CSEC and Systems of Oppression

In addition to my PE, another meaningful thing I’m engaging with this semester is called Project HONEY, which stands for Helping to Empower Oakland and Neighbors’ Exploited Youth. Project HONEY is a supplementary program to a local non-profit in Oakland called MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Serving and Supporting Exploited Youth). MISSSEY is a safe physical space where survivors of sex trafficking can go for after-school fun but also provides various forms of social support. The goal of the DeCal is to understand sex trafficking of minors in the Bay Area so we can eventually act as advocates and mentors for the children. The main class activity in the DeCal is to create a workshop to present to the children at MISSSEY to add to their after-school activities program as well as give us base knowledge for a future of working with at-risk youth. I can't even begin to scratch the surface at how much this class has taught me, but I'll try to speak a little about it.


In the DeCal we often discuss the use of language when talking about the clients of MISSSEY. The term that we feel best describes the clients are CSECs, or commercially and sexually exploited minors. We feel like this is an all-encompassing term because it highlights the struggles that these children face: being just a middle-person in a monetary exchange in which they receive no benefit, and being part the process which exploits them sexually. We refrain from calling them “child prostitutes” because we feel that this phrase connotes a level of choice in their situations and lives, but this choice is simply not there. It is true that many girls go back to their pimps after they escape the life, but we must consider that the average age of entry into commercial exploitation of a CSEC is 12 years old. It’s clear that there’s a connection to the return and their own trauma, PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome as a cause for this relapse. When you’re baseline for normal is abuse and exploitation, it requires a lot of counseling and social support to have the courage to leave for good. We are also careful to call them “survivors”, not “victims” because we believe that they are strong and can take an active role in going forth with their lives.


Through this class I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Minh Dang, a survivor and advocate for the movement as well as a new Cal graduate from the MSW program. Minh gave us a very interesting lecture about domestic human trafficking. Why, in a society that supposedly works to protect children, are CSECs not getting the help and support that they need? Minh asserted that our society creates the conditions for this type of slavery to occur, and many systems of oppression are in play to create these conditions. Racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, and many more all play a role in the commercial and sexual exploitation of minors. To rid society of this system of exploitation, we must also examine issues that appear to be separate because they do in fact play a major role. Minh blog about these issues very eloquently and I’d encourage everyone to check out her blog: http://minhspeakstruth.tumblr.com/

Looking for the Hidden Signs

For my practice experience, I am working with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) located in Berkeley, Ca. Essentially, the  EBSC, "provides sanctuary---support, protection, and advocacy-- to low-income and indigent refugees and immigrants."

In preparation for this blog, I went searching for a multimedia link that would be able to show all of the great services offered by the EBSC. The sanctuary does so much to serve its client database and quick video only touches on the diverse group of people that come into our office. 

I actually started my practice experience about 2 weeks ago; every time I go into the office there is always something new that I am learning and new people that I am interacting with. 

At the 20 second mark, the video begins to describe the hand painted mural that, "greets visitors with colorful and moving scenes of military persecution, displacement, and sanctuary". I have seen this mural each time I have gone into the sanctuary, but I did not think much of it and did not realize how much significance it held for the sanctuary and the message it is attempting to convey. I am only starting to appreciate its meaning and what it means for the organization that I am working with. 

As we embark or prepare to embark on our PE journeys, I challenge all of us to keep our eyes peeled for these murals, signs, or other physical objects that give us more insight into organization and people that make our practice experiences.