Shared Hope International Launches Official Partnership with Y.A.N.A. of Baltimore, MD for Victim Outreach in Prostitution “Strips”

Washington D.C. (March 21, 2007) – Shared Hope International, an anti-sex trafficking organization, announced today that it will begin a partnership with You Are Never Alone (YANA), a Baltimore-based outreach organization that provides counseling and drop-in services for women and children being prostituted.

Shared Hope International awarded YANA a $25,000 subgrant with funds awarded to Shared Hope International by the U.S. State Department, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The funding will increase YANA’s intensive outreach effort to four known prostitution “strips” in the Baltimore metro area to identify domestic child trafficking victims and help them immediately access services. Shared Hope International will continue supporting YANA’s outreach and services privately to ensure continued restoration to prostituted women and children in Baltimore.

In addition to outreach on the “strips,” YANA will collaborate with local and state leaders to train professionals, including law enforcement and social service providers, about sex trafficking, and help the wider community identify both victims and perpetrators.

“YANA is a Maryland-based organization devoted to eliminating the sexual exploitation and despair of women and children involved in prostitution through its direct services, advocacy and community partnerships. Unfortunately, our society has normalized the commercial sex trade and the exploitation of our children so much that we have criminalized these vulnerable girls rather then identify them as victims of a heinous crime,” said Linda Smith, Founder of Shared Hope International.

The partnership is a significant step toward responding to a key finding revealed in the U.S. Mid-Term Review on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in America, a nation-wide report spearheaded by Shared Hope International, in coordination with The Protection Project of Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and ECPAT-USA. The report found that current resources for commercially sexually exploited children in the U.S. are insufficient.

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About Shared Hope International:

A global activist in a worldwide effort to prevent and eradicate the marketplaces of sexual exploitation through a three pronged approach of prevention, intervention and restoration. Founded in 1998 by former Congresswoman Linda Smith, Shared Hope International operates six homes of hope, providing long term shelter and restorative care to those who are survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. In addition, SHI has partnered with nongovernmental organizations worldwide in 14 countries, including the United States, in order to strengthen laws that prosecute the perpetrator and provide services to victims of sex trafficking.

About You Are Never Alone:

The mission of YANA is to reach out in love to women and girls involved in prostitution, offering alternatives to those seeking change and compassionate support for women exploited by any aspect of the life. This mission is accomplished through street outreach (daytime and evening/night); hospitality (food, clothing, showers, resources, offered in a homelike setting); trauma counseling/therapy; case management; advocacy; and diversion services (YANA HOPE).

YANA's clients, staff and Board members also engage in advocacy work in the Baltimore area, statewide, and on a national level.

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