“Coming Home Online Mentor Management System & Mobile App”
I have been waiting for this affordable online case management system and mobile app that gives survivors a very unique and tech savvy way to engage no matter where they are.
An app and system that allows survivors to work and earn a living? Amazing!
Excellent work. Very good idea, just what we needed, works perfectly. Congratulations !!
Waiting for version 2.0. Very excited.
Call 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (1-866-347-2423) to report suspicious criminal activity to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tip Line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. Highly trained specialists take reports from both the public and law enforcement agencies on more than 400 laws enforced by ICE HSI, including those related to human trafficking. The Tip Line is accessible outside the United States by calling 802-872-6199.
With our deep case management and specialized framework model and mentoring education services we provide the necessary tools for young adult victims and vulnerable youth to overcome extreme trauma of all forms of human trafficking. Housing needs are assessed, provided and managed by our team through the generous support of our housing collaborative partners. Also, we have a unique program for homeless women in partnership with the Sarasota Salvation Army entitled the MTL, INC “Safe Stay” Program. This is deep ended case management and housing support for homeless victims and all high risk homeless women 18 to 27.
We partner with Coastal Behavioral Healthcare and Centerstone and other mental health providers we are able to provide behavioral health therapy that we manage, including psychiatric care, diagnosis and med management as needed.
As part of our services we provide expert urgent care advocacy for all of our mentees. Under the “Voices for Florida Open Doors Outreach Network”, our services have expanded (see below). We work closely with dozens of partner NGO’s, court systems, state and federal agencies as well as city, state and federal law enforcement. We are also expert in victim identification, to learn more, please give us a call or send us an email via our contact form.
In order to reduce all forms of Human Trafficking, Sexual Violence, we start with a multifaceted approach to Prevention. Aside from community outreach, informing agencies in the area and holding local and national training’s, we have an urgent care prevention and mentoring program entitled “Living Above the Noise for victims (LATN) and a tech + digital integrity and intelligence pull out from LATN which is called LATN Digital Integrity for youth including those high risk youth. In addition, we partner with Youthiasm® in a course we license called, RJEDE™. “Restorative Justice End Demand Educational Curriculum” a sexual violence and prostitution prevention initiative created by our founder.
Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Dream Large Foundation
David Adi Ruben Family Fund
Masala Giving Circle
Sarasota Community Foundation
Designing Daughters
Protect the Path Foundation
Watts Family Foundation
Liberartore Fund
Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Narrow Gate Foundation-Kevin Malone
Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation
Manpower Global
Diana Rowan Rockefeller Fidelity Fund
McMillian Stewart Foundation
The Open Doors Outreach Network is a promising, well-coordinated system serving commercially sexually trafficked and exploited victims. It responds to the 2012 implementation of the Safe Harbor Act, which allowed sex-trafficked children to be considered dependent children in need of therapeutic services, rather than juvenile delinquents. The Open Doors Network created by Voices For Florida is a promising and well-coordinated framework, designed to serve exploited and trafficked children age 10 up to the age of 24 in six Florida regions. More Too Life is honored to serve as the provider organization for the Suncoast Regions including Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties. We have determined that almost all of our CSEC victims have been trafficked outside of their home county, reaching as far as Orlando or Miami where More Too Life also has an awesome in partnership with Glory House, which is why we emphasize an inter-county approach. Cross-sector collaboration is key, training and trauma-competent crisis intervention, in order to meet the complex needs of trafficked victims. In order to improve the service outcomes for male and female victims, age 10 to 24, Voices For Florida Open Doors Outreach Network is now in 32 Florida counties.
