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What is Sex Trafficking?
The Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines sex trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.
The trafficking of women and children is the world’s fastest growing crime. The sex trafficking industry pulls in an estimated $99 billion each year.
Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally. It is happening right here in the Lehigh Valley. Sex trafficking exists in our communities, in our backyard. It is happening at the local hotels, truck stops, fake spas, and online every day.
Sex traffickers use false promises, violence, threats, lies, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will
Many women and children become entrapped in the sex trafficking industry at an early age because they are sold by their parents or another family member. Others are lured with false employment offers or they become romantically involved with someone who forces or manipulates them into prostitution. Girls in foster care are particularly vulnerable.
Many are beaten, tortured or family members lives are threatened if they attempt to run away.
Imagine being sold night after night for sex, forced to do drugs to control you, beaten, you have no other resources and you are scared for your life. What would you do?
This is why we opened Our Homes.
To recognize the signs of sex trafficking, visit the National Human Trafficking Hotline website.
Community Outreach
The focus of Bloom for Women’s outreach initiative is focused on improving safety and wellness in the Lehigh Valley through community education and prevention services, outreach and advocacy that lead to restoration.
Bloom’s outreach program directly reaches survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation in the Lehigh Valley, including women, men and children; supports Homeland Security, FBI and local law enforcement on sting operations and investigations; and coordinates community and prevention education activities. Two specific outreach programs, include:
Bloom on the Inside – an in-jail program offering assessments as well as individual and group psychoeducational programming in Lehigh County Jail and to provide safe housing for women leaving prison. The programming informs and educates incarcerated women on topics including identification and prevention of exploitation, codependency and healthy relationships, conflict resolution, and introduction to life skills.
Laundry Mat Ministries Partnership – In collaboration with Laundry Mat Ministries, St. Luke’s Parish Nurses and Star Community Health in the City of Allentown, this program reaches community members without access to washing machines or dryers on a routine basis; many are unhoused, suffering from substance use disorders and other chronic conditions. Additionally, this population includes victims of trafficking and those who are at risk for sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. Bloom staff are present for this weekly laundry program and are there to develop relationships that will lead to victim disclosure as well as the opportunity to educate those present to prevent future victimization.
B.R.A.C.E. (Be Ready, Alert, Courageous & Educated) – is an eight-part, interactive community education program for youth and young adults aged 5-21. The goa of the program is to raise awareness, teach safety skills, reduce abduction and trafficking risk while, developing interpersonal relationships and improving overall community wellness in the Lehigh Valley. The curriculum is structured to be adaptable and easily implemented in a variety of settings (i.e. public spaces, religious and academic settings). Parental, educator and pastoral engagement will be implemented through sharing the aspects of the curriculum and providing safety tips for daily reinforcement in the home, classroom, church, etc. At the end of the program, it is our hope that participants will have improved self-image, understand personal boundaries, identify risks to their safety, develop a safe support network and understand how to implement safety skills learned during the program.