Youths are taught that the dynamics of a coercive relationship emerge slowly after a power imbalance is established
Many youths caught up in the deceptive world of sex trafficking might not even realize it, said Emmy Ritter, executive director of Raphael House, which serves survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
“It’s more subtle than a pimp picking them off the street,” Ritter said. “A boyfriend might begin to ask his partner to have sex with his friends or take her to parties and hand her out there.
“Maybe family members or gang affiliates are pulling them in, which doesn’t feel unsafe on the front end,” Ritter said.
As part of the New Day Program, high school students are learning how to spot the signs of exploitive relationships.
FURTHER READING: New Day Program busts myths, builds relationships with young sex-trafficking victims
A new curriculum on sex trafficking and coercion has now been integrated into the generalized training on consent, dating violence and healthy relationships – which has been provided to Portland schools by Raphael House and VOA Home Free for 13 years.
“Rather than the scare tactics of the past, we’re approaching this by letting the kids see sex trafficking from their perspective – from a relationship perspective – as opposed to the scary guy outside the school trying to get you in the van,” Ritter said.
New Day’s lead prevention instructor, Gibson – who uses the pronouns they and them and chose to go by their first name only – said exploitation happens when someone exploits a power imbalance to profit off another person. Furthermore, anyone under 18 who is trading sex is recognized as a trafficking victim and can access resources and support.
“The ways these youth experience trafficking relationships, these relationships with third-party exploiters,” Gibson said, “they don’t really fit into an easy mold.”
Gibson said to help students understand the grooming techniques used by traffickers, the New Day Program facilitates fluid discussions among students.
“We ask how the power imbalance might begin,” Gibson said. “What are the ways people can experience exploitation? What are the dynamics of an exploitive relationship? What’s deceit? How do we define coercion?”
Students are taught that the dynamics of a coercive relationship emerge slowly after there’s a foundation laid of behaviors that create power and control imbalances in the relationship. Prevention instructors help students focus on the root causes of their relationship issues, regarding not just their intimate partners but also other friends and family.
Gibson finds students are excited to ask questions about the myths they’ve heard about sex trafficking and why houseless students and trans youths are at a higher risk.
“We see traffickers exploit transphobia in our community,” Gibson said. “They will exploit any rejection you’ve experienced. Say your family isn’t embracing your gender identity; the exploiter will use that as leverage to begin the exploitation.”
Gibson said another way traffickers exploit youth is by having them recruit their friends to the trafficking world, to minimize the traffickers’ proximity to the illegal behavior.
“The friend might say, ‘I know how you can get really nice things,’ ‘Maybe you want to come to this party with me,’ or ‘I’m hanging out with these really cool people if you want to come hang out.’”
Gibson said youths who have experienced poverty, emotional abuse, the tearing down of self-esteem and internal victim-blaming often form trauma bonds with their traffickers.
“Maybe your family is experiencing houselessness, stuff really sucks for you, so it is really easy to believe someone has come along who’s going to make everything better for you.”
Another program taking an innovative approach to educating students about healthy relationships has recently placed “confidential advocates” in three local high schools. Raphael House, Volunteers of America (VOA) Home Free, Portland Public Schools, and the student health centers from Cleveland, Franklin and Lincoln high schools are collaborating on this ground-breaking pilot project.
The Healthy Teen Relationship Act Implementation Project offers on-site confidential advocacy services to youth during set office hours at the above-named schools.
“As far as we know, it’s unprecedented,” said Julia Tycer, Prevention Education Program coordinator and confidential advocate from Raphael House. “There is a confidential person, who is not a mandatory reporter, on the school campus during the school day, so we are very excited to provide this to the youth.”
Tycer said some youths have anxiety over making a report to their teachers or administrators.
“There can be some confusion about where that information is going to go and what’s going to happen next,” Tycer said.
“To be able to talk through something with a confidential support person I think gives them the feeling that they’re the ones in control of the situation,” she said. “We can talk them through what making a report might look like, but our goal is to give the power back to the survivor who’s probably had that taken away by another person.”
Since April, three advocates have been seeing students at Cleveland and Franklin high schools, and they recently began seeing students at Lincoln. The confidential advocates hope to develop a mobile program to take their services to more schools, not just for major incidents but also for students’ more personal concerns.
“It might be ‘My partner is sending me weird texts all the time; can you help me understand what to do around that, because it’s making me nervous?’” Ritter said.
“It’s not always a crisis,” Tycer said. “A lot of folks are just wanting a little insight from an adult who has a lot of experience talking about relationships, just wanting to know, ‘Hey, what is your opinion? Do you think this is OK, or is this normal?’”
The Healthy Relationship Advocates came about in response to the Healthy Teen Relationship Act, which passed in 2013. The law mandates Oregon school districts adopt policies to address teen dating violence. However, Oregon schools have yet to meet the requirement since there was no funding attached to the bill. This confidential advocate program aims to create a pilot model for implementing HTRA, which could be the model for other schools in the future.
“We’re not making choices for people; we’re not telling them what to do,” Tycer said. “We are just there to provide support for whatever they’re dealing with. They get to decide what that looks like and if they want other people involved in the situation. We simply help facilitate.”
Learn more
For more information on the Prevention Education Program and the confidential advocates:
• Portland Public Schools: New, innovative approach to healthy relationship services launches at two PPS high schools
• Raphael House: Prevention Education Program
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