YOUR FINANCIAL GIFTS, TIME, SOCIAL MEDIA and POSITIVE SUPPORT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
LEARN MORE BY CALLING: 941-227-1012
By Dr. Brook Parker-Bello, founder and CEO of More Too Life, Inc and Freelance writer and More Too Life Volunteer Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
Both here in the United States and all over the world, human trafficking is a violent issue of trauma and exploitation. But on a macro level, it’s a product of racial injustice too. This unequal power dynamic exerted by the trafficker to control a victim is no different than the sociopolitical systems created to marginalize certain races and skin colors. In fact, there’s a reason that human trafficking is also known to some as modern day enslavement—because the sale and perceived ownership or control over the lives of human beings has not been abolished. When we use the term abolished, we mean it has not been completely or systemically erased from the hearts of many, and this has profound, negative effects on our culture.
It’s worth noting that in the era post-slavery, paramours’ rights existed, whereby non-Black male violator could take or even pull a Black female—child or adult—out of their home or anywhere else and violate her without any just true legal recourse. As a woman of faith I understand all too well that darkness is done by all. In addition, to scriptures or beliefs from most world religions or ways of life believe in fighting against injustice and that will remain urgent as relates to the growing number of violated and trafficked children and adults around the world.
Today, as we relate this to all forms of human trafficking, it’s clear that slavery has been repackaged in a more covert, insidious way. Although innocent, free human beings of all racial or ethnic groups are trafficked, research shows that people in Black, Indigenous, Asian or Latinx communities are more vulnerable to exploitation than those in White communities globally. The U.S., where racism and bigotry have been entrenched for 400 years, is no exception. While the USA is my favorite place and there is immense greatness here, we do have challenges.
UCLA Law Review writes, “Race intersects with other forms of subordination—gender, class and age—to push people of color disproportionately into prostitution and keep them trapped in the commercial sex industry…Moreover, today’s anti-trafficking movement has failed to understand and address the racial contours of domestic sex trafficking in the United States and even perpetuates the racial myths that undermine the proper identification of minority youth as sex trafficking victims.”
Do I believe this assertion is true? Not entirely; however, there are many victims—in particular, boys and girls of Color, and White children too—who are locked in juvenile detention centers and commitment programs all over the U.S. for crimes related to being trafficked. Many of these youth have suffered histories of sexual violence which has attacked and deluged their souls. This unfair treatment can lead to enormous collateral damage. Children must be believed, supported, and allowed the carefully orchestrated time and space to heal in loving and empowering homes where they can discover their true identities.
Because systemic injustices affect people of Color— thereby all people, as well as the poor and uneducated—at higher rates than others, many women and children of marginalized races are coerced into human trafficking as a result of the desperate circumstances around them. Foster care placement, homeless or runaway crises, economic disparities, undocumented immigration, unequal academic resources, food insecurity, broken or separated families, mass incarceration, physical and sexual violence, or drug addictions can all make someone vulnerable to being trafficked.
And it’s no coincidence that people of color are often subjected to these issues—most, if not all, of which are outside their control. In many cases, these under-resourced communities are a direct funnel into the bondage of traffickers. Even worse, the racially marginalized victims of human trafficking are often at an increased risk for what sociologists and criminal justice reform activists call the “Abuse to Prison Pipeline.”
The Washington D.C. based nonprofit Rights4Girls reveals that “child sex trafficking victims are viewed as perpetrators in many jurisdictions, causing them to be arrested and incarcerated for prostitution and other offenses related to their exploitation…Girls still account for 78% of juvenile prostitution arrests. Black children are arrested for prostitution more than any other racial group, comprising 52% of all juvenile arrests for prostitution…Victims of child sex trafficking, [as stated, can also] be arrested on ‘masking charges,’ or offenses they commit as a direct result of their exploitation.” These might include substance abuse, loitering, or status offenses like truancy, curfew violations and running away. It’s a failure of the system that these arrestable misdemeanors are also frequent indications of human trafficking.
In addition to the criminalized view of Black and Brown people in courts of law, the media is also responsible for disseminating harmful biases and stereotypes against these races. One common example is the hyper-sexualization of Black women and girls in television, music, film and other areas of mainstream culture. Because marginalized bodies are so often commodified and objectified in Western media, this can make it difficult for society at large to see them as victims of a non-consenting power differential.
