President Edeth James’ Quote of the Day: “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by; I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.” - Mother Teresa
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Nyle Zikmund introduced our speakers, Amy Peine from the
Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center and Chuck Derry from the
Gender Violence Institute. Amy and Chuck were here to speak about Human Trafficking and the
Minnesota Safe Harbor 4 All movement. Amy began by defining commercial sexual exploitation as the exchange of “something of value” for sex. “Something of value” in this definition is not just money, however. Alcohol and drugs, security, and even basic human needs like food clothing and shelter are also common “currencies” of sexual exploitation. This definition broadens the scope of commercial sexual exploitation to include pornography, stripping, internet-based exploitation, escort services and a variety of less obvious forms of exploitation.
Amy presented startling statistics from studies showing extremely high incidence of violence, both physical and emotional, experienced by prostitutes. The studies also revealed high rates of homelessness, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. Over 90% of prostitutes wanted to escape prostitution but felt unable to get out.
Minnesota’s 2011 Safe Harbor legislation has already decriminalized prostitution for minors, but there is a growing movement to extend this decriminalization to adult victims of trafficking. The movement supports the continued criminalization of buyers, exploiters, and traffickers and would increase the willingness of victims to escape prostitution and report their exploitation. This Minnesota movement is called
Safe Harbor 4 All (SH4All). Amy said there are four models for combating sex trafficking: Criminalization has been the common model in the U.S. but it appears to be ineffective in curbing trafficking. Full Decriminalization and outright Legalization have been shown to actually increase the demand for prostitution as much three times, which defeats the goal of getting women out of prostitution. Partial decriminalization (as in the Minnesota SH4All plan) has been shown to be effective at getting women out of prostitution and convicting more of their traffickers.
Cindy Carlson reviewed today’s Board meeting.
- Budget on track despite Covid-19
- Considering District Matching Grant ideas
- Youth Exchange suspended until June of 2022
- Donated $400 to R.I. Virtual Leadership Seminar
- We’ll have 1 in person club meeting in May and an in person club meeting on June 29th for the Presidential transition.
Geoff Hollimon said that the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition’s Spring Three Mile Virtual Run/Walk will be held from May 9-16. Expect an email soon for registration information. The Coalition has made a grant of $2,300 to Seeds of Hope Community Garden to grow food for local food shelves.
Geoff reminded us about the CPY Spring Event with keynote speaker Alan Page on Tuesday, April 6
th at noon. This meeting will serve as our regular club meeting for that week. You will need to
register for the event to attend..
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