CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's an issue impacting every state in the U.S, and across Texas, including the Coastal Bend. An often silent crime, suffered by the most vulnerable of groups: children.
The mission of New Life Refuge Ministries is not an easy one, quite the opposite, but it is life-changing and crucial.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, those with New Life Refuge Ministries say their mission is stronger than ever, and there are ways the community can help them in raising awareness and preventing child sex trafficking from happening in our communities.
"Our mission is to truly help the children that have been exploited, heal those traumas and also prevent it," said Tina Canary, Operations Manager and Education Program Director for New Life Refuge Ministries. "We take care of children who are 11-17 who have been exploited."
As the name suggests, New Life Refuge Ministries provides a refuge of hope and healing to those directly impacted, and works to educate the community on the issue.
Like with practically everything over the course of the pandemic, a lot has shifted online. While for many of us, working remotely now, it's made our jobs more challenging in some way or another. However, as Canary explained, predators and traffickers are taking full advantage of the gained access to the various technology children may have at home.
"It has affected those who are being exploited exponentially because so many more children are online for schools or entertainment and traffickers get to meet them," Canary said.
"If they can't hang out at the Starbucks, then [they'll] watch kids at the mall. They're going to go where the children are."
Canary said this is why she and her team are doing what they can to inform parents on how their children should be using their electronics safely.
"You'll have children posting about being unhappy, about being stuck at home, whatever the complaint is, they'll [predators, traffickers] pick up on that and say, 'Oh, I feel sorry for you. Let's be best buddies.' Canary said. "It happens on gaming platforms, it happens on TikTok, and Facebook, all of the apps. Anywhere the children are, traffickers will find them."
She explained major changes in a child's behavior can serve as a red flag warning that something's going on which could includes: erratic sleeping patterns, hiding their phones or electronic devices, locking their phones, or placing certain apps in folders, just to name a handful.
Canary said that due to privacy restrictions, she's unable to disclose the amount of children that are currently being helped by the ministries, but that over the course of the pandemic, they have taken in more children, and with that have added to their staff.
She did explain, though, that each home within New Life Refuge Ministries will house six children at a time, and that they are expanding their number of homes.
"There are those that stay with us longer and as we develop this campus, this ministry, we will eventually have seven homes.," Canary said. "Two of those will be for boys, 11-17, that have been trafficked."
The programs provided by the ministries include trauma-informed trained staff, weekly individual and bi-weekly group therapeutic counseling, bi-weekly trauma-informed Equine Assisted Learning, and additional healing programs including drama, art, music and more.
Canary said that before the pandemic, the ministries would partner up with various groups for events to help get the word out. She explained they are not 100-percent funded by the state, and so they seek out grants that are applicable to support the children and support their outreaches. A vital part in carrying out their mission comes from community support.
- Of the more than 23,500 endangered runaways reported to the NCMEC in 2019, one in six, were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
- Today, the average age of child sex trafficking victims reported missing to NCMEC is only 15-years-old.
- Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. states.
As groups like New Life Refuge Ministries work to provide safe spaces for survivors and to continue educating parents on how to best protect their children, state leaders are tasked with creating laws to do that as well.
"Right now, we're learning that human trafficking has increased particularly in the slavery issue of kids," State Representative Todd Hunter said.
"The legislatures coming up in January, so it's a great time to look at new laws that work right now. One thing we need to do is to get a data system so that the public can track what counties in Texas, where in the United States, are prosecutions happening. Nueces County has a very good reputation on being very tough on human trafficking, and in fact they’ve gotten convictions here, but the public needs to know which counties are pursuing them, which states are pursuing them."
Hunter said he hass worked with New Life Refuge Ministries over the years to help bring awareness to human trafficking. He shared he's also worked with survivors themselves, which he says has been the most impactful.
"They [survivors] have been great advocates on how myself as a lawmaker can learn to create laws that work," Hunter said.
He recalled a particular incident that occurred in Rockport years ago in which a vehicle was stopped with several children inside.
"It gives me an incentive to do everything we can to make it tough in Texas to do any of this," Hunter said.
Helpful links:
To be directed to New Life Refuge Ministries website, click here.
To learn about ways to get involved or volunteer with New Life Refuge Ministries, click here.
NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE: 888-373-7888
For more information and research provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, click here.
To report a case of child sex trafficking to the NCMEC's cyber tip line, click here.