Author Archives: morgan

Join our CSE-IT Informational Webinars

Posted on by

Are you interested in screening for commercial sexual exploitation of youth with an evidence-based screening tool? Are you currently screening but aren’t satisfied with your existing tool? Join our informational webinars to learn more about the CSE-IT, WestCoast’s validated screening tool for commercial sexual exploitation of youth. During this conversation with our trainers and Project Director, you’ll learn more about the CSE-IT, how to implement the tool at your organization, training options, and our web-based app called CSE-IT Online.

Check out our available dates below and register today! If none of these days work for you, or if you want to schedule an in-depth one-on-one conversation about the CSE-IT, please fill out our Inquiry Form or email screening@westcoastcc.org.

To learn more about the CSE-IT, click here.

June 18, 9-9:30AM PST – Register

August 6, 11-11:30AM PST – Register

October 29, 9:30-10AM PST – Register

December 11, 12:30-1PM PST – Register

Report: Youth Resilience

Posted on by

Dear WestCoast Community,

Today WestCoast is releasing a new study, Strength Profiles of Youth Seeking Mental Health Services: Shifting the Perspective from Risk to Positive Assets. We focus on the qualities and resources that make children resilient in the face of toxic stress. 

Studying the strengths of over 2,300 youth who received services at WestCoast, we found that:

  • The majority of youth had several strengths, such as optimism, social skills, self-reliance, resourcefulness, talents and interests, and spirituality. 
  • Strengths are not equal. Coping skills and social skills especially lessen the impact of negative life experiences.
  • Youth rely on their skills and optimism to support their resilience when experiencing challenges.

In addition to helping youth manage adversity, providers and caregivers can promote healing by focusing on the positive aspects of a youth’s characteristics, skills and resources. Leveraging and building strengths must be part of every child’s development.

This report culminates our three-part series on how mental health needs are impacted by experience, and how needs and strengths are not mutually exclusive. 

We could not do this work without you. We also want to give a special thank you to the Zellerbach Family Foundation and our individual donors for supporting WestCoast’s research. 

With gratitude,

Stacey Katz

Read our Youth Mental Health Series here:

New Report: Community Violence and Youth Mental Health

Posted on by

Today, WestCoast Children’s Clinic is releasing a new study, Spotlight on Community Violence: An Underrecognized Danger to Children’s Mental Health. This study focuses on the impact of community violence on youth mental health. 

Existing research suggests that community violence is a prevalent source of trauma for youth in the U.S. that also affects children’s emotional, behavioral, and physical development. Our study adds to this research by demonstrating that the effects of community violence on children’s mental health are as impactful as abuse and neglect.

We found that youth who witness or are victims of violence in the community have unique patterns of intensive mental health needs that include a higher likelihood of running away and suicide.

Photo of Oakland skyline and Lake Merritt

These findings, along with other research, strongly suggest that we need to address community violence in treatment. Community-focused interventions can help youth heal from collective trauma. Also, we must advocate for policy reforms that address the underlying conditions that give rise to community violence. 

Thank you so much for your continued support. We could not do this work without you.

Read more of our research here.

WestCoast research studies Exploitation and Gender

Posted on by

WestCoast is releasing a new research study, Exploitation and Gender: Increasing the Visibility of Cismale, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming Youth. There is a common misconception that sex trafficking and exploitation only impacts cisgender girls. However, cismale, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth also experience exploitation, yet remain unseen by providers.

Young child on rope structure in a playground

Through focus groups with survivors and providers, we found that though indicators of trafficking are universal across gender identities, they are often overlooked or discounted for cismale, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth.

Based on our findings, we recommend the following: 

  • Incorporate gender inclusivity in trainings to combat myths about exploitation and gender.
  • Highlight the exploitative nature of survival sex, which may be more common among cismale, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth.
  • Implement universal screening to support identification of all vulnerable youth.

Our research also underscores the need to create welcoming, non judgemental, culturally relevant systems of care. Youth of all gender identities need safe environments where providers take their experiences seriously and can identify the signs of sexual exploitation.

We are grateful to our focus group participants and interviewees for sharing their time, expertise, and insight with us. 

To support WestCoast’s clinical, training, and research work, please consider donating today.

Acknowledgements:

This report was possible through the expertise provided by more than 30 focus group participants and interviewees. We would like to thank them for being generous with their time and for their willingness to share their thoughts, insights, and experiences. We are also grateful to all of the individuals who generously provided input and reviewed this report.

Sincere thanks to our consultants who provided candid feedback and helped steer this report in the right direction:

Thank you to the staff at WestCoast Children’s Clinic who provided significant support to carry out this project: Morgan Bernados, Leilani Diaz, Hannah Haley, Eden Moore, and Nick Nguyen.

