Latest / Unsilenced with Blanket Fort Hope / The Children We Miss: Who Gets Overlooked in Human Trafficking

Transcript

The Children We Miss: Who Gets Overlooked in Human Trafficking · Unsilenced with Blanket Fort Hope

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Every system has a gap, and in anti-trafficking work, the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: gap is often a child, a real child with a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: real story who did not fit the picture in someone
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: else's mind or in someone else's nonprofit or someone else's business.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: What does a victim look like? Why were they overlooked?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Today we're talking about who gets missed, and it's a
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: harder conversation than most, but it's a conversation we need
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: to have.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Because these children are real and their needs are urgent.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: My name is Alexa James. And I'm Kim Meshago.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Unsilenced. Somewhere in your city, a child is
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: being sold. And the people doing it are counting on
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: your silence. This is Unsilenced, the voices trafficking, tried to erase.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: A Blanket Fort Hope podcast. I'm Alexa James.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: And I'm Kim Meshago.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fort.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: The trafficking response infrastructure in our country was largely built
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: around a particular image. A young girl, typically from a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: particular neighborhood, who presents in a recognizable way. And that
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: image has shaped everything. From how we fund services to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: how law enforcement is trained on how to design residential facilities.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And Kim, it's not that the problem of the girls
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: is not real. We've just... You know, we've painted this
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: picture that a trafficking victim looks like this. She's this color.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: She's this age. It's her fault. And that's the picture
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: everybody has.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It's not really happening. It looks like taken. Well, no,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it does not. The girls are real. They are absolutely real.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And they need exactly what we have built. However, the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: problem is that the image has become the sealant. And
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: we've got to break that line of thinking, that train
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of thinking, because that is not the ceiling. If your
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: experience does not match the image, you may not have
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: been seen as a victim at all. And we're missing
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: 30% of the demographics because we have.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Created this ceiling. That's correct. Yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So who are... we most likely to miss, do you think, Kim?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I think boys, you know, without question. Boys are the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: most underserved population in the trafficking world. The data on
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: male survivors is limited, partly because we have not built
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the systems to actually find them and to recognize them.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: And when they are found, we don't often have the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: infrastructure to serve them.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: You know, when I started this work, and you've been
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in it for 30 years, and you worked in DHR,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: so you've seen it all. You probably have experienced what
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the ceiling looks like, and I'm sure it's been a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: point of frustration. I can only imagine that it has
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: been that for you. I've only been doing this for
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: 15 years, and I know how frustrated I get with it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And I had to educate myself on this, and part
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of my education was you, actually, when I I started
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: educating myself. I was meeting with DHR all over the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: state just trying to learn what is the problem because
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: in my head it was still that second grader. And
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I would see these gangs, and it breaks my heart now,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that would come up to the Dream Center where I
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: learned all about trafficking, that would lay their guns down.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And in my head I'm thinking, those are the bad kids.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: But the truth is, were they the bad kids? Yes.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Was it that ceiling cap?
