Bay Area
Opinion: Local Agencies Work to Abate Oakland Sex Trafficking Epidemic Through Empowerment
Sex trade survivors, frontline service providers, humanitarians, abolitionists, human rights activists, and women’s rights advocates are advocating to end sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, boys and girls in Oakland and Alameda County.
But funding is running low for nonprofit essential workers. Fundraisers can’t happen, galas can’t happen, yet the need for services has increased since COVID-19.
The world has changed. It has always been life and death on the streets, but since COVID-19, trafficking has become more acute, the streets are now more crowded, more violent and the biggest thing to understand is these are the community’s children and women, that if left out there, they will remain trapped inside of a brutalizing system of rape for sale.
Regina Evans of Regina’s Door/Conjure and Mend; Rashida Chase of Regina’s Door and Liberated Wellness; Nola Brantley, founder of Nola Brantley Speaks and co-founder of MISSSEY; Amara Tabor Smith, co-founder of House Full of Black Women; Amba Johnson, executive director of Dreamcatchers and Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, founder and executive director of S.H.A.D.E are on the front line.
This week Sarai Smith-Mazariegos of S.H.A.D.E. stood shoulder to shoulder with health care providers and advocates Aisha Mays, MD, of Roots Community Health Center