Project GOLD Fact Sheet (PDF) | Project GOLD Leadership (PDF)
Kristi House has led the Miami community response to commercial sexual exploitation of children since 2007 with a program encompassing community collaboration, prevention and treatment. Project GOLD provides health services linkages, case management and therapy services to survivors who experience physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual repercussions from the trauma of sexual exploitation.
Project GOLD also focuses on raising awareness about the reality of children being bought and sold in the commercial sex industry and building community capacity to treat and heal victims. The project is breaking new ground locally and nationally in addressing a previously overlooked and hidden population of child sexual abuse victims.
Hidden Child Sexual Abuse Victims
There is a strong link between childhood sexual abuse and CSEC. It is estimated by service providers that as many as 80-90% of prostituted youth were sexually and/or physically abused in the home. Because of the abuse, a child may run away or be thrown out of the home whereby he or she becomes extremely vulnerable to exploitation in the streets. Among children are living on the streets, a third are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. Most of these cases occur in major cities such as Miami, where at least 75% of the minors engaged in prostitution have a pimp. Once they fall into the hands of a pimp / trafficker, they are repeatedly subject to various forms of psychological, physical and sexual abuse as a means of breaking the will and extracting obedience. They are also transported frequently from city to city to further isolate the victims and meet client demand. Escaping “the life” proves incredibly difficult for most.
Kristi House is taking the lead in addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Miami-Dade County through its Project GOLD program. The initiative aims to:
- Empower and raise awareness among at-risk girls
- Identify and assist those who are in need of services to escape exploitation
- Strengthen the community capacity to address the issue of CSEC
- Change systems that allow CSEC to continue (Kristi House is currently working to see Florida enact Safe Harbor legislation that would provide services rather than punishment to CSEC victims.)
To accomplish these goals, Kristi House has begun a number of programs with its community partners.
ASSESSMENT & COMMUNITY COORDINATION
Project GOLD conducts full psychosocial assessments on clients with allegations of commercial sexual exploitation whether or not there is a direct disclosure of exploitation. Many times youth feel more open to disclosing to Project GOLD staff because there is less fear that they will be judged for their involvement in prostitution or that the information will not “shock” the assessor. Once allegations are confirmed, cases will be opened with Project GOLD. If the youth does not meet the criteria for Project GOLD services, proper referrals will be made to other agencies for follow up. As no agency can do it all, Kristi House and Project GOLD work closely with community partners to maintain a strong continuum of care without duplicating services. Through Multi-Disciplinary Team staffings and ongoing communication, advocacy and support to outside agencies, the needs of each client are individually assessed and addressed.
CASE MANAGEMENT / YOUTH ADVOCACY
Project GOLD Case Managers are specially trained to work with clients from the initial crisis stabilization through the development of long-term family-like relationships in order to provide comprehensive care and consistency in the lives of the girls. Case Managers act in the role of counselor, mentor and advocate in addition to assisting the client and her family with their daily needs. Through the Case Manager, the client is provided a consistent and loving source of support that stays with her through various personal challenges, runaway episodes and institutionalizations.
INDIVIDUAL & FAMILY THERAPY
The Project GOLD Therapist sees girls on an individual basis, usually weekly, and the family as needed, to provide the evidence-based Trauma-Focused Behavioral Therapy model enhanced by specialized trainings in Motivational Interviewing and the Trauma Resiliency Model designed for the CSEC population.
YOUTH LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
One cornerstone of Project GOLD is its emphasis on youth empowerment and survivor leadership. The Youth Leadership Program is an affiliate program of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. GEMS is the only organization in New York City that provides preventive and transitional services to young women, ages 12-21 years, who are at risk for or involved in sexual exploitation and violence. The Youth Leadership model curriculum developed by GEMS consists of 21 weekly peer-facilitated sessions and is designed to empower girls with interpersonal skills and knowledge about socio-political issues that affect them on a daily basis in order to help them to stay safe and free from violence and exploitation. Girls graduating from the Youth Leadership Program have the opportunity to return as Youth Leaders to facilitate subsequent groups.
THERAPEUTIC SUPPORT GROUP
An ongoing support group facilitated by the Project GOLD Therapist provides much needed peer support and processing of issues related specifically to the sexual exploitation.
WORKSHOPS
Throughout the year, volunteers dedicate time and skills to provide various workshops to Project GOLD clients in order to enrich and create a holistic healing experience in the program. Past workshops have included yoga, knowing your legal rights, jewelry making and learning about women artists.
OUTREACH
Project GOLD conducts street outreach to prostitution zones and areas frequented by at-risk youth in order to make direct contact with the youth and offer them services, to look for runaway girls (especially those who are our clients) and raise awareness among hotel and community members about the risks of exploitation for runaway and homeless youth who may be frequenting their establishments.
Outreach is also conducted within the places such as the juvenile detention center and the Miami Bridge youth shelter, where Project GOLD workers will meet girls who are being detained, build rapport and provide counseling and support.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
Professional trainings are provided to school staff, law enforcement, community-based organizations and others. These trainings focus on CSEC basics, how to identify victims, risk factors, impacts, psycho-social needs and engaging the youth with an emphasis on shifting perception of the child from a “prostitute” (juvenile delinquent) to a “commercially sexually exploited child” (victim). Outreach presentations are also conducted for at-risk youth to gain a better understanding of the risks involved in street life and where to get help if needed.
