Individual & Family Services - Portland, OR, United States
Door to Grace, established 2009, brings safe and loving family to sexually exploited children.Child sex trafficking is a growing problem in the US, and specifically in Portland. Studies have shown up to 300,000 children are sold for sex every year in America. For example, it has been estimated that between three and five hundred children are sold for sex along the I-5 corridor between Portland and Seattle every month. A local study showed the average age of these exploited girls to be 15 years, although we have seen it occur with girls as young as 8 years of age.The Day Home at Door to Grace provides a safe place for these youth, many of whom have experienced trauma that is hard for most of us to imagine. The work at Door to Grace is focused on a community-based and trauma-informed approach. Each of these girls has an adult female mentor volunteer who has undergone extensive training to prepare them to work with this population. They help guide these children and young women to slowly re-build their self-esteem and resiliency. They work to help them stay in school, find and keep jobs, and rebuild their lives. The mentor volunteers are there in so many ways, whether to accompany them to doctor's appointments, court appearances, or to simply be a guide and trusted friend.Door to Grace believes and promotes dignity and respect for all. We fulfill this in our service to the dozens of at-risk youth that are victims of child sex trafficking in our area. Door to Grace is among the few organizations doing this type of work.
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