Olive Crest, others offer chain of centers to help young victims of human trafficking

Think of an office that’s opening Tuesday in Bellflower as the newest outlet in an unusual Southern California franchise network, a franchise that’s equal parts tragedy and cautious optimism.

Technically, the office is being pitched as a drop-in center, meaning it’s a venue for unscheduled visits from the public. And most of the center’s amenities don’t really scream “office.” Laundry services, free food and clothing, a classroom, a gathering area; all are part of what the center’s clientele can expect to find in the space, which is in a nondescript strip mall a few blocks south of the 91 freeway.

But at Tuesday’s grand opening, amenities aren’t really the key. What is important – what makes the place both tragic and hopeful – is its expected customer base. The center’s operators are planning to reach children, usually but not always in their mid-teens, who are being forced into sex work by adult traffickers.

Sadly, this is not a niche operation.

Southern California is widely viewed as a national hub for underage sex trafficking. And in the past year, police agencies in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have encountered (but, per state law, not arrested) roughly 1,000 non-adult sex workers. Experts believe that estimated numbers reflects only a sliver of a much bigger problem.

“It’s difficult to say exactly how many kids are in this situation because even the kids themselves keep it hidden,” said Donald Verleur, co-founder and chief executive of Olive Crest, an Orange County-based nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse.

“When you get through it, and you get out, you don’t want to talk about it,” he added.

“But we know it’s a huge, huge issue.”

That’s why the Bellflower drop-in center is part of a broader network. Verleur said a similar center opened recently in Anaheim, and in coming months at least five more are planned for Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties, as well as Las Vegas. The project is financed by a three-year, $10 million state grant, and run by Olive Crest and other nonprofits working to end human trafficking.

The centers are all near areas that police sometimes refer to as “tracks,” or streets where prostitution is somewhat open; specific locations are available at olivecrest.org. That means at least some kids are likely to arrive as unsolicited walk-ins, though referrals also are expected to come from police, social workers, schools and homeless shelters, among others. The Anaheim drop-in, according to Verleur, has seen about 20 people since it opened, quietly, a few weeks ago.

And, bigger picture, laundry and free food are just part of what’s being offered.

Verleur said Olive Crest will have access to about 150 shelter beds that exploited kids can access, immediately, if they choose to leave their traffickers or otherwise start a different life. Many of those beds are with foster families who’ve been trained to work with sexually exploited teens, which by all accounts is a different experience than other types of foster parenting.

The centers also will offer counseling (for the child and, if applicable, their family), health care access, career advice, school placement and a sympathetic ear from someone who is trained in helping a particularly vulnerable group of abuse victims.

But none of this help is forced. Verleur and others connected to the project said victims will need to ask for help, and that they won’t be pressed to seek it. Instead, the idea is to create a space where the kids eventually trust the counselors working at the centers enough to ask for that assistance.

That concept, experts say, isn’t new. But the idea of making it a broad network – with lots of support services – is.

“They’re really scaling this up. And, in that sense, this is different,” said Sandie Morgan, a professor at Vanguard University and long-time anti-human trafficking advocate in Orange County.

“The idea of developing a regional network, and making it easy for children to check in, emphasizing safety, there’s the innovation.”

But Morgan, who will collect data from Olive Crest’s project to help other anti-trafficking efforts, suggested human trafficking isn’t ripe for easy fixes.

“These kids are victims of a really complex crime.”

Indeed, underage trafficking victims often face a lot of hurdles. Many are homeless. Some are addicted to drugs. Most are being forced or coerced or otherwise duped into sex work by profit-seeking adults.

And none, according to state law, is a criminal, at least not because of their sex work.

Since 2017, Californians under the age of 18 who are detained for prostitution don’t face jail time or prosecution but are, instead, offered access to assistance – just like any other crime victim.

But the hurdle at the drop-in centers – the reason they offer free services like laundry and food but little pressure to seek help – is that the kids often don’t see themselves as victims.

Counselors describe the relationship between victims and their traffickers as akin to a small cult. Traffickers use simple but powerful techniques to convince a child that he (or, sometimes, she) is a better caretaker or friend or romantic partner than anyone else in their life. And many of the trafficking victims enter into that relationship because they don’t feel their other options are better.

“This can happen in any home situation. A trafficking victim can be, literally, anyone,” said Michelle Heater, who leads victim services for Waymakers, an Irvine-based nonprofit that is providing some of the counseling needed in the Olive Crest project.

“Our core as human beings is that we have a need to connect with someone outside ourselves,” Heater said. “And these engagements start as any friendship or romantic relationship begins; there’s an automatic connection.”

But Heater said among traffickers and their victims those connections aren’t unbreakable.

“We’re here to listen, not judge. And once we get their trust, the work can begin,” she said.

“These centers are an opportunity for the kids to figure it out for themselves,” Heater added.

“We hope, at the very least, that we plant a seed. And when they’re ready for help, we can be there to give it.”