SW 3400

Late Adulthood Interview

Amber Stephens
Hannah Park 4/3/2014

Interview Reflection Paper

Amber Stephens

Hannah Park

On April 3, 2014, I, Hannah Park, was able to interview Amber Stephens to gain more insight on sex trafficking and how it affects older adults. The organization that she is affiliated with is called Out of Darkness, an anti-trafficking ministry of Atlanta Dream Center, a 501(c) 3, faith-based organization. Amber identifies with Victory World Church and plays the role as the church partnership constituent for this organization. Beyond being a great advocate for this cause, she is also my mentor, role model, and true friend. Introduction The founder Jeff Shaw, a lawyer living in Buckhead, was looking out of his balcony one day when he saw this girl roaming around the streets. She looked lost and didnt look like she belonged in that area. He went down to her to ask if she needed any help. They began talking, and she was a runaway who met a guy that began to prostitute her. She was running away from her pimp when coincidentally, Jeff was there to see her. He was at the right place at the right time, and believes that God made this happen. Through that girl, he created Out of Darkness in 2012, with the only 24-7 rescue hotline in Atlanta. Their mission is to reach, rescue, and restore all victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The Reach to bring awareness, Rescue by training people, and Restore the girls to their safe house until they can get into a long-term care. They teach individuals to learn how to answer stress calls, participate in jail visits and Princess Night; Every Friday night, volunteers go out to Fulton Industrial Boulevard to give our roses, handwritten cards of encouragement and scripture and talk to the trafficked women as well as their pimps. They make sure each receive the hotline number and are informed that they can call anytime they want to be rescued. Out of Darkness is partnered with the F.B.I. locally and is informed when a call doesnt come directly to the hotline. A lot of larger human trafficking organizations are advocates and dont have a rescue line. Therefore, all calls are sent to Out of Darkness and they coordinate the rescue missions in Georgia. Rescued victims stay at their short-term safe house two-week program. There are professional counselors, house moms that live there and love on these girls. There are no organizations in Atlanta that will house them short-term to get their paperwork and no long-term programs have 24 hour rescue hotlines. Out of Darkness plays as the middle ground where at any time theres a stress call, they will rescue them and bring them back to the safe house. While victims are participating in group activities and psychological, emotional, and drug counseling for the next two weeks, workers help them obtain their paperwork that they need in order to enroll into a long-term program. All long-term programs require paperwork and being on the street, you have no identification so Out of Darkness job is to make sure they will get the long-term care that they need. Two weeks may not be a long time but changes really take place during that time when they realize that someone is there for them. The target age group for Out of Darkness is older young adults ages 18 to 30. This is because there is a lack of care for the older adults and victims have nowhere to go other than jail or back to their pimps. When minors are rescued, they are sent to Georgia Care. Last year, in their beginning stages, 114 girls were rescued and already, theyre seeing more in the first quarter of this year. It is not a religious organization but everyone is Christian and anyone is welcome.

Analyze (Compare & Contrast)

Interview Reflection Paper

Amber Stephens

Hannah Park

Trauma is definitely the same no matter what the age. With abused children, theres a system that they go through after, such as DFCS or foster care, but older adults dont have a system for this. The main difference between age groups would be HOW they get into trafficking in the first place. Amber tells us that more than running away or being kidnapped like children, as an adult, it doesnt happen like that. It could be from past cycles of abuse or like a lot of college girls, they will find themselves in inappropriate relationships where the guy might end up being a pimp. They dont know their worth and value and really dont understand what they deserve. Older girls that are victimized are just like us, you and meBut mostly getting caught up in a bad relationship. Weve all been there, but the difference is the guy starts to prostitute you. People think of prostitution as people on the street with booty shorts but its not like that anymore, prostitution is hidden behind escort services and even through the internet. Above any other crime sex trafficking is the highest crime. It brings more money in than the drug industry and Atlanta is pretty much the number one hub. Goodness! I was approached when I was in college to be an escort for this business. A guy approached me, not to date me, saying he knows I need extra money because she I was a college student. He told me I would go out with guys; entertain thempretty much high class prostitution. So how you get into it is very different from when youre a child or when youre an adult. Other Useful Information It may sound crude, but think like through the mind of the pimp, Amber stated when asked about older adults in this industry, ...how long am I going to keep what I call, my property, to make money for me? But definitely not from a 50 year old. When you research sex trafficking, the average timeframe a victim lasts, to survive and not die, is 7 years. With the nature of the business, STDs, violence, and drugs, its hard to last more than unlucky number 7. Youd be very lucky if you did, and so thats why there might be complications with finding information with older adults. Older people might be prostituting themselves for drugs or what not, but with trafficking, their focusing on a certain age for a certain reason. Pimps treat young women like commodities and give as much money as they can as quickly as they can cause with the violence and drugs they give the girls, they arent going to last very long, she continues. Personal Experience Impact Reflecting back on the interview and gaining more knowledge from an advocates perspective has made a huge impact on me. I really appreciated learning about the organization Out of Darkness and the role that they play in our community. I was also shocked that they were the only ones with a 24-7 rescue hotline available in all of Georgia, but very thankful theres at least one to begin with. I truly saw things from a different eye. The reason why older adult victims arent as popular is because they just might not last. Out of Darkness realizes the lack of care for the older age groups and I couldnt ask for a better organization to learn about.

Interview Reflection Paper Future Social Work Reflection

Amber Stephens

Hannah Park

I have always had an interest in this topic ever since I was first introduced to it in High School. Its crazy that Amber was the one to first open these doors years ago, and shes here again to help to even more. There are just so many issues that stem from sex trafficking I hope I will be able to make a change in the future. I have come to realize that with this topic, we really need to target the young adult victims so they can learn to live a normal life, raise awareness in the community about this issue, and create more programs like Out of Darkness that helps girls obtain necessary paperwork that most victims do not have. Most importantly, I recommend creating more 24-7 rescue hotline because we are stronger in numbers. My passion burns more and more everyday for these victims and I am excited to say I know what I want to do to do my part in the future.