New WestCoast Research: The Intersection of Trauma & Mental Health

Posted on by

WestCoast Children’s Clinic is releasing a research study, Uncovering Trauma At a Community Clinic: Links to Mental Health Needs, the first in a three-part series on youth mental health. In this first paper, also published by the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, we discuss how patterns of trauma exposures among youth result in distinct mental health needs. 

For the youth WestCoast serves, we found that the impact of community violence on mental health is just as profound as child abuse and neglect: Youth who experience community violence exposure have the highest level of mental health needs. Additionally, youth that experience a single traumatic event often need as much intensive support as those that have experienced more than one trauma. As such, counting traumas is not as helpful as understanding the whole of the child’s experience when providing support. 

Taken together, our findings reiterate the importance of policy and community-level interventions that address poverty, racism and other environmental factors that deeply impact children and families’ lives.  

To read more about our findings and their implications, read the full paper here.

Thank you to the Zellerbach Family Foundation and our individual donors for supporting WestCoast’s research.

WestCoast report highlights the importance of universal screening for trafficking

Posted on by

Today WestCoast Children’s Clinic is releasing a brief about the impact of universal screening on identifying children who are trafficked or vulnerable to sex trafficking. Our experience using the Commercial Sexual Exploitation – Identification Tool (CSE-IT) shows that universal screening is critical to both prevention and early intervention. 

Early identification and intervention prevent prolonged abuse

Most children experiencing exploitation go two or more years before anyone notices the signs. After implementing a universal screening protocol, child welfare staff in one large urban county identified ten times as many trafficked youth.

“Screening universally was a game changer for us. It allowed us to do more than just verify our gut instinct about cases. We started to see how all the complicating factors point to exploitation. We’re better able to recognize the abuse.” 
– Child Welfare Manager, large California County 

Universal screening can be implemented in any setting

Screening universally with a validated tool like the CSE-IT only takes 3-5 minutes to complete. WestCoast has trained providers in 20 states to use the CSE-IT in settings such as child welfare, juvenile justice, schools, foster family agencies, child advocacy centers, healthcare settings, and homeless shelters. These agencies range in size and staff capacity, demonstrating that universal screening is feasible in all systems and settings. 

As of this publication, providers have screened nearly 134,000 youth using the CSE-IT, and identified 15,197 youth, or 11%, as having a clear concern for exploitation. If you are interested in learning more about the CSE-IT, please contact us at screening@westcoastcc.org.

To increase the number of exploited youth that get the help they need, please consider donating to WestCoast Children’s Clinic today.

Youth Art Virtual Showcase

Posted on by

We are proud to present this year’s Youth Art Showcase! Former and current WCC clients created pieces with themes such as community, healing, family, growth, justice, love, connection, and solidarity.

Best in Show: “The Galaxy”

Age 11

Best Inspirational: “Justice”

Age 11

Best Landscape: “Sunset”

Age 11

Best Portrait: Untitled

Age 17

Best Use of Color: “Sunset”

Age 11

Best Drawing: “Beauty Clown”

Age 10

Best Coloring: “Un Lobo”

Age 8

Honorable Mention, Coloring: “Beauty Queen”

Age 10

Honorable Mention, Painting: “The Ocean at Night”

Age 11

Honorable Mention, Painting: “Galaxy”

Age 11

WestCoast brief highlights scope of trafficking in Alameda County

Posted on by

Today, WestCoast Children’s Clinic is releasing a brief describing the prevalence of child sex trafficking in Alameda County using data from the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Identification Tool (CSE-IT) collected between 2016 and 2021. In order to effectively serve victims of trafficking, we need to understand the scope of the problem. Here’s what we found: 

1 in 7 system-involved youth had clear signs of trafficking     

Of 2,204 children under the age of 18 who were screened, 348 youth (15.8%) had clear signs of trafficking and an additional 565 children (25.6%) had possible signs of being exploited. 

Gaps in screening result in ongoing exploitation

Universal screening using a validated tool like the CSE-IT is the most accurate way to understand how many youth have signs of sex trafficking. However, only four agencies in Alameda County conduct universal screening, resulting in an undercount of youth experiencing exploitation. 

Screening is only the first step 

Screening for signs of trafficking should be part of a Universal Screening and Response Protocol that guides next steps, such as getting youth the help they need, safety planning, and mandated reporting. 

If you are interested in learning more about the CSE-IT, WestCoast’s research, or implementing screening in your agency, please contact us at screening@westcoastcc.org.