CSEC WORKING GROUP
The CSEC Working Group is a space created for local service agencies, law enforcement, and community-based organizations to meet on a regular basis and share strategy and resources to combat CSEC and provide comprehensive service delivery to victims.
SAFE HOUSE
Kristi House is NOT currently a residential program; however, plans are currently underway to create an emergency shelter and drop-in center for girls who are “in the life” to seek refuge. A shelter location is actively being sought in late 2011 and into 2012. This program will be the “Phase 1” part of the partnership with His House Children’s Home which is in the planning stages of a mid- to long-range residential program for this population. In this model, in addition to the services already being provided, Project GOLD would provide emergency stabilization and assessment, and those girls requiring longer residential stays would be transferred to His House for continued care.
Changing the Discourse....
 Join Project GOLD on Facebook to stay up-to-date with the latest news, legislation, and action around this important issue. Project GOLD on Facebook is an important resource for highlighting and analyzing current events, as well as a space to create new messaging around CSEC. We welcome your participation.
 Help support legislation in Florida that would provide safe houses for commercially sexually exploited girls to help them escape life on the streets so that they can receive treatment and intervention services. Read more about the proposed Safe Harbor Act being proposed in the 2011 Florida Legislative session.
Kristi House's CSEC initiative was launched with seed funding from Women's Fund of Miami-Dade, World Childhood Foundation and The Miami Foundation. The Junior League of Miami was also an early seed funder of the program in 2008.
- In 2009, the program was awarded an Urban Initiative grant by the National Children's Alliance toward prevention, treatment and community organization.
- In fall 2009, the project was awarded one of three grants in the country from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for addressing CSEC in Miami-Dade and Florida. The award carries three-year support for dissemination of training on CSEC, as well as for direct program services. Locally, Allegany Franciscan Ministries is a major funder in 2010 and 2011, underwriting critical program staff costs.
- In July 2011, Project GOLD was awarded $1 million in grant support as one of 10 projects chosen in the country in the highly competitive 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Local Funding Partnerships program. RWJF awarded Kristi House a half million dollars that has been matched 1:1 by these local private supporters:
In late 2007 Kristi House began its program to address commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC), a population of victims of sexual abuse who were being misidentified and overlooked and for whom no services existed. Kristi House forged an unprecedented community partnership in Miami-Dade County, bringing together all the community agencies which were likely to have contact with child victims of sex trafficking and youth at risk.
Some 30 agencies answered the Kristi House call to action and participated in the first training led by GEMS Founder and Director Rachel Lloyd, leader of one of the very few programs in the country at the time. A needs assessment completed by attendees showed that at least 67% of the organizations represented had had juvenile clients who were forced into prostitution or pornography, and approximately 180 known CSEC victims were seen by at least one agency in the past year. Although more than half of the respondents agreed that CSEC was an important policy or service issue for their organization, only 14% had ever attended a CSEC training.
Recognizing the need to better serve victims and to increase knowledge and community collaboration around this issue, the community representatives agreed to form a coalition and meet regularly to share information and strategize ways to better serve the victims in Miami, which the FBI had previously identified as one of the top hubs for child sex trafficking.
Coalition of Partners
Kristi House continues as the lead agency organizing the Miami coalition of 27 organizations that comprise the Miami-Dade CSEC Working Group. The partnership’s progress has been considerable, with providers participating in ongoing training and bringing it back to their agencies; working in uncharted territory to establish protocols involving large, disparate organizations; and supporting Kristi House’s leadership around the issue locally, statewide and nationally with training and advocacy initiatives.
In 2007 Kristi House began its program for Commercial Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC). This initiative had its genesis in the vision and advocacy of Project Manager Sandy Skelaney. It became clear through her national work that there were no specialized services available for commercially sexually exploited children in Miami-Dade County and a significant lack of awareness within the community of the issue in general and how to help the youth. Sandy had worked with two renowned anti-trafficking organizations, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services in New York City and ECPAT International in Bangkok, Thailand, prior to moving to Miami. Her knowledge of their award-winning best practices formed the basis of the Kristi House CSEC model adapted to the local community. The project
The Kristi House CSEC program was renamed Project GOLD whose name “Girls Owning their Lives and Dreams” was chosen by the youth. The Project works directly with minor victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking to provide the flexibility, creativity and dedication necessary to successfully engage this special population for services, encourage their healing and pave the way for their future success.
Training Leadership
In 2009 Kristi House became a training provider through the Department of Justice for the CSEC Community Intervention Project (CCIP) and since that time has been partnering with the National Children’s Alliance to promote CSEC programs throughout the United States through the network of Children’s Advocacy Centers. (Sample training agenda)
As of 2011, Kristi House is the first and only organization in Miami-Dade County with a program dedicated to preventing the exploitation of children, providing mental health and case coordination services for victims, raising awareness about the reality of children being bought and sold in the local commercial sex industry and building the community capacity to treat and heal victims.
Emergency Shelter and Drop-In Center
In 2012 Kristi House is actively seeking a site for an emergency shelter and drop-in center for girls in the life or at risk. This project has received significant support as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships project. <more>
For more information, contact Sandy Skelaney, Kristi House CSEC Program Manager.
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