This moment in America’s public consciousness is both historic and long-overdue. For the first time post the Civil Rights Era, all eyes and ears of this nation are tuned into the collective racial traumas inflicted on the Black community, and thus, the whole of humanity. An unprecedented number of white people have started to recognize the institutional racism which has existed at the core of U.S. policies since colonizers arrived on this soil. The experiences, voices and interests of marginalized races are being lifted which is a positive stride in the direction of equality—but the injustices of human trafficking must be part of this wider conversation.
Based on statistics released by the Polaris Project in 2018, out of the U.S. human trafficking victims identified and rescued by this organization in that year alone, an estimated 5,413 were Black, Latinx, Asian or multi-ethnic, while 989 were Caucasian. Once again, this is not to dispute the fact that White individuals are trafficked, but as the data shows, it affects people of Color at a much higher rate of incidence.
On its own, human trafficking is an enormous violation of basic freedom and dignity. But when intersected with centuries of racial trauma and discrimination, the result is an unfathomable atrocity on the mind, soul and body of each marginalized victim. So just as racism plays an active role in human trafficking, racial justice also needs to inform how this exploitation is combatted and how victims are empowered to heal. To that end, More Too Life, an Open Doors Outreach Network Provider, is tirelessly committed to protect vulnerable communities from the threat of human trafficking on the frontlines, while providing safety, restoration, mentorship, housing, mental health support and education to those impacted by this modern slavery. Our mission for over 15 years now has been to eradicate human trafficking on a local, national and even global scope. We do this holistically—through innovation and technology—with the services, resources and opportunities below:
Coming Home Online Case Management System and Mobile Application
Another measure of ensuring access to trauma-informed and applied victim services, which protects the safety and confidentiality of victims, is our development and utilization of the revolutionary Coming Home online system and mobile application. Coming Home is a dedicated life mentoring and anti-human trafficking tool which can be accessed through the link https://ComingHome.app.
To date, Coming Home is the nation’s only secure interactive application with an integrated online case management system that provides More Too Life’s partners, mentees and human trafficking victims a reliable means to receive life coaching and mentoring. Coming Home facilitates real-time chatting, journaling, offline mentoring and other resources to serve as a learning companion to clients, mentees, survivors, youth mentees and others.
Additional features, such as video communication and location-based alerts, are currently in preparation for launch. Users can access the intuitive eLearning library, find resources across the U.S., and report a crime in over 200 countries through connected national hotlines. Users can also call 911 directly from the application and utilize the camouflage feature for privacy. Coming Home also enables mentees to report potential trafficking behavior. This online system provides a strong and safe bridge of connection to form relationships, send reminders of appointments, overcome challenges or pursue goals, and communicate in a meaningful way.
Coming Home provides vital safety features for at-risk individuals, victims, service providers and law enforcement such as location-based services, geo-fencing and tip reporting and a chameleon screen for user protection. Availability of this innovative resource enables a safer, balanced, and more sustainable lifestyle for mentees, victims, youth and young adults, or even at-risk violators. In the persistent fight to end human trafficking, creation of the Coming Home Online System and Application has further empowered More Too Life to create a world free of exploitation. Moreover, with the rapid changes in virtual interaction, it addresses the need for a digital tool to accommodate service gaps both in Florida and across the globe. We invite you to join us in this crusade to make the rescue, healing and prevention of human trafficking more equitable for those of every race and color. Liberty and justice for all exists for the survivors of human trafficking too, so it’s time we unite to restore these unalienable rights to anyone who has suffered the abuse and subjugation of a trafficker. Enslavement is a continuous reality in this world—but we can come together to abolish it at the systemic, ideological roots where racial divides still persist. To learn more about how you can become a warrior for justice and human rights, visit MoreTooLife.org.
