Seeking Solutions to Human Trafficking

Coming to the table

World-Patterson has been an etiquette teacher for years, and in a room full of conversation about ugly topics, her manners and poise provide a spark of grace around the table where the task force meets. Johnson is seated across the table, and World-Patterson said that being able to provide a “landing pad” for survivors like her has been a highlight of her work.

Since the task force began, more comprehensive resources have been made available to survivors. The Inner Beauty Center provides direct outreach and resources to sex workers on the street; the Benedict Center holds support groups for women transitioning out of sex work. This fall, Chandra Cooper opened up Grateful Girls Safe Haven, the first group home in Milwaukee County specifically for girls transitioning out of sex trafficking.

The Milwaukee Police Department and several local medical providers have increased their training on how to work with those who have experienced the commercial sex trade. Johnson identified housing and trauma-informed care as priorities for the task force going forward, and said that survivors like herself need to be involved in developing services and support.

“HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS. That needs to be written in big letters at the top of any community responses,” Johnson said.

Katie Linn, executive director of Exploit No More, said that there is still a gap between the need and the resources that are available.

“Even if we educate the community on how to identify victims, and law enforcement becomes more trained and educated and even more resourced, we don’t have the housing resources and the therapeutic resources we need to help the victims,” Linn said. Exploit No More is raising capital for a housing and rehabilitation center it is planning to build.

Dawn Jones of MPD’s Sensitive Crimes Division said that the trauma of being trafficked can affect a survivor’s ability to live independently and make decisions. “You have to completely reprogram them to be able to take care of themselves on their own,” she said. “We don’t have enough programs that do that well.”

The task force acknowledges that it will take legislative change to foster the kind of community response it would like to see. It is pushing for passage of a Safe Harbor bill through the state legislature, which would decriminalize minors involved in the sex trade so they could receive better services.

“We’re starting to see our leaders really pay attention to not only this issue in isolation, but this issue being tied to other issues,” Linn said.

World-Patterson wrestles with the enormity of the task force’s work by focusing on individual victories and small successes. She continues to be motivated by the stories of survival.

Jones also is inspired by the growth she has witnessed in survivors. “I have been doing this long enough to see former sex workers become who they were made to be,” she said. “I have seen women become nurses and CNAs. Some are artists, others can sing or write poems.”

Johnson is now happily engaged with two young sons and is working on her degree in social work. She said she wants to become an agent of change in the systems she struggled with. She knows that there are still children out there who are being manipulated into situations like the one she experienced.

Until that’s no longer true, World-Patterson said she and her colleagues won’t quit.

“One organization or two will not eradicate human trafficking. It will take all of us,” World-Patterson said. It would be really great if we could just work our way out of a job one day.”

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

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