About Us
Salvatorian Advocacy for Victims of Exploitation (S.A.V.E.) Inc strives to collaborate with partners in assuring that vulnerable women have access to support in ways that further their self-reliance.
S.A.V.E., in the greater Sacramento, CA area and in Milwaukee, WI assists immigrant and refugee women to learn English as a Second Language (ESL) and gain access to other resources, where needed.
Resource opportunities include help with:
• ESL and life-management skills
• Verbal, reading, writing & math skills
• Basic computer skills
• Resumé writing and interviewing skills
• Job search and employment readiness skills
Freedom Needs Truth
October 21, 2020
An open letter to Candidates, the Media, Political Parties, and Policymakers:
As survivors, service providers, human and labor rights advocates, law enforcement officials, researchers and policy experts, we know human trafficking is real. For decades we have worked to raise awareness, enforce the law with a victim-centered approach, identify and aid survivors in their recovery, address underlying root causes, and establish policies to end this horrific crime. Our collective efforts have been aided by champions across the political spectrum. From Senators Sam Brownback and Paul Wellstone to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the bipartisan message has been clear:
You don’t score political points on the backs of human trafficking survivors, and you don’t lie about human trafficking to scare voters. We are in this together.
It is with this collective and collaborative history in mind that we say we are alarmed and deeply disturbed by the intentional spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation about sex trafficking with the aim of sowing fear and division in order to influence the upcoming election. Anybody — political committee, public office holder, candidate, or media outlet — who lends any credibility to QAnon conspiracies related to human trafficking actively harms the fight against human trafficking. Indeed, any political committee, candidate, public office holder or media that does not expressly condemn QAnon and actively debunk the lies should be held accountable.
Instead of actively propagating or silently condoning disinformation that harms trafficking victims and survivors and dismantles years of bipartisan cooperation, we offer the real facts about human trafficking.
The majority of trafficked youth have been abused or neglected, have run away or don’t have stable housing, or are immigrant children fleeing violence in their home countries to seek refuge in the United States. They are the youth that we as a society have failed. They are not abducted by strangers or Hollywood elites — they are abandoned by failing and under-resourced systems. There is not a deep state cabal of Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities who traffic children for sex. No major political candidate or party supports or condones pedophilia or human trafficking.
We work on these issues. We would know. Any time we spend engaging these lies necessarily distracts from the real work needed to combat human trafficking, and there is a lot to do:
• We need policies that address systemic vulnerabilities of children to both sex trafficking and forced labor.
• We need more housing, social, legal and employment support for survivors and vulnerable youth.
• We need to invest in fixing the child welfare system, and building compassionate and robust responses so that meaningful support is available for any young person in need.
• We need to invest in better training, strengthen victim-centered investigations, and expand survivor access to alternative forms of justice.
• We need better data, and greater diplomatic engagement so that human trafficking doesn’t get sidelined as a soft issue to be addressed after “real” foreign policy.
• We need an end to discriminatory practices against immigrants and communities of color.
• We need accountability for corporations who can figure out how to maximize profit but not how to protect their workers.
• We need funding and systems change that reflect these needs, not craven political messaging that ignores these realities in service of harmful lies.
As a diverse field, we acknowledge a spectrum of experiences, views, and approaches. We disagree a LOT. On this though, we stand UNITED and we reiterate: Anybody — political committee, candidate, or media outlet — who lends any credibility to QAnon conspiracies related to human trafficking actively harms the fight against human trafficking. This is an issue where Republicans and Democrats have historically put real differences aside in service of a greater truth: Americans stand united against human trafficking.
On behalf of an underfunded and nonpartisan field dedicated to ending this horrific form of exploitation and abuse and helping those who have survived it, we urge you to engage real needs rather than politically motivated and profoundly dangerous narratives that harm the very people who they claim to be speaking for — victims, survivors, children, families and vulnerable communities. Signed,
3Strands Global Foundation |
Advocating Opportunity |
Amara Legal Center |
Ameinu |
American Gateways |
Americans for Immigrant Justice |
Arizona State University Office of Sex Trafficking Research |
ATEST (Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking) |
The Avery Center for Research and Services |
COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN |
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking |
Community Legal Aid Society Inc. (CLASI) |
Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants |
Corporate Accountability Lab |
The Exploitation Intervention Project |
Foreign Policy for America |
The Freedom Fund |
Freedom Network USA |
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University |
Give Way to Freedom |
Global Center for Women and Justice Vanguard University |
Global Fund to End Modern Slavery |
Grace Farms Foundation |
HEAL Trafficking |
Heartland Alliance |
HIAS Pennsylvania |
Human Rights First |
Human Trafficking Collorative Network |
Human Trafficking Institute |
The Human Trafficking Legal Center |
Humanity United |
HumanTraffickingData.org |
Institute to Combat Trafficking |
International Corporate Accountability Roundtable |
International Institute of Buffalo |
International Justice Mission |
International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA) |
International Women's Media Foundation |
Jewish Women International |
Justice At Last |
Justice in Motion |
Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice |
Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services |
Liberty Shared |
Love146 |
McCain Institute for International Leadership |
Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare - North |
Migration that Works |
Mosaic Family Services |
National Network for Youth |
National Organization for Women, Hollywood Chapter |
National Survivor Network |
New England Coalition Against Trafficking |
New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force |
North County Lifeline |
North River Law PLLC |
North Texas Academic Collaborative on Trafficking |
Open Society Foundations |
Phoenix Dream Center |
Polaris |
Preble Street |
Project iRISE |
Quinnipiac University School of Law Clinic |
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association |
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism |
Rights4Girls |
Sanctuary for Families |
Shared Hope International |
Solidarity Center |
Stardust Fund |
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights |
Tivnu: Building Justice |
U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking |
Union for Reform Judaism |
University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors |
Verite |
Verity |
VIDA Legal Assistance, Inc. |
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice |
WOMANKIND |
Worker Justice Center of New York |
YWCA Kalamazoo |
Additional signers as of Oct. 22, 2020: |
|
Academy on Violence and Abuse |
Albany County Crime Victim and Sexual Violence Center |
Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives |
Karana Rising |
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking |
Leadership Conference of Women Religious |
Mid-Atlantic Coalition Against Modern Slavery |
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd |
National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis Section |
Project NO REST |
Resiliency Foundation |
Salvatorian Advocacy for Victims |
School Sisters of Notre Dame Atlantic Midwest Province |
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny |
St. Louis Children's Hospital |
Stop Modern Day Slavery |
Teens Against Child Trafficking |
Trafficking in America Task Force |
Zero Abuse Project |
Board
Board of Directors
- Ellen Sinclair SDS, Chair
- Sheila Novak SDS, Secretary/Treasurer
- Sean McLaughlin SDS
- Sahana Rajiyah
- Francina Stevenson
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