Escaping her exploiter seemed impossible. He kept a watchful eye on her. She was marked.
And yet, all she wanted to do was go to school and pursue a good life.
On Wednesday of this week, Midkiff was safe— at a press conference inside the Long Beach Police Department’s downtown station, even being embraced by LA County Supervisor Don Knabe, who has championed the cause of protecting youth and keeping them out of the hands of sex traffickers.
Midkiff has now dedicated her life to mentoring young victims of sex trafficking. She, along with Knabe and other county and city officials, spoke at the press conference to announce the launch of the Safe Youth Zone program, which aims to establish secure places for child sex-trafficking victims and other youth in desperate situations.
“I was able to escape from my exploiter, who had put the green light on me because I didn’t want to do the work,” she said. “I wanted to go home. I wanted to go to school. I wanted to do things with my life, and that is something the exploiter wouldn’t allow me to do.”
Midkiff said she finally received some assistance from a shop owner who helped her get back home. Then a family member told her about a three-digit number that would change her life— 2-1-1, a free and confidential service that helps people find the local resources they need 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
She said she now tells the girls she mentors that, if they memorize any number, it should be those three digits.
She explained that, after calling that number, she was able to contact an operator who listened to her and got her the help that would finally get her off the street and in protective hands.
“I remember not knowing what to ask for or what to look for,” Midkiff said. “But I know, as I got ahold of the operator— and the operator stayed on the phone with me for about 30 minutes to an hour— I told her everything that I had just gone through, and she listened patiently.”
That operator located a place for Midkiff to go and receive services.
“Because of that operator— I don’t know who she is— I was able to get to a safe place and begin my recovery,” Midkiff said. “This journey that I’ve been on, it all kind of started with someone saying, ‘Hey, why don’t you try this number out and see if they can help you? So, I’d like to say, moving forward, I’m very happy about the Safe Youth Zone. I support it 100 percent. I hope our girls really feel safe and they go for it and they use it. And I hope our girls use 2-1-1 as well. The 2-1-1 number can definitely appoint the girls to where the Safe Youth Zones are.”
Also presenting the new program at the event were: Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia; Long Beach Police Department Chief Robert Luna; Michelle Guymon, director of the Child Trafficking Unit with the LA County Probation Department; LA County Fire Department Chief Daryl Osby; and LA Sheriff’s Department Capt. Chris Marks.
Mayor Garcia began his comments by thanking those involved in creating the new program.
“The City of Long Beach has always been committed to the safety of all youth, girls, women and, really, all families across the city,” Garcia said. “We know that sex trafficking is real, and I’ll always remember something that Supervisor Knabe likes to say, and I completely agree. It’s that there is no such thing as a youth prostitute. And that is something that he has always said and I truly believe.”
Garcia praised the various programs within the police department and county, as well as nonprofits, that are addressing issues related to sexual exploitation of children.
Knabe pointed out that the Safe Youth Zone program takes those existing resources a step further, now that officials are more aware of the prevalence of sexual exploitation.
“Children are exposed to terrible situations, and at times they have no family to turn to,” Knabe said. “Kids who are abused, lost, frightened, neglected or in danger on the streets do not have a place in the community where they can run and hide. That’s why, in 1997, I brought in a motion in front of the board with a supportive decree for a safe house program as a way to ensure temporary havens for any child or adult facing a potentially threatening situation and needing a place to go. Nearly 20 years later, we had no idea that our children needed protection from monsters looking to sexually exploit them for profit.”
Knabe said children and their families face brutal abuse if they attempt to escape or do not meet a quota. Some who do escape end up returning to their pimps, who further abuse and exploit them.
He said that the law-enforcement team standing with him near the podium had been working on ways to rebrand and expand the Safe House program to protect child sex trafficking victims.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-03-at-4.03.08-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Andrew Veis, assistant press deputy for Supervisor Don Knabe, and Michelle Guymon, director of the Child Trafficking Unit with the LA County Probation Department, hold up a tapestry designed to commemorate victims of child sex trafficking, after a press conference at the LBPD’s downtown station Wednesday morning. The event announced a new program designed to protect children from sexual exploitation. ” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”] “Today, we stand before you to proudly announce the launch of the Safe Youth Zone program,” the supervisor said. “We are creating a network of places [that] victims can seek out when put on the street by their scumbag pimp or trafficker. We’ve updated the response for when a victim seeks help, so they will now be connected— which is an important piece to all of this— to life-saving programs and services.”
Knabe explained that law enforcement and first responders at county fire station staff are being trained to identify the warning signs of a trafficking victim.
“Each Safe Youth Zone will be identified by a bright-yellow placard that will be placed at the entrance to each facility,” he said. “Bumper stickers, as well, will be promoting the Safe Youth Zones on fire trucks and squad cars.”
The Long Beach Police Department’s downtown station is one of the facilities that will pilot the program. The others are the Compton and Century Sheriff’s stations and Lynwood and Willowbrook county fire stations.
“We all know that we have much more to do and could not be prouder of what we’ve accomplished by working together,” Knabe said. “We’ve gone from just not getting it, to being a model here in our nation. And that’s because everyone came to the table— not just what you see up here— but organizations like the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force, Kingdom Causes and other faith-based groups. They’ve joined service providers, law-enforcement, community groups, our county departments, fire departments— and, most important, victims like Jessica, our survivors. So, united, we brought all those talents together— and our time and commitment. These folks up here committed to supporting our young victims because— as the mayor so eloquently put it— there is no such thing as a child prostitute.”
After the event, the Signal Tribune asked Guymon, who heads the county’s Child Trafficking Unit, why boys are rarely, if ever, mentioned in discussion of child sex trafficking.
“It’s definitely happening with boys,” Guymon said. “At first, we’ve all been focused on this thing called human trafficking and sex trafficking, and we thought it was happening in other countries. So, we didn’t really realize it was happening to our kids. And, so I think, under that cloud, we’ve just been focused on girls— that’s what came out into the forefront for us. We are now starting to do more of a focus on young men, and we hear from across the country and our own law-enforcement officers [that] if you look at homelessness, there are far more young men that are homeless, and how are they getting their basic needs met?”
Guymon said that her unit is actually currently working with a few boys who have been rescued from exploitation.
“It seems like, as a society, when things come up, we always go to the girls first,” she said. “I don’t know why that is. We just do. Then we realize, ‘Oh, yeah. This is happening to boys too.'”