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: It was that ceiling cap. Yes. That was a kid.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I had a limited knowledge of what was really happening.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: That was my response was, uh-oh, there the bad boys are. Yes.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: And the data on male survivors is so limited, partly
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: because we have not built a system. We don't even
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: have a good system across the U.S. for what trafficking.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I still have people go, really? Yes.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And when they, you know, when these kids are found,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the infrastructure to serve them is almost non-existent. I believe
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that with all of my heart, and I will continue
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to say that. I will continue to fight policy. I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: will continue to fight law. I will continue to fight
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the state and say, no, that's not true. This is
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: where we are. Because people... They believe you can bring
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: them in six months, let them go. That's the infrastructure. Yay,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: we rescued, we helped. We don't rescue. The police department rescues. Oh, see,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I'm getting on a tangent. I'm sorry. Calm down, Alexa.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Get on your tangent.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: You're right.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: It's so frustrating to me because I hear we've trained
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: over 25,000 people. We have been on the streets. We
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: have been in the doors. We've knocked on the doors.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We have screened. We've been at the state. We've been
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in front of the Senate. We've been in front of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the House of Representatives. We've met with the state of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Alabama secretary. We've met with the governor. And we're still
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: having this same conversation. And- You know, we've got to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: break that cycle of, you know, look at your children.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Listen to what they're saying. You know, I've got a
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: child that teaches school, and they've got a kid coming
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in that thinks they're a bird. So we've got to–
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: this is existent. There is not another place like Blanket
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Fort Hope that works with these children and what we're.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Going to do. That's correct.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: And we know that boys are more likely to be
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: trafficked through labor, construction– agricultural, domestic services. But we also
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: know that where there is labor trafficking, there is also
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: sex trafficking. And they are less likely to be identified
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: because we're not looking for them. You know, it's difficult
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: to even identify young women, but young men are even
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: less likely to report, you know, and sometimes we're not
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: looking for them.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Why do you think they're less likely to report?
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Because they know that the system is not set up.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: It's your fault.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: To serve them. That's what they're going to say. And
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: they're going to be told it's their fault.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And they feel like they're not going to be believed
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: to start with. And how could this be true? And
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: why couldn't you help yourself? How did you get yourself
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: into this? And when they do come to our attention,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: law enforcement through the child welfare system, A lot of
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: times they're treated as perpetrators or they're just runaways or
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: something you said earlier. They're just the bad guys.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: You know, they're the bad kids.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, I thought it too. And I was out
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: there working in missions.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Rather than survivors.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what those boys were because that little
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: girl in the second grade that came into school dirty
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: could not read. Had two choices. She could go home
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and be sold. For drugs or rent. And that's what
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: was happening. Or the guy who's the gang leaning up
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: against his beautiful Camaro or Sting, whatever you want to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: call it, fancy car. And Bling is recruiting these kids
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to sell drugs. So, Kim, which one do you think
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: you might have chosen to go home and to be
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: sold or the fancy car?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Or the fancy car.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And we always talk about, well, why didn't they just
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: not do that? Why didn't they just not choose the
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: fancy car?
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, because they're hungry. They need clothes. They're
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: looking for love in all the wrong places. They're looking
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: for safety. That looks like security to them because they've
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: experienced the trauma of being starving.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: That's correct. That is the only option. That is correct.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Because the system... It is a devastating failure.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Devastating.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And a child who has been exploited and being treated
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: as a criminal is a secondary trauma that our system
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: inflicts on them. I want to say that one more time.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: A child who has been exploited being treated as a
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: criminal is is a secondary trauma that the system that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: we are all a part of has inflicted upon them.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I agree. So what do you think serving boys looks
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: like at BFH? You know, I want to be really
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: clear about something because I think there's a lot of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: confusion about the restoration home. Our residential facility is for girls.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But the physical structure of our care model for girls is,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: is what we have built and what we operate there.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: But what does it mean to have.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: Boys, Kim?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So we have what's called a child placing agency license
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: from DHR. And we always call it our CPA. And
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: typically people are like, what CPA? It's not financial CPA.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: It's a license that is issued to us by state
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: DHR that gives us the responsibility of going out, recruiting
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: foster families, training those foster families, and then supporting those
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: foster parents as they get children into their home. And
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: this is the avenue through which we serve young men.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And we serve young women and very young children as well.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: But this is how Blanket Fort Hope serves young men,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: just the same as we do with young ladies, except
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: they are not living on our campus. They're living in
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a foster home.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people say, why? They
