Alameda County launched the Sexually Exploited Minors Network (SEM)
March 1, 2022
|By New Consultant
- The county-wide Sexually Exploited Minors (SEM) Network was formed, committed to establishing a continuum of CSEC specific services and system responses focused on addressing the complex needs of children and teens victimized through sexual exploitation.
- SEM Network member organization George P. Scotlan Youth & Family Center began to develop services specifically for sexually exploited girls. Working in the heart of West Oakland, Scotland Center staff Nola Brantley, Adela Hernandez Rodarte, Sarai T. Smith-Mazariegos, and Emily Hamman experienced firsthand the devastating impact of the local sex trafficking trade on the girls who passed through Scotlan’s doors, witnessing with heartbreaking consistency the dangerous circumstances and dire crises faced by many of the girls.
- Determined to address the needs and plight of CSEC, these four pioneers applied for and were awarded a grant through the San Francisco Foundation to pilot the very first Sexually Exploited Minor program in Alameda County.