How Commercial Sexual Exploitation Impacts Our Youth

Human trafficking has been gaining attention and momentum in the media. Often when we talk about trafficking we only talk about a fraction of magnitude of the billion-dollar industry. Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) encompasses the many methods and form individuals are impacted and exploited in this realm. With exploitation, youth are disproportionally impacted and increasingly vulnerable. What do you need to know about CSE and how it impacts our youth? What are the risk factors? What are recruitment methods? What can you do? Recruitment of youth can occur anywhere, from at the malls, within social groups, at school, and many unexpected areas. Let's get informed and talk about these critical issues.

Panelists:

Lorena Pinto: Director, Promoting Recovery, Independence, Dignity and Equality (PRIDE) program at The Family Partnership. Lorena is passionate about ending gender-based violence for vulnerable populations. As Director of PRIDE at The Family Partnership, she oversees comprehensive services for survivors of commercial sex trafficking and has trained over 1,500 community members.

Lorena was born in Peru. She is a graduate of the Wilkins Community Fellows program at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and holds degrees from San Diego State University. She is the former co-director of the Twin Cities New Leader’s Council that helps empower young professionals of color to create social change in our community.

Logan Tootle: Logan Tootle is the Safe Harbor Youth Worker at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, located in the heart of the Minneapolis American Indian community. Logan provides direct services, including individual case management and culturally specific support groups, to primarily Urban Native youth 24 and under who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing commercial sexual exploitation. Logan approaches her direct service work with a harm reduction and strengths-based strategy aimed to provide support to youth wherever they are and highlight their strengths as they work towards their own goals.

In addition to providing direct services, Logan engages in and facilitates a variety of trainings within the community, including organizing a three-day conference in June of 2018 titled Bring Her Home: Creating Tribal Responses to Commercial Sexual Exploitation. She was recently featured in a Minnesota Native News special titled The Fight against Sex Trafficking.

Logan is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and holds a BA in International Studies and Sociology from Macalester College.

Tonique Ayler: Tonique serves as Breaking Free’s Permanent Housing Advocate. The Village Place, Breaking Free’s permanent housing facility. The Village Place is a 54-unit apartment complex master leased by Breaking Free with one- and two-bedroom units. Tonique first became involved with Breaking Free as a survivor, attending the Sisters of Survival group, Speaker’s Bureau, and later speaking at what is now called “Men’s Breaking Free”.

She has since engaged in many public speaking events, sharing her testimony with churches, universities, Medical Facilities and other survivors; in addition to completing mini documentaries and a series of columns for newspapers; now she facilitates the Sisters of Survival group. Tonique has an Associate’s Degree in Science and certified as a Business and Computer Application Specialist. Because of her well-rounded experience, knowledge, and talent, she is very effective in her role at housing. Providing ongoing advocacy and direct services with compassionate and support, whether it’s over the phone or in person, Tonique networks with other agencies to assist the families in housing, in addition to a few clients in Breaking Free’s Women’s Program. Dedicated to her passion of motivating and educating our community in raising awareness that sex-trafficking and prostitution is modern day slavery, violence against women and paid rape; Tonique’s focus is to empower women and girls of a culturally diverse population to escape sexual exploitation and domestic violence, homelessness and to recover from substance abuse. As a mother of three, Tonique understands the dynamics of building a strong family and the secondary trauma that can often immobilize survivors and their families.

Biiftuu Ibrahim Adam (Moderator) is an Oromo American Women. She first and always is an advocate. She holds a masters in Criminology and nearly a decade of experience working with survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and human trafficking. She is a national presenter, trainer, and functions in the realms of the criminal justice system.

She conducted a study on the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act and its impact on the Federal prison population. The researched focused on the racial disparities the crack cocaine mandatory minimums birthed and mass incarceration. She has lead additional research that addresses racial disparities across the system from arrests, victimization, to the prison population. She advocates for policies that lead with an intersectional lens and are centered in racial equity. She advocates for ending gender-based violence, criminal justice reform, immigration, housing, and eliminating barriers that impact communities of color from thriving. Biiftuu is the newly elected co-Director of NLC Twin Cities, a proud member of the National NLC Black Caucus, and serves on the NLC National Diversity Committee.