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: ask me that question, why? Well, one, these children are
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: overly highly sexualized.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Correct, yes.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And we would never put girls and boys on the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: same property, even though we have 73 acres.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: All that is, we're doing, and people are like, well,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: those children shouldn't be doing that. No, we're trying to break,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: help break that trauma for them. And why would we
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: cause that type of pull or that type of... To.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Even put the opportunity out there for them to have
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: to decide.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: We're causing failure.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: That is correct.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be helping them make good decisions because
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: they cannot. Yes.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: It's like setting them up to fail.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: We would.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Even just like in the restoration home, each young lady
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: has her own bedroom.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Same principle.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: We want to set you up to do well, to succeed.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And we talked about In a previous podcast, trauma-informed care.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Those are the kinds of things that go into trauma-informed care.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Not putting male and females on the same campus.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Having a single private bedroom for, I mean, bathroom and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: bedroom for every child.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think that's amazing. Yeah. That we were
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: able to do that. And there was a lot of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: flack about that too.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: That is correct.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: So again, it goes back to stick with your state
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: mission focused because there's going to be more people than not.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Like why can't three girls be in a bedroom? Well,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: for the very reason that Kim just said. So we
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: went the extra step to make sure each girl had
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: their own bedroom and their own bathroom. But now the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: even next further step that we've made is because we
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: saw And it was always in the plan, so we
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: did not get out of our focus to do something
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: with foster care. Quite frankly, I was just afraid of
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it because I didn't have enough knowledge about it. And
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: it was very overwhelming to look at having another staff
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: because we have a staff for the restoration home, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: now we have to have a staff for the CPA,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the Child Placing Agency home, because we're not going to
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: just do something halfway.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, Kim, I'm sorry. That is not the way. That's
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: not the way of Alexa. Yeah, God designs. It's not
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: the way.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: No. And through this license, we're able to place these
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: boys like you talked about who have survived trafficking. And
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I believe, and unfortunately, these numbers I'm giving you are
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: not truly vetted enough, but it's what we hear. It's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: just what we know through foster care, through the state.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: is we think that there's been a 30% uptick.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Increase.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Increase in police being trafficked. But just because of natural maturation,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: looking for love in all the wrong places, we went
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: through COVID, there was a 3,000% uptick in pornography, and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: people become more desensitized, and kids are looking to be
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: included into something. And so then they're getting trapped into
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the wrong situations because they're not capable of making those decisions.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So we are able to vet, train these families who
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: we have specifically prepared to care for this population. We
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: don't just go out. They have to sign all of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: our faith statements. They have to believe in one man,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: one wife, one female as a marriage. They have to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: agree with the standards of Blanket Fort Hope, which is
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: working in excellence.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: They have to understand that it will be us in
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: their house and not just DHR. And if we see
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a problem, I can promise you we will be whipping
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: those kids out of that house as soon as possible.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: So I think, you know, that gap that we're talking about. And,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: you know, I think the other piece of all this, too,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: is in these foster homes, we can serve zero to 21,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: which is another gap that we're seeing missing. The youngest
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: child I've personally been able to assist on was four
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: years old. And so we know that it's happening. Yes,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I said four years old.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: And there was an even younger child, if you remember,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: when we went to Troy that we heard about the
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: day that we were in Troy doing some training.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: That baby was months old, right?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: The baby was months old, and there was an incident
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: at the jail. And so that's how we learned about
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that baby that was four months old. So we know
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: when we say zero to 21 years old, that there
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: are children out there, young children, who need a home,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: a trauma-informed home to provide services as well.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: There was a case on the news about a year ago,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and it was all over all stations, and I don't
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: know why people weren't talking about it, where a man
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was arrested for raping a six-week-old that killed the baby.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And so that's what we know. That's just the tip
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of the iceberg. And so it is important, and we, again,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: don't see a lot of that, you know, in other nonprofits,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: we don't see a lot of that going on. So
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: y'all can pray for us as we branch into this piece.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: And we're already doing it. We have how many families
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: We have three families that are approved, and we have
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: three additional families who are in the process as we
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: speak of becoming approved to become foster families. And we
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: talked about with our restoration home what goes into training
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: our staff.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: But our foster families, Alexa, they receive training as well.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Because they are caring for the same children that we
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: care for in a restoration home, except it's just in
