MOTIVATING INSPIRING SUPPORTING AND SERVING SEXUALLY EXPLOITED YOUTH

MISSSEY envisions a world without commercial sexual exploitation. Our mission is to provide supportive services to commercially sexually exploited youth and work for systemic change with the youth we serve. Our current goals are to build greater career opportunities for survivors of sex trafficking, expand our prevention services to highly vulnerable youth, and strengthen our capacity as thought leaders and change agents in the movement to end human trafficking.

We carry out our mission through a trauma-informed, holistic service model that offers direct services, advocacy, outreach, and education:

Intensive Life Coaching and Case Management - Provides youth with individualized, one-on-one supports through systems navigation, advocacy, goal setting, resource referrals, and support network building.
Drop-In Center - Provides safe space, enrichment and support groups, basic needs supports, and daily access to a variety of community resources specific to the needs of our youth.
Youth Engagement Services - Provides prevention and intervention services to foster care youth vulnerable to CSEC, and case support to child welfare workers working with CSEC youth.
Training and Prevention Institute - Offers prevention sessions to vulnerable youth in schools and youth spaces in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District, as well as training and technical assistance to service providers and community members on how to effectively identify and respond to human trafficking.

MISSSEY possesses over a decade of experience working closely with CSEC survivors in various capacities. We have a highly skilled team that reflects the community we serve and offers a vast range of experience and education focused on advocacy, mental health, trauma-informed care, youth development and leadership, racial and gender justice, and equity, with specialized expertise in supporting CSE youth, systems-involved youth, communities of color, women and girls, and survivors of sexual violence and assault. We currently have 2 bilingual Spanish speakers on our staff. We consider ourselves a learning organization and are always striving to improve as service providers through staff development and training opportunities, as well as peer learning exchanges with our partners in the work. We have well-established partnerships with other agencies and organizations in our community to ensure our young people have access to a robust network of resources and supports that meets their needs.

In addition, MISSSEY has a strong track record with leveraging governmental and non-governmental resources to develop, implement, and maintain programs that serve the needs of CSE youth, paired with vast experience in managing local, state, and federal government contracts and grants. A majority of our funding is performance-based and requires reporting on budget expenditures. MISSSEY is in excellent financial health, and remains committed to meeting service benchmarks and practicing fiscal transparency.

In the past 10 years since our founding, MISSSEY has been established as a respected and nationally recognized leader in the anti-trafficking movement. We have helped hundreds of young people impacted by commercial sexual exploitation on their journeys to healing, recovery, and liberation and have trained thousands of service providers, government workers, youth-serving professionals, and community members on how to effectively identify and respond to commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Our advocacy work contributed to the passing of California legislation SB 1322 that went into effect in 2017, which protects underage commercially sexually exploited youth by preventing law enforcement from arresting minors for commercial sex acts. Additionally, MISSSEY developed a prevention program in 2016 in response to a need in the community for youth education on the dangers of exploitation, which has successfully served nearly 400 young people to date through a strong partnership with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD); leveraged government and non-government resources to strengthen and expand our services for commercially sexually exploited transitional age youth; piloted a comprehensive 40-hour human trafficking training in 2017 that has since been successfully delivered to various social service agencies and community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area; crafted and advocated for victim-centered sexual harassment policy in OUSD schools through a year-long partnership with students, teachers, community leaders, and other community-based organizations in 2017; upgraded our facilities by relocating to a larger, more youth-friendly space in September 2017; and co-sponsored state legislation requiring law enforcement be trained on how to effectively respond to victims of sex trafficking (AB-2992) in 2018.

We are planning to expand current programming in order to serve increased numbers of young people; create greater opportunities for youth leadership and advocacy; and strengthen pathways for youth to access meaningful career options. We are additionally planning to build and enhance our capacity as thought leaders in the anti-trafficking movement by developing and implementing stronger program evaluation protocols, as well as leveraging funds and partnerships to initiate research endeavors.