Most people picture Hawaii to be a group of exotic islands, full of beauty and relaxation, tucked away off the Pacific coast.  Few imagine it to be a vacationland for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE).  In reality, CSE is a serious problem in Hawaii, especially as it relates to children, and its prevalence prompted the development of Sisters Offering Support (SOS), a non-profit organization that provides assistance to individuals whose lives have been affected by the sex trade.

"Any city that has tourism as a major industry, that helps to create the demand for child sex," said Lorraine Faithful, Executive Director of SOS.  "Where there's a demand, there's going to be a supply."

According to an SOS survey of children in Hawaii, one in 10 youth have had someone try to recruit them into CSE over the past four years.  Moreover, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Exploitation, an international network of agencies who work together to combat this problem, estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 young people are exploited through prostitution or pornography in the United States each year.

"Young kids are more vulnerable and easy to recruit," said Faithful.  "[And] customers are willing to pay more for younger kids," she pointed out, because they are generally considered to be disease-free and easy to manipulate.

SOS Programming
 
Given the threat that CSE poses to Hawaii's youth and the damaging effects the sex trade has on communities there, SOS opened its doors in Honolulu in 1996 to provide support to children, women and men who have become tangled in the sex trade.  SOS also helps their families and other members of the community who have been impacted by CSE.

"The individuals that have been trapped or sucked into the sex trade need to understand that they have a support system," said Faithful.  "We are the only one in Hawaii doing what we do."

Through nine different programs, SOS offers people who have been involved in CSE support services and alternatives to that lifestyle; the organization also educates the community about CSE.

The Resource Center

Many of the services SOS provides to individuals are administered at its Resource Center, where people are referred by law enforcement, the courts, or other community agencies.

SOS clients typically make appointments to meet with the Personal Empowerment Counselor who solely staffs the center, or people can stop in when they feel like they need some support.

"Individuals can come to the [Resource Center] and receive services pretty informally," Faithful said.

Once individuals are there, the Personal Empowerment Coach sits with them and does an in-take assessment to determine their needs and concerns.

"We let them kind of create their own treatment plan," Faithful said.  "It totally depends on what our clients want to work on."

At the Resource Center, clients can work on developing life skills and self esteem.  SOS directs clients who have additional issues, like substance abuse problems or homelessness, to other agencies in the community that can fulfill their needs.

"We don't do everything," said Faithful.  "We're well connected in the community so that referrals happen back and forth, both ways."

PIP

The Resource Center is also where the Prostitution Intervention Project (PIP) takes place.  PIP is a six-week workshop that teaches about developing alternatives to prostitution and CSE; it is also used as an alternative sentencing program for adult and juvenile prostitution offenders and non-offenders.

"PIP is kind of a unique educational workshop situation," said Faithful.  "The whole goal of the program is for clients to determine on their own [that they want] to get out of prostitution and stay out of it."

Throughout the workshop, clients are urged to build a support system for themselves by reuniting with family members and they develop skills there that will help them to find employment outside of prostitution.

"The most important thing we're doing for individuals within that course is skill building," said Faithful.  Clients are able to learn computer and communication skills there, she pointed out.

Youth Prevention

Survivors who are comfortable talking about their pasts and decide they want to do so in public can work on their communication and public speaking skills during PIP.  They then become trained volunteers for the organization and go to schools and other community organizations to share their experiences with students and the public.

"They're helping to dispel the myths that are associated with the sex trade," said Faithful.  "It's really empowering for them and it's empowering for anyone who listens to them," she added.  "[Hearing their stories] gives a lot of other people hope that you can get out and be a part of a constructive or a happy way of life."

These survivor-volunteers participate in the Youth Prevention program that SOS runs in intermediate and high schools.  By going into classrooms, SOS has already reached over 12,000 children, ages 11-21.

"Kids love to hear our presentation because they get a chance to talk about something they don't generally get to talk about," Faithful said.  "We talk about falsehoods and myths [that the media creates about CSE] and we talk about realities."

Educating Adults

In addition to school children, SOS also targets adult members of the community to educate them about CSE.

"We talk to parents, teachers and school counselors so the adults understand what it is the kids are hearing and what they're subjected to," Faithful said.  "[After the presentation], adults know SOS is somewhere they can call with questions or they can refer their kids or students to us."

While SOS makes presentations about CSE to parents and educators, the organization also offers an In-Service Training program to "law enforcement, the judicial system or other social service agencies who are working with a population who are involved in the sex trade industry," said Faithful.

"[The In-Service Training program exists] so that [those members of the community] can be more knowledgeable about how to intervene or how to refer to SOS when they recognize that someone could use our services," said Faithful.

For the general public, those who are not educators, social service agency personnel, members of law enforcement or the judiciary, SOS offers a Community Education program.

"It's raising awareness in our community," Faithful said about the program that consists typically of short, 10 to 15 minute talks to community organizations like Kiwanis or Rotary Clubs.  "They are organizations that get together and want to learn something new and different."

Other Offerings

Aside from its Resource Center, PIP and several programs focused on community education, SOS also has a 24-hour Crisis Line, Parent Support Services and a CSE Recovery Support Group to help people who have been victimized by CSE.

Looking Ahead

The organization's newest endeavor is to provide support services to people off-site who can't make it into the Resource Center in Honolulu.

"We're now going to detention homes to reach youth and [prisons] where adults are incarcerated," Faithful said.  "Our goal is to meet the client's changing needs."

In line with this mission, SOS plans to soon revamp PIP, "so that [people] will be better prepared for when they leave the sex trade," Faithful said.  "It's going to focus more on skill-building and less on what happened in the sex trade and why it wasn't healthy for them."

While these changes are being implemented, SOS will continue to examine all of their program offerings to see how clients can be better served.

"Our programs are always going to be in a state of improvement," Faithful said.  "At least if we're doing our jobs right."

Resources

To learn more about SOS, go to www.soshawaii.org or call (808) 941-5554