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: a different location.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: It's actually in their home.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think that's beautiful. It is comprehensive. It's trauma-informed.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: These families are not just taking kids who need a
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: place to stay. They are receiving a survivor who has
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: specific needs. They have specific triggers. ways of processing what's
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: happened to them. In the podcast before, you talked about
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a child who may wake up in trauma and can't
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: go to school. We know there's a lot of behavioral challenges,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: physical sicknesses that come out because of this trauma.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: And physical sicknesses that become known because now their body
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: is able to rest and start the healing process.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: And so an increase in physical symptoms, just the body
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: just becoming where I feel safe and now.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I can rest.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: And that is a real thing. I know. And I
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: think it's okay for me to say this. I'm saying it.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: My daughter-in-law works for a hospital where children have cancer.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: And the uptick of that seems to be between November
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and December. And so this is not a study. She's
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: never told me this. This is not truth. It's just
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: what I think. And when we talk about this, It
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: makes you wonder if it's not because of the trauma,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the stress of holidays and family, if it's not that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it's already there, but it causes it to come up.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: That is correct.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Because of that. So that is a real thing. Behavioral
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and physical trauma is very real. And how it presents
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: itself and when it comes out is very real.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: You know, and the boys that are in those placements,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: they will still have access to to all the services
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: that the children at the restoration home have. They're going
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: to have clinical services. They'll have case management. They have
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: the entire support network of Blanket Fort Hope. And it's
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: just delivered in a family setting rather than being on campus,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: like I said before. So they're not missing anything. It
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: is just that it's being provided in a different location.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, what it is, is a beautiful thing. Um,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: That the Lord has allowed us to expand around us
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: outside of the restoration home because I have boys, you
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: have some boys. And it was just heartbreaking to me
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: because I built this around my boys thinking, what would
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: I do? Where would I want my children to go
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: if this happened to them and I wasn't here? And
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: this is where I would want.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Them to go.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: This is the kind of place that if we didn't
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: have family or if our children had to receive services
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: and care, Every policy that we wrote, when we look
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: at families, when we look at volunteers, when we look
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: at staff, we think about, would I want my child
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: to come into contact with this individual? Would I want
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: this individual to care for my own child?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: It comes from a place of deep love. It comes
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: from a place of deep planning. It comes from a
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: biblical place of organization and execution. These things just didn't
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: roll out, you know, and I think the Lord is
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: being glorified because it is all to Jesus. The glory
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: goes to all of him. We are just the servants
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: that get to do this. There's nothing magical or special
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: about either one of us, Kim. Well, I think there
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is about you. I can't help it.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: I think there's something special about you too, Alex, and magical.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: You know that, but we so depend every single day.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: We know.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: We're our help. We know we're our strength. We know
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: where it all comes from.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Every bit of it.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: And it's not, you know, it's not us. We know
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: for a fact that it's Jesus Christ.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And we are, I think we believe that for many boys,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a family placement is actually a more therapeutic environment for them.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Correct, yes.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: They need to see a healthy family dynamic modeled, especially
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: with the father. They need consistent attachment figures.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: A licensed foster home can provide that in a way
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: that a residential facility may not be able to. However,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I do believe the model we have could meet that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: need because we have house parents.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, we have house parents.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: And our residential facility, it is a home.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: We do life with our young ladies. Y'all eat together.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Our staff eat.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: They eat lunch together. I got in trouble for that.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: We prepare meals together and everybody in the home, whether
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: it's staff or whether it's child, because we want to
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: have a family model. It's a large family model, but
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: it is a family model. And I was telling you
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: that now the young ladies are saying, men take out
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: the trash and all of these.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Kinds of things.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: But they've started assigning roles. And I know that can
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: be different in every family, but they're starting to see
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: families coming together and how families operate. And we're all
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a part of that. So we cook breakfast together. We
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: eat breakfast together. We have our morning prayer together. Those
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: that are at home for school, we cook lunch together.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: We have our midday prayer together. We talk at the
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: dinner table.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: We have hard conversations at the dinner table, just like
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: my family does, just like your family does. We eat
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: dinner together. And if someone misses, you hear about it.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: We didn't all eat together tonight. And why didn't we
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: all eat together tonight? And when you start to see
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: those attachments form, then you realize that you're building a
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: home environment. And this past Sunday, I don't know if
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I told you this, we have our family meeting on
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Sunday afternoons. And we were talking to the young ladies,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: and one of the things that they want to not
