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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
of Exploitation (S.A.V.E.) Inc 

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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