I am still at it. Still researching and learning new things to only help me in which direction to go. Finally, I have found a direction that would be a most discreet method - for some it may not seem reliable but you never know.

Aden referred me to YWEP, an organization based out of Chicago that basically deals with young girls and women who are former or current sex workers. I had a brief chat with their director. It didn't go over too well, i think that was only because they were in the midst of a transition or so it seemed. I continued to do more research on harm reduction as it relates to sex workers because after talking with Aden and reading up on Antwerp, I realized that it will be more difficult if you dont have a secure method of getting people to talk. I realized the idea of going to bars/coffeeshops and maybe just passing out condoms and talking to people would be a good start. I could do a referral center where I would have material for community education purposes that would range from DV, Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS/STDS, and other community resources. I will list some sites that i've visited in a later post.

I have been able to watch a little bit of television lately and I saw where Donny Duetsch has discussed trafficking in America. Just recently, (im not really sure how recent this particular show was) they had a young asian woman who had been in the states for a good amount of time (she was a legal citizen) and somehow ended up in two different sex rings (if i understood that correctly). This was on the west coast. She eventually ended up a DV shelter where she was turned away because of her situation. It was sad to hear how she was treated by the police when she first tried to seek help. The second time she was caught up, she was in an escort service under the pretense that she didnt have to have sex with the client, just go out on a date. The client tried to rape her. She called the police and when the showed up, the detective asked her her occupation and when she told him, he told her that she was wasting his time. I found that to be pretty sad.

When I thought about this in regards to the south, it really depressed me. Why? If you really think about it, this happened on the west coast (true this can happen anywhere) but in the south, the reputation of law enforcement competency isn't really very good. I know here in Memphis and the Mid-south (West TN, North MS, Boothill area, MO & Northeastern AR) there has been plenty of evidences of this where victims of DV crimes are not recieving the proper assistance from the police. I know that the YWCA is trying to come up with a training program for MPD law enforcement to help them be more sensitive to DV issues. Im not trying to come off as negative or anything but I know when dealing with trafficking issues, like DV, it really doesnt get the attention it deserves by law enforcement.