Dear WestCoast Community:

Thanks to your support, WestCoast increased our impact on efforts to end child trafficking in California and nationally. As noted by a Texas human trafficking leader, “Victims don’t self-identify as victims. The responsibility is on us to get better at recognizing if it’s happening.”  WestCoast’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation – Identification Tool (CSE-IT) helps providers do just that – identify trafficked youth. Eighty child welfare, juvenile justice, and non-profit partners in 4 other states – Texas, New Jersey, Montana and North Carolina now use the CSE-IT.

NBC-Austin reported this segment on Texas’s statewide adoption of the CSE-IT: Texas will start using screening tool to identify youth sex trafficking victims 

Our impetus for developing the CSE-IT grew from our 2012 research finding that most sexually exploited youth are trafficked for more than two years before any adult recognizes it. The screening tool teaches adults to look for the signs of trafficking so we can help young people faster. To date, our partners have screened 21,400 youth using the CSE-IT, and identified more than 2,350 youth with signs of trafficking. 

Your contributions make a real difference. Working together we can prevent exploitation from happening, and protect children that are most vulnerable.

For more information on the CSE-IT, click here.

Thank you,

Stacey Katz, CEO