Rethink Resources

Really, it’s impressive how many news items I review to just come up with five a week. I suppose I could add more but once I consider which ones I think are notable - it’s usually about that number.

I’m conscious of which items I don’t select. I’m focusing on youth and the sex trade, so I don’t remark on the thousands of articles on adults involved in exchanging sex for money. Sometimes I don’t want to give attention to an effort or article because of how they treat youth. But then sometimes I think it’s good to bring it out and point out what’s wrong with it. I’m highlighting a lot of related issues as well, like teen pregnancy and LGBTQ youth.

A lot of people visit this site because of the news items they’re searching for (the search terms bringing visitors to this site will make a good post one day). So for now, I’ll keep posting them.

I have been finding some solid and at times, astonishing bits of information in the news. A release for a Summer Safety Community Forum for Hmong families and youth noted

During the past few years in St. Paul, there has been increased concern about Hmong girls running away from home, being truant from school, and experiencing subsequent sexual exploitation. Research completed at Midwest Children’s Resource Center (MCRC) in 2006 found that the abuse experiences of Hmong girls were strikingly different from those of non-Hmong girls in other ways. More than three-fourths of Hmong girls (77 percent) experienced gang rape, prostitution, or multiple sexual assaults compared to 16 percent of all other girls evaluated at MCRC. Sixty-nine percent of Hmong girls reported 5 or more perpetrators versus 2 percent of all the other girls evaluated at MCRC for sexual abuse and 75 percent of Hmong girls reported 5 or more sexual assaults compared to 24 percent of all the other girls evaluated at MCRC.

Further it noted that programs were often unprepared to deal with how young the Hmong girls who had these experiences were. Programs are often used to talking with older teens, not 11 year olds.

Another article talks about gentrification and friction between homeless youth and some residents of the Haight Ashbury area. At least that’s part of my read on something they refer to as compassion fatigue.

Two articles from Illinois highlight problems middle and high schools are facing with students who are pregnant and parenting and how summer leads to increased numbers of youth able to leave unsafe homes for the streets.

Once again, numerous reports this week of charges, trials and convictions of people for forcing or making money off of youth in the sex trade - this week’s item representing that from California where a man received almost 6 years for pimping a 17 year old.

Teen pregnancy hits schools hard. (Illinois) Sunday, June 3, 2007 Fourteen-year-olds buying Tickle-Me Elmos for their babies and 13-year-olds having “serious” boyfriends is a reality in today’s society, according to Claudia Martinez, a seventh-grader at Abbott Middle School in Elgin.

‘Compassion fatigue’ sets in at free-spirited Calif. neighborhood (San Francisco) Sunday, June 3, 2007…Empathetic residents say homeless kids deserve as much respect as those with roofs over their heads. “People suffer from compassion fatigue,” said Pam Brennan, owner of the Haight-Ashbury Flower Power Walking Tour. “If they’re fatigued, they should go take a nap so others can work to help these kids.”

Summer Safety Community Forum for Hmong Families and Youth (Minnesota) Friday, June 1, 2007 …During the past few years in St. Paul, there has been increased concern about Hmong girls running away from home, being truant from school, and experiencing subsequent sexual exploitation. Research completed at Midwest Children’s Resource Center (MCRC) in 2006 found that the abuse experiences of Hmong girls were strikingly different from those of non-Hmong girls in other ways. More than three-fourths of Hmong girls (77 percent) experienced gang rape, prostitution, or multiple sexual assaults compared to16 percent of all other girls evaluated at MCRC. Sixty-nine percent of Hmong girls reported 5 or more perpetrators versus 2 percent of all the other girls evaluated at MCRC for sexual abuse and 75 percent of Hmong girls reported 5 or more sexual assaults compared to 24 percent of all the other girls evaluated at MCRC.

Watsonville man sentenced in pimping, prostitution case (Santa Cruz) Thursday, May 31, 2007 The mother of an 18-year-old Monterey girl told her daughter’s former pimp at a sentencing hearing Wednesday that she forgives the Watsonville man for what he did. But the judge still sentenced Andre William Furtado, 20, to five years and eight months in state prison for running an online prostitution ring.

Strong link found between Illinois divorce rates, runaway children (Illinois) Thursday, May 31, 2007 As summer approaches and the school year draws to a close, many Illinois children will settle into a routine schedule of day camp, park district activities and backyard barbeques. But others will travel down a path of uncertainty and danger. They will become runaways, joining the 619 children who left their homes — and haven’t come back — in the first four months of this year.