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Winter break from blogging

I’ll be back in a bit. In the meantime, enjoy a fun video that’s partly a result of random searches for terms like runaway and partly my not-so-secret love of dance music.

Weekly news links 12/19/07

Good news from DC as Congress lifted the restriction on funding for needle exchange programs in the Capitol.
To follow up from a previous news link, in Tennessee a woman pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and other charges involving pimping at least one teen and involving another in her efforts.
A teen girl testified in a trial [...]

Weekly news links 12/12/07

A bill has preliminarily passed the Assembly ensuring female sexual assault survivors will be offered emergency contraception at Wisconsin hospitals. Right now many hospitals across the state don’t offer it or even have a supply.
A report from Chapin Hall comparing youth leaving foster care in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin found that youth who had more [...]

New report Communities Engaged in Resisting Violence

Take a look at an amazing new report out of Chicago by Women and Girls Collective Action Network. The beautiful new website just came out too. Women and Girls CAN is:
a center for consciousness-raising, training, dialogue and action around issues that matter to women and girls. We strengthen connections across communities to promote collective action. [...]

How did you start an organization?

I’ve talked a bit about having started an organization and directed it for years - Young Women’s Empowerment Project. When asked I’ve often explained that I returned to my hometown Chicago, after having lived in different cities and worked in different ways on the issue of prostitution, and finding no efforts in Chicago at that [...]

Weekly news updates 12/5/07

Here’s the weekly news round-up.
Recent survey in Canada suggests two-thirds of young women 16-24 aren’t using condoms with sex and forgetting to take the pill accurately too.

This past Saturday was World AIDS Day. This article talks about how racism and government inaction has led to the reality that African Americans who are 13 percent of [...]

Parents of youth in the sex trade

Most programs in the U.S. focused on working with youth in the sex trade do not often work with parents of youth. Sure, some might have parents of minors involved to the extent of signing a consent form. And a few try to offer counseling and assistance to parents. Overall though, programs focus on youth.
I’ve [...]

How did you get started doing this work?

I get this question a lot. And it’s a layered story. I don’t find it easy to describe it in a sentence or two; although I’ve certainly tried when pressed. I’ve been involved in organizations and efforts on women and youth in the sex trade for about 17 years now. I’ll be describing some of [...]