INVITING IN THE VICTIM:

CAN OPEN HEARTS LEAD TO OPEN DOORS?

Over the past few years most of us have had our eyes opened wide as we’ve learned about the prevalence and growth of human trafficking throughout the world. As much as we’d like to think this evil isn’t in our own communities, the facts tell us differently. Our hearts have grown burdened as we turn on the news to see that even in our own state, young women, young men, boys and girls are being sexually exploited and sold for child labor. As a state, our hearts are opening and we are responding. Last year North Dakota passed the Safe Harbor law, protecting victims under age 18 who’ve been trafficked in prostitution from being prosecuted. A team of individuals called the Red River Human Trafficking Response Team has formed to take action and meet the immediate needs of identified victims. Across the state, various organizations and individuals have felt a call in their hearts to combat human trafficking by raising awareness, working with state legislation, and coming to the aid of victims. One of these organizations is Youthworks of North Dakota.

A local non-profit that provides support services to at-risk and homeless teens and young adults throughout the state, Youthworks has recently developed the Lotus Program to fight human trafficking – both child labor trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Kim Larson, the project’s host home case manager, said, “Victims end up where they are because they felt like they were nothing. And then they come out of it feeling even worse. But with support, they can come out of the darkness and muck and blossom, like a lotus flower.”

In their effort to partner with the public in fighting trafficking, Youthworks has applied for and received grant money from the US Department of Human Services to develop a host home program for identified victims of human trafficking. As North Dakotans are responding to human trafficking with open hearts, victims now need open doors too. Youthworks is looking to secure seven host homes throughout the state: three in the counties most impacted by the oil boom –Montrail, Williams, and McKenzie counties and one host home per county in Ramsey, Grand Forks, Cass and Clay (MN) counties.

Jessica Fleck, Youthworks human trafficking program manager explains, “Human trafficking isn’t new…it’s been around forever. We are working to educate the public and flip the perception that this lifestyle is a choice. We also want to help the individuals realize that they are worth something and that they can be something…far more than their trafficker ever says they are.” To help victims recover and attain successful futures, they desperately need families that will walk the road of recovery…families that will not only open their hearts to the travesty of human trafficking, but that will also open their doors and invite in the victim. Right now, a victim that comes out of trafficking goes to either a juvenile correction center or a residential shelter. However, what the victim really needs is consistent love and support and a place to call home…a family.

Host families will go through a licensing process very similar to that of foster care and will receive compensation through the grant program. Because of the trauma a victim has been through, the host families will be trained in trauma support. The host family will play a crucial role in the victim’s healing, providing consistent, one-on-one care, loving the individual, and showing them that they are valuable. The victim will need the host family to be a place of forgiveness, patience, and readiness for the ups and downs of healing.

Perhaps your heart has been opened to this need in such a way that you feel called to open your door to the victims of human trafficking. If you’d like to learn more about this, please call Kim Larson at Youthworks in Fargo (701-232-8558). If you’d like to learn more about human trafficking, learn about the signs to identify an individual that might be being trafficked, or report a suspicion, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: (888)3737888 or text “help” or “info” to BEFREE (233733).