Paola Charry, director of community outreach and education, for Common Thread, a project of BCFS Health & Human Services, presented a program on human trafficking for the Rotary Club of Livingston Thursday.
Headquartered in San Antonio and started in 2017, Common Thread empowers survivors of human trafficking to find hope, connectedness, and serenity. It serves children and youth up to age 24 in 65 counties throughout South Texas.
Common Thread provides an assigned advocate who responds when the survivor is ready and will meet even in emergency situations. Common Thread also provides an entire team of advocates who will walk alongside the survivor during meetings with law enforcement, medical exams, court systems and provide any support and resources needed.
“Working with the immigrant population, we discovered a lot of kids are high risk for trafficking. Human trafficking is a horrible crime that takes freedom away,” Charry said.
“We provide advocacy services. The advocate role is the first to build a healthy relationship. We are long term, and we provide services as long as they are able. We are training our staff to have a trust-based approach. We allow the survivor to empower the decision-making process,” Charry said.
“We are all over, but we don’t have offices. We are able to be dispatched to where the survivor is in hiding,” she said.
Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Under U.S. federal law, any minor under the age of 18 years induced into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking – regardless of whether or not the trafficker used force, fraud, or coercion.
To request advocacy for a survivor, call Common Thread’s 24/7 toll-free hotline which is 1-888-8THREAD or 1-888-884-7323. For additional information, visit www.commonthread.net.