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: have happen is, and we started bringing, like we brought Ms.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Suzanne in, we brought Mr. Jim in to introduce them
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: to these individuals because they want to make sure if some,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: the young lady said this, you know, if Mr. Jim
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: has to come to look at the grass or whatever
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: he's doing, he's at our home.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, he is.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: And so we're like, okay, we will bring Mr. Jim
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: so that you can meet him and you will know
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: because that is our home and they want to protect it.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You know, and I could go on and on. They
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: have animals. They have a dog. They have a cat.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: They've adopted a cat.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: They've adopted a cat. And so it's family. They get allowances.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: It's like your childhood. They get allowances. It's their family.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: And so even though, like you said, they're not in
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: a foster home, they are in a family-like setting.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they are most definitely. And I think this is
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: another great teaching moment because this was another conversation I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: had with Kim. I said, Kim, are we feeding the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: whole staff at the house? Like, why are we feeding them?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, because you've got to remember, I'm watching money
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: go out. I'm trying to balance all the things out
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: with heart, okay? And Kim, what did you say?
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: And I said, we are a family.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: And I tell staff, If you bring food into the home,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: you have to bring enough for everybody. And we have
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: staff who do that. If they want something special, pizza,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: we've had them bring things to make cookies and decorate things.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: But you have to bring enough for everybody. Because isn't
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: that what you would do at home?
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Yes. If you went to the grocery store, you bring
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: enough back for everybody.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: And so whatever's in our refrigerator, whatever's in our cabinets,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: it's for everybody.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: That is a concept. I would have missed.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: It's for everybody.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: It is, and I think that's a, I want you
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to know right here on the All the World, that's
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a beautiful concept, and it's missed by so many because
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I almost, but when you said, I had this picture
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in my head of just seeing everybody like I see
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: my family at the table eating, and I thought, why
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: would you not want the staff to be eating with everybody?
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And you know, Kim, when I looked at you, I said, okay, okay.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Just go ahead and watch this.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: And think about the picture it paints if I have
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: to eat this food, but you bring something different.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Why don't you eat what I eat?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: It paints a picture that you're not part of this
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: family or you think you're better or different than I am.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: You're not including me in who you are in your life.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: We're not living life together.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Doing life together.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: And we've got to do life together.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: That's our motto.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: And I think that's where a lot of agencies miss out.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: It's I'm the boss. You're the kid. This is what
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I tell you to do. You go to bed. You
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: do this.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: You do that.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: They're helping make decisions. We're readying them for life.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: And that is it.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Pretty soon, you know, most of our young ladies that
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: have come in so far are around 15, 16 to 18.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: And we have a short period of time to ready.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Them for life.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that because I want to get
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: that second house built. I know.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: And then they can stay with us for longer.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: But even our young men, you know, they have not,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: we have not parented them before.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: And so we first have to build that relationship.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Because if we issue discipline without love, it's a whole different,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: And so you're right. We do.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: We we we do life together with them and we
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: lead and we guide them.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: And I think I want to share this, Kim, as
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: we broaden to this to boys, the gap, the age,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: even the zero to 21. So not only did we
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: broaden that. the boys where the gap was, but we
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: have broadened the gap of the zero to 21 age
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: by having this foster community. But also as we're building
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: out the second phase, because we're building out three more
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: pods of four houses so that when these girls age
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: out in the residential home, we can send them to
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the next step up home in order for them to
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: be prepared, whether it's job training, one-year, two-year, four-year college
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: were able to do that on campus as well as
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: off campus, which is a beautiful thing because we don't believe.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't send Alex and Nicholas out at 18 and said,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: you can't ever come home again.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Go out there, give it a try, but don't.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Come back home. You can always come back. We're here
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: to support you. They're both grown adults with children, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: if they need something and I can do it, I
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: do it, period. But I think when we took that step,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: every time we take a step in faith– And I'm
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: just being real here. I'm looking at bills.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: I know it.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Because I have to.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Yes, and you have to.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have to do that. But we have never,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: there's not ever been a day from day one when
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: we started this agency that it was not a step
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: in faith. Everything we have done has been a walk
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: in faith. I have a mustard seed and I'm not
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: afraid to use it. And that is our motto, you know.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: That if we just have.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: The faith of a mustard seed.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And I know that's all I have. Can you imagine
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: if I had one as big as a peanut?
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Just that little bitty mustard seed. And it not being
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: afraid to use it.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: And haven't we seen God work?
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Well, what happened when we took those steps in faith
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: is we have God immediately within days awarded us a grant.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: That takes care of the restoration home for two years.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: That is correct.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And one that we did not ever even near expect
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: that we would get. But sometimes, world out there, we
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: have to take the next step in faith. I have
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: had people on the board. I have had people around me. No,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: you cannot do that. You don't have the money to
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: do it. And I was like, okay, watch Jesus.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: You know, and I know we're way off topic here
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: for boys.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: No, not you. I do want to say one thing.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: It's that obedience and faith. You know, God told us
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: to operate this restoration home as a family and not
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: a facility.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: And because of that, he's provided. When we obey him,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: he provides that next resource.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Every single time. And I'm like, why didn't you just
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: give it up a day earlier?
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: So even thinking about these young men that he brought
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: into the light. Now he's made a provision for even
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: the young men.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: That's right. He has. And I think we've got to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: continue to have that conversation, the real conversations, because when
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: it stays in darkness, then Satan can use it against
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the kids. He can use it against us, the failure,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: all of it. So this next part is not going
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to be very easy to talk about either, Kim.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's, you know, these other populations that are difficult.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: They are. I mean, we've got these gaps, this race identity.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and how it intersections. And, you know, we, we, we've
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: talked a little bit about race disparities and trafficking and
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: response and LGT plus youth, both of which the system
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: consistently underserves. So I want you to talk a little
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: bit about that. And it's not an easy conversation to have,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: but it should be.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: It should be. It's just people's kids. And part of
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: it is we just have to have it as children.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: And we know, you know, two additional populations that are
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: chronically over I mean underserved, is black and brown children.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: The data is clear on these children. They're disproportionately represented
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: in trafficking cases. And they are also underserved. There's a
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: body of research that tells us that our bias shapes
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: how law enforcement, child welfare workers, anyone out there that
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: are serving these children, that we have to be very
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: cognizant of our biases. because it shapes how we assess
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and how we care for and how we treat certain
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: populations like black and brown children. They're often seen as older,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: more mature, more culpable. Yeah.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Um, and they're often unrecognized and underserved.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And I don't, I don't, I don't understand. Um, I
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: don't have an understanding of that at all. I just,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I just, I cannot tell you how many times I
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: get that question and it's still, and it's usually through
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: a white male. I don't understand. And I don't know
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: how to answer it sometimes because it still shocks me.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: And I've had to answer these questions for 15 years
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and I still sometimes stutter. Um, Like, I don't understand
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: your question. We're looking at a child.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: We see children. That is all.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: And another population, Alexa, that I know you get questions about,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: we get questions about, just the same is LGBTQ plus youth.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: This community is significantly overrepresented in trafficking cases.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: We know that.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Because they're more likely to be homeless.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Which is a huge risk factor for children who are trafficked.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: If you're a child and you're homeless, how are you
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: going to meet your basic needs? And you're in a
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: vulnerable position for an adult to take advantage of you.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: So many of these young people, because of their choices,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: they have been rejected by their family. They have been
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: rejected by their faith communities. And they are surviving in
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: dangerous conditions. And what we've learned is that many children
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: who say that they're LGBTQ +, they haven't even made
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: a final decision about that.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: It's what they know. It's like I've joined a particular
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: group of people.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Just to be accepted.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Just to be accepted. But I know you get a
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: lot of questions about that.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: And why do we accept those kinds of children?
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Right. Okay. So I think that's a good, you know,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking. It's real. We have a lot of internal
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: work to do to make sure that our culture, our hiring,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and our practices do not replace, Kim, what the theory
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: maybe is. I don't know if that's the right word,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: but that's what I'm using. And we're committed to serving
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: children regardless of the race or what you made a
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: good point in saying. Think about when you were 13
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: or 14. We are not capable of making those decisions
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: because our cognitive abilities aren't even completely formed. So when
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I have the question of somebody saying, you mean you're
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: going to accept a child that is part of the
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: LGBTQ community if it is a female girl and she's
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: claiming this and she is born as a female? Absolutely
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: we are. It is our job to serve children. And
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: our job to show the love of Jesus Christ and
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: help them see how that they were made in the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: image of God. And I think that even as churches
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and as parents that we're so busy judging, I'm not
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: telling you what the biblical answer is to all this.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: We should know what that is. We know what God's
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Word says. But our job is still to serve these
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: children and to help them heal. And that we hope
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: through the love that we show And the biblical view
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: that we have, we know that's where the true healing
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: is going to come from. And it breaks my heart.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I get that question from pastors. And it breaks my heart.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Because what that tells me is you're not really reading
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the Bible. You're not really seeing the need. You're not
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: really wanting to help the most underserved.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: And we have made it clear that at Blanket Fort Hope,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: we are here to serve children.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Any child that God brings to us that we're equipped
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: to serve.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I used to say if that child has a purple tail,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: we're still accepting that child. I don't say that as
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: much as I used to because it kind of sounds
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: a little cray-cray, but it is the truth. I mean,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: if she did, I would. And the response that we
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: receive when they are identified is often inadequate because the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: services don't exist out there in the world that are
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: designed for these kids. They get placed in settings that
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: are not affirming. They do not understand their experience and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: they leave, they run because they don't feel safe.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: So we're back to that fundamental question.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Who is the response infrastructure actually built for? Who do
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: we build our capacity to serve? Children, who are we
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: building that infrastructure for? And what are we willing to
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: do to change that? so that that infrastructure supports children. Yeah.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, that is not just in-house, Kim. Unfortunately, it
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: is policy.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: It is bills. It is law. It is changing everything
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: in the system. But it starts here. Very well said.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Very well said. So I want to say something directly
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to anyone who's ever felt overlooked, underserved. or who felt
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: like their story did not count because it did not
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: look the way people expected it to look. And we
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: see that all the time. You are no less of
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: a survivor. You're not less deserving of any kind of
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: healing or treatment. And we are working to make sure
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that the response catches up to the reality of what
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: your experience is at Blanket Fort Hope.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: And the gap in the system is not inevitable. It's
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: the result of choices. about who we fund, who we train,
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: and what we design. And choices can be changed.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Yes. Isn't that the beauty of all of it?
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: Choices can be changed.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have an opportunity here to invoke change.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: And when we learn better, we can do better.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: That's right. Yes, we can. Next time, we're going to
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: talk about what it costs to expand, not just financially,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: but personally, spiritually, institutionally. And it's a conversation about sacrifice, sustainability,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and all the things that go with that. So until then, restoration, healing. Oh, healing.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I did it wrong. Let's do that again. Restoration, healing,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and hope. If you or someone you know needs help,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: call or text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: learn more about Blanket Fort Hope, visit BlanketForthHope.org. Together we
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: can make sure no voice goes unheard.