County invests nearly $3M in child trafficking prevention

The Clark County Commission this week approved nearly $3 million in contracts to care for children who are victims of sex trafficking, or susceptible to the crime.

Girls as young as 11 are vulnerable to exploitation, according to the county. In recent past years, minors could be victimized by traffickers and sometimes would end up penalized in the criminal justice system.

The pilot program — instituted after a 2019 state law that requires child welfare agencies to solely care for exploited children and would-be victims by this summer — aims to remedy that.

“For years, teen-age girls who were arrested for prostitution were treated as juvenile delinquents instead of the vulnerable victims of crime that they are,” Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said in a news release. “These are children who have endured traumas that most of us can’t imagine. With these contracts in place, Clark County is working to wrap young victims of sex trafficking in the specialized care they need in environments that are safe and therapeutic.”

Two organizations awarded funds

Eagle Quest, a Nevada foster care agency, will receive about $1.5 million and St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Boulder City was awarded about $1.3 million.

The funds — which originate from asset forfeitures against convicted traffickers — will help house 18 girls ages 11 to 17, and provide therapeutic treatment and other basic needs, the county said.

The one-year contracts run through October, but are vrenewable for at least another year, the county said.

Clark County noted that approximately 400 children were “assessed for risk of commercial sexual exploitation” in 2022, and that 50, currently, were receiving services.

Brittany Loyd, recruitment and retention supervisor for Eagle Quest, who will manage the organization’s contractual efforts, told the Review-Journal that the organization’s program will be one of the first of its kind in Nevada.

The foster care agency will foster six girl and also offer vocational training, Loyd said. “We are really taking a therapeutic and trauma-informed approach.”

She said that child trafficking has been traditionally “swept under the rug” in Las Vegas with its 24/7 nightlife, access to hotel rooms and professional sports tourism.

“It is way bigger of an issue than a lot of people are aware of, especially with our young children,” Loyd said. The funding will in part pay for specialized staff, she added.

She said the organization would like to see services extended in the future and also include male victims.

Healing center in the works

The contracts were approved the same day the county honored community leaders as part of Black History Month festivities. Loyd said she hopes that the victimized children can one day overcome their traumatic experiences and eventually be prominent community members who receive similar accolades.

St. Jude’s will house 12 girls at its Boulder City facility, the county said.

The nonprofit is also building a “healing center” that will be dedicated for children over the age of 10 who’ve become victims of sexual trafficking. The 10-acre facility is touted as the first of its kind.

Expected to open in the summer of 2024, the center will host “therapeutic homes that will mimic a neighborhood with walking paths and landscaping designed to foster a sense of safety,” the organization wrote in a news release. “Therapy offices and outside areas will encourage transformation through connection to nature while a multi-purpose building will include an on-site school, meeting space, library, computer lab, and a yoga and meditation room.”

Strip resorts and the Clark County School District, which earmarked $5 million, are among the entities that are helping fund construction estimated at $25 million.

Years in the making

Screenings for sex trafficking victims by child welfare agencies date back to former President Barack Obama’s administration, Abigail Frierson, the county’s deputy county manager who heads the Family Services Department, told the Review-Journal.

In the years since, the county has invested in training and worked with a Nevada coalition to create protocols, she said.

“I am really excited about what these programs are going to be and what a big difference they’re going to make for the kids that are there,” Frierson said. “And if they’re successful, and there’s more of a need, of course we would invest in more.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.