CASA Anti-Trafficking Initiative
By Leslie Allen
We are beginning our 2nd year of our Anti-Trafficking Initiative, and I want to thank you all for your support and enthusiasm in working to end this horrific abuse of the children in our community. We are active members of The Governor’s Child Sex Trafficking Team, the Montgomery County Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition.
Through our work with the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition, we are making strides in changing legislation. Among issues being advocated for are mandatory human trafficking and child sexual exploitation training to school administrators, repercussions for property owners and building management who allow trafficking to occur on their property, absolving previous convictions for trafficking victims, declaring human trafficking and sexual exploitation a public health issue, and for the buyer, or other person who profits, to be charged with trafficking whether they know if the victim is underage or not.
The next Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, from 9:30 – 11:30am at the United Way of Greater Houston (50 Waugh Drive, Houston, TX).
The next Montgomery County Coalition Against Human Trafficking meeting will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2019, from 1:30 – 3pm at The Woodlands United Methodist Church.
We will begin offering a 2nd training on this topic in April (the 1st training is the Child Sex Trafficking 101 training). This 2nd training will be a discussion about how the body and brain of the victim changes after being sexually abused, the profile of a child predator, and why many sexual abuse victims turn to prostitution as adults.