WestCoast Children’s Clinic Receives $1 Million NoVo Foundation Grant to Advance Systems Based Solution to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

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New Funding Will Support Early Identification of Vulnerable Youth Throughout the United States to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and Identify Victims Quickly   

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA March 6, 2020 — WestCoast Children’s Clinic today announced a $900,000 grant from the NoVo Foundation to support WestCoast’s project to increase national use of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Identification Tool (CSE-IT) through training and new technology solutions. 

 
The funding is a part of The Life Story Grants, a $10 million, three-year investment in survivor-centered programs in the U.S. that open exit ramps from the sex trade while closing on-ramps. WestCoast is among 15 grantees awarded funding to address the systemic failures that allow child sex trafficking to thrive and harm the most vulnerable youth, including girls and women of color, LGBTQ and gender non-conforming girls, immigrant youth, and Indigenous girls and women. After receiving more than 400 letters of inquiry and consulting with a panel of survivor leaders, NoVo selected WestCoast Children’s Clinic because of its demonstrated ability to improve systems and services for exploited youth.

“We are honored to be selected for The Life Story Grants to expand our work to prevent child sexual exploitation, and to improve early identification of children who are trafficked, disproportionately children of color and transgender and gender non-conforming youth. In a 2012 study we found that most sexually exploited youth are trafficked for more than two years before anyone recognized it. With the support of the NoVo foundation, we will be able to take the CSE-IT to a national scale so that girls will no longer have to suffer years of abuse before anyone notices. Instead, they will have someone who can intervene before it starts, or, for youth that are exploited, someone who will respond quickly and provide the services they need,” said Dr. Stacey Katz, CEO of WestCoast Children’s Clinic.

The CSE-IT is currently being used by 180 agencies in 12 states, serving youth in vulnerable settings. These providers have screened over 72,000 youth to date, and 1 in 10 of those screened were found to have clear indicators of exploitation. With the Life Story Grant, WestCoast’s project will increase the visibility of youth experiencing or at risk of exploitation and expose systemic factors, such as racism and misogyny and other forms of oppression that perpetuate commercial sexual exploitation of children.  

Key objectives include:

  • Expanding use of the CSE-IT to all states that are not universally screening vulnerable youth with an evidence-based tool.
  • Training child-serving professionals how to identify the signs of trafficking and connect youth to supportive services.
  • Developing a CSE-IT data platform to generate data needed to develop reliable state prevalence estimates

“We have a responsibility to protect children who are being commercially sexually exploited and using a validated screening tool like the CSE-IT is a critical step for taking action. Using the CSE-IT, 5,412 California youth have already been identified as having clear indicators of exploitation. We need to expand universal screening so we make sure all kids are getting the help they need as quickly as possible,” said Frank Mecca, Executive Director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California.

More information about the work underway at WestCoast Children’s Clinic can be found on https://www.westcoastcc.org/cse-it/ as well as on https://thelifestory.org/

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WestCoast Children’s Clinic is a children’s mental health clinic based in Oakland, California, that serves 1,600 youth annually. WestCoast addresses child sex trafficking by providing specialized mental health services to over 100 sexually exploited youth each year and improving the protections and support system for all victims of sexual exploitation through policy advocacy, community education, research, and training.

MEDIA CONTACT FOR WESTCOAST CHILDREN’S CLINIC:
Contact: Jodie Langs, Director of Policy & Communications
jlangs@westcoastcc.org | (510) 269-9144