Kristi House Children’s Advocacy Center has specialized in treating child sexual abuse since 1995 and has specifically worked with child victims of sexual exploitation since 2007, when Project GOLD was established to bring the legal and provider community together around the issue of child sex trafficking.
Learning about the realities of exploitation is essential to this fight.
The National Human Trafficking hotline is toll-free number, available 24/7 at 1-888-373-7888. Support is provided in more than 200 languages. Text the hotline at 233733.
South Florida has a local trafficking hotline, available 24/7 to call or text: 305-FIX-STOP. Barry University’s 1 Human Trafficking Coalition maintains a local trafficking resource guide.
Project GOLD was established in 2007 to bring the legal and provider community together around the issue of child sex trafficking. The Project GOLD Drop In Center uses a strengths-based, survivor-led approach to provide health, social and legal services linkages, mental health support and educational enrichment to sexually exploited girls.
Sources: Polaris, Miami-Dade State Attorney.
From our decades of work in the field, and operating a survivor-led program, we know the importance of knowledge in this fight to end exploitation. These common misconceptions and realities are from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and more details can be found here.
REALITY: Most sex traffickers prefer to develop relationships with their targets—sometimes virtually and sometimes in-person—in order to methodically groom and traffic them. Child sex trafficking often involves a person who knew the child or even a family member of the child.
REALITY: While it’s true that most victims of child sex trafficking are children of color or come from backgrounds of poverty or abuse, it is also absolutely true that trafficking can happen in any community, to children from stable home environments.
REALITY: In active federal cases of sex trafficking in 2019, only 5.3% of cases involved cages, locked rooms, or barred cells. Most victims are groomed and held captive through psychological abuse, manipulation, and coercion that can be difficult to identify. Sex trafficking can happen without the child being kidnapped at all!
REALITY: You cannot solve trafficking by swooping in and stealing the victim back from the traffickers. While rescue is critical, it is PREVENTION that will stop this problem. Moreover, recovery and healing is a process that often lasts MISCONCEPTION: Sex trafficking will never go away completely.
Love146 is an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation through survivor care and prevention. Kristi House is a certified facilitator of Love146’s child trafficking and prevention curriculum called Not a #Number for middle and high school students. Their Caregiver Guide has tips for preventing exploitation and activities to work on with youth to teach them about trafficking. For more info on Not a #Number facilitation, contact Kristi House Education.
volunteer@kristihouse.org
Barry University’s 1 Human Trafficking Coalition maintains a Florida Interactive Trafficking Resource Guide, with filters for Legal, Shelters, LGBTQ+ and more.
Community Partners
AGAPE
Americans for Immigrant Justice
Ark of Freedom Alliance
CABA Pro Bono
Camillus House – Project Pheonix
Citrus CHANCE Program
Glory House
International Rescue Committee Miami
Kristi House / Project GOLD
Legal Aid Society
MDPD Special Victims Bureau, Organized Crime
Miami Bridge
Miami-Dade County – Coordinated Victims Assistance Center
Miami-Dade State Attorney
Sharing One Love
Survivors’ Pathway
The Journey Institute
Trauma Resolution Center
The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade
For more free resources, online courses, tip sheets and information, please visit our resources page.
