Members
from the Minnesota Safe Harbors Coalition and the North Central STOP
Coalition will conduct a meeting with Brainerd area leaders to discuss
the local impact of legislation introduced by Minnesota State Senate
President Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, and Rep. Susan Allen.
DFL-Minneapolis.
The meeting is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Campbell Room at Bremer Bank, 321 S. Seventh St., Brainerd.
If
passed, the legislation will address and prevent child sex trafficking
in Minnesota and provide for services that support young people
victimized by sex trafficking.
The legislation includes the following key recommendations and associated appropriations:
Construction, renovation and operation of Safe Harbor Shelter and Housing for sex-trafficked youth.
•
Establishment of a Safe Harbor Supportive Services Fund to provide
therapeutic, culturally specific services for sex-trafficked children.
•
Creation of a statewide Safe Harbor director, six grant-funded Regional
Navigator positions, and 14 grant-funded youth street outreach
positions across Minnesota.
• Creation of a Safe Harbor
Training Fund to ensure that law enforcement and other front-line
personnel have the training they need to promote community-level
prevention efforts, identify child sex trafficking victims and to
aggressively investigate and prosecute traffickers.
Jeff Bauer,
director of public policy, The Family Partnership and Mary Beth Hanson,
director of Communications, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, are
scheduled to be at the meeting.
Comments (4)
Add commentIs there an estimate of how
Is there an estimate of how many (a realistic number) youths in this area that are victims of sex trafficking? How many arrests have been made involving these violations in this area? Could someone explain where the shelter would be located? I realize I am asking some politically toxic questions, but they are valid.
Money
Where will the money come from?
Safe Harbor
The proposed legislation is for implementation of recommendations that grew out of the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Youth Act that was signed into law on July 20, 2011. Because of the nature of the victimization of girls (and boys), we cannot give an accurate number of victims in this area. We do know it is happening here. Local law enforcement, county service employees and nonprofit service providers have seen the devastating effects on our children who are exploited in this way, that was the reason for the formation of the North Central STOP (Stop Trafficking Of People) Coalition last year. We believe that even one child lost to this is one too many.
As far as where the money will come from, a conservative cost benefit study conducted by researchers from the universities of Minnesota and Indiana show a savings of $34 for every $1 invested in models like this.
For more: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/forms-documents/Documents/!2012%20Safe%20Harbor%20Report%20(FINAL).pdf
or: http://www.mngirlsnotforsale.org/
I am not saying there is not
I am not saying there is not a problem, but people in charge of spending our tax dollars talk out both sides of their mouth.
First you say:
"Because of the nature of the victimization of girls (and boys), we cannot give an accurate number of victims in this area."
Then you say:
"As far as where the money will come from, a conservative cost benefit study conducted by researchers from the universities of Minnesota and Indiana show a savings of $34 for every $1 invested in models like this."
Would it not be accurate to assume in order to do a "conservative cost benefit study" and bring your numbers for your desired tax dollars to the table, first you would need to know how many victims would benefit from this project. This sounds like another give some money because I am pretending to know what I am talking about. Let me guess, you went to college for 9 years now it's time to create yourself a job.