Today’s guest blogger is Ashley Booker.
The article “Stopping the Foster Care to Child Trafficking Pipeline” by Malika Saada Saar was posted on the Huffington Post October of 2013 (Saar, 2013). The article began with Saar sharing that most of the children being sexually exploited in the United States are children who have been involved with the foster care system. According to a nationwide FBI investigation, about sixty percent of youth who had been found and removed from the sex trafficking business were involved in the foster care system. Along with other statically information about foster care youth and sex trafficking, Saar shared the link of a Congressional testimony told by a young women who is a survivor of the foster care to child trafficking pipeline.
The young survivor, who goes by Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, spoke to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Subcommittee on Human Resources on October 23, 2013. Pettigrew shared that she had been in foster care from birth until she was 18 years old. She expressed that seven years of her 18 year journey through the foster care system consisted of being sexually exploited in the streets, on the internet, in strip clubs, massage parlors, and express papers. Pettigrew acknowledged that the transition to sex trafficking was not so difficult because of the training grounds of foster care. While in foster care she had been taught and reinforced to believe that she was just an object for financial gain. She grew up with foster parents telling her “you’re not my child, I don’t care what’s going on with you, as long as you’re not dead, I’ll continue to get my paycheck” (Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, 2013). Therefore it became a normalizing belief system for her that her purpose and worth was wrapped in her ability to “bring income into a household” (Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, 2013). Pettigrew also tells of being sexually abused while being in the system, yet reporting the abuse resulted in her being treated like the problem instead of a child in need of protection and love. The powerful parallel between foster care and sex trafficking is then explicit. Pettigrew shared that pimps/traffickers/exploiters relied on this parallel because foster care youth were almost invisible. Once these youth were missing, most people assume they just ran away and put little energy into trying to locate them. Sad to say, Pettigrew expressed that at some point, her social worker was aware that Pettigrew was being sexually exploited, yet no action was taking to protect, support, or remove her.
Pettigrew ended her testimony with three suggestions for the Child Welfare system in order to better serve vulnerable youth. The first suggestion is to “enhance their responses” as they work to support youth transitioning into “healthier lifestyles” (Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, 2013). The second suggestion is to provide 24/7, around the clock, trauma-informed counsel, support, and care to vulnerable youth. The last suggestion is that county agencies need to invest in making missing vulnerable children more visible. Pettigrew concludes her testimony by sharing her hopes that action will follow these discussions.
The post written by Saar seemed to really be beaming the light unto the testimony of Withelma. Her testimony was powerful. I believe one of the biggest strengthens of Saar’s piece was including the link to the full testimony in order to give a face to the pipeline. One of the limitations of Saar’s post was sharing the reactions and any plans of action made by the committees after hearing the testimony of Withelma. It would have been hopeful for readers to know how the committees responded to hearing such a traumatic and real life example of what is going on in the streets of America and seeing the evidence of a broken foster care system.
One of the biggest myths that I believe this piece promotes is that foster care parents/care-givers are solely interested in receiving a pay check for these youth. They are not invested providing loving and nurturing home for these hurting young people. I remember when I was younger and had an adult family member who fostered youth tell them and treat them as if they were only good for pay. It was a sad sight to see as a young person who had a mother who loved me dearly. Those kids who I grow up with are what motivated me to go into child welfare because I believe these youth deserve people in their lives that love them, care about them, and who will be consistent in that love and support.