Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland launched a mobile clinic offering free reproductive health services to teens and young women who've experienced sex trafficking, and it also recently hosted a first-ever town hall providing a forum for girls to speak directly to local leaders.

As the Oaklandside reports, the nonprofit Dream Youth Clinic, which formed in 2017, provides medical and reproductive health services for vulnerable girls, young women, and gender-expansive youth in Oakland, primarily those who’ve experienced sex-trafficking.

The clinic recently hosted a town hall inviting local leaders, including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Department of Violence Prevention Chief Holly Joshi, Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, and Councilmember Charlene Wang, to hear directly from girls and young women about their experiences surrounding sex-trafficking in Oakland. Per the Oaklandside, the young speakers pushed Mayor Lee and her colleagues to invest in services that focus on prevention, education, and support for survivors of sex trafficking.

“Human trafficking prevention is an important reproductive justice issue and a shared community responsibility,” said LJ, a 17-year-old high school senior, referring to the Black women-led movement that advocates for bodily autonomy, per the Oaklandside.

Dr. Aisha Mays founder and CEO of the nonprofit, said the town hall was Oakland’s first-ever such event.

“Our young people are advocating for policy and systems change to put an end to sex trafficking in Oakland and to make our community safer for all of us,” said Mays, per the Oaklandside.

“Our Black youth are making history right here in Oakland by advocating for themselves, telling their truth, and demanding a safer, more informed community,” the nonprofit wrote on social media. “We are beyond proud of the young people who showed up to Oakland’s first-ever Youth Town Hall on Human Trafficking that Dream Youth Clinic had the honor of hosting, where youth courageously shared their real-life experiences and spoke on the impact this crisis has on our community.”

The Oaklandside reports that the youth speakers were primarily Black girls and women, which reflects the demographics of those most likely to be targeted. Statistically, 61 percent of human trafficking victims in Alameda County are Black, which includes labor and sex trafficking, whereas 15 percent are Latino and 12 percent are white. Per the Oaklandside, more than half are foster youth.

“Sex trafficking is a public health issue, and in Oakland, it’s a Black girl health issue,” Mays said.

Mayor Lee spoke of her experience being a teen mom, which forced her to marry young. “I ended up getting married at 16 because I was pregnant,” Lee said at the town hall, per the Oaklandside. “Fortunately, I didn’t end up in circumstances that many of our young girls end up in, but believe me, I had a very difficult teenage and early 20s years.”

Councilmember Wang, whose district includes the highest concentration of commercial sex work along a portion of Oakland’s International Boulevard, spoke about new legislation she proposed allowing the city to fine human traffickers and their customers, which would go toward funding support services like housing, legal aid, and job training.

Per the Oaklandside, housing insecurity is the largest risk factor leading to trafficking, with the homeless and foster care population being the most vulnerable.

“On Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, so many people will fake their identity to get young girls to meet up with them,” said one of the youth speakers, per the Oaklandside.

“I have not myself been sex-trafficked, but I did come from a parent who has been,” said LJ. “Growing up with that, and with her not knowing how to navigate her emotions, I lived in a lot of her fears.”

Traffickers use a variety of tactics, including plying victims with love and support or through blackmail and force. “They’ll know you’re looking for love and say things you want to hear. It’s like a game,” said Diamond Aaliyah, one of the youth speakers.

They find their victims in a variety of ways, including through social media, at home, or on the street, in places like massage parlors, spas, smoke shops, and gas stations.

“It’s not always someone scooping you off the street in a white windowless van — it’s the unregulated nervous system, it’s the substance use, it’s the disappearing for long periods of time,” said Sarah Koster, a faculty instructor at Samuel Merritt University, per the Oaklandside.

NuPhaeya Hassen, a reproductive justice program coordinator for Dream Youth Clinic, explained at the town hall that boys are often groomed to normalize sexual exploitation by family or friends. “Young men also suffer from human trafficking,” she said, per the Oaklandside. “They may be trained on how to be the aggressor and how to lead a young woman into trafficking, or they may be trafficked themselves.”

The young speakers told the leaders that more funding needs to be allocated toward support services for sexually exploited youth, which are scarce, especially for foster kids.

“Meetings are so delayed in the system,” said LJ, “and some kids don’t know how to advocate for themselves, especially coming into the system at a young age.”

School-based and after-school programs geared toward preventing trafficking are also a necessity, per the Oaklandside.

“I feel like this should be required in schools,” said Swai Lakai.

As the Oaklandside reported Thursday, Dream Youth Clinic launched a new mobile clinic last month that provides free reproductive health services to girls and women ages 13–25 twice a week at the intersection of International Boulevard and 15th Avenue. Per the Oaklandside, the Oakland-based CAL-PEP sets up alongside the clinic to support adults over 25.

To make their clients feel more comfortable approaching the clinic and to encourage rapid HIV testing, the clinic staff offers gift cards to places like DoorDash, Starbucks, or local movie theaters, as well as assistance with gas, groceries, and transportation. The clinic staff also hands out personal hygiene items ad harm reduction kits containing naloxone, and fentanyl test strips.

“We want to remove all the barriers for those who are most vulnerable,” Mays told the Oaklandside.

Additionally, Dream Youth Clinic also has a brick-and-mortar wellness center in Oakland’s Jack London District, offering primary care, mental health services, case management, and referrals to other community resources, in addition to free reproductive health services.

“We operate with the framework that these young people are facing multiple systems of oppression, including discrimination,” Mays told the Oaklandside. “What we want to do is welcome them with open arms and foster an environment where they feel safe and supported.”

Per the Oaklandside, the clinic strives to empower young people to advocate for themselves. “Their voices matter. Their leadership matters,” the nonprofit emphasized on social media. “And their courage is shaping a better future for us all.”

Image: Dream Youth Clinic/Facebook