organizations to address child trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in San Diego County.

 

What is the history behind the ACTION Network?

 

In late 2005, a fifteen-year-old African American girl came to a local teen shelter terrified. Only a few days before, she was lured into a home in Southeast San Diego where a street gang laid out assault riffles and handguns on a kitchen table. The gang members told the girl that they would kill her grandmother and little sister if she refused to leave with them to Las Vegas to prostitute herself.

 

This tragic case prompted the community of San Diego to form an alliance to specifically address local child prostitution. No child should ever have to worry about selling his/her body to keep their loved ones alive. And no society should ever allow itself to be held hostage by those that seek to harm its children. There is power in community and that is a fundamental reason why we united under one voice to form a multidisciplinary coalition to fight these egregious crimes committed against the most vulnerable. 

 

On October 25th, 2005, organizations like San Diego Youth & Community Services, San Diego County Office of Education, San Diego Juvenile Court, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, San Diego City Attorney’s Office, San Diego Police Department’s Vice Unit, FBI, IRS, ICE, UPAC, San Diego Family Justice Center, Youth Restoration Alliance, Center for Community Solution’s Rape Crisis Center, Sheriff’s Department, Chula Vista Police Department, Sharp Hospital, Heartland Human Relations, San Diego County Probation Department, San Diego Public Defenders Office, Organizational Improvement Systems, Commission on Children Youth & families, Community Policing Consultants, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and many others got together to recognize that there was a significant child exploitation problem in San Diego.

 

During the same time the Girls Issues Group (GIG) and SANDAG conducted a survey on teen prostitution where up to 93% of professionals that work with children reported that teen prostitution was a serious problem in San Diego. On December 1st, 2005, these two groups conducted a community meeting to release the results of their survey. Since GIG was sun setting after their last meeting, they publicly “passed on the torch” to a group of concerned organizations.    

 

As a result, the ACTION Network was founded on February 15, 2006 when approximately 40 members of the community got together and ratified the ACTION Network Charter. We recognized that teen prostitution was a severe problem and that additional resources were needed in San Diego to combat local teen prostitution and domestic trafficking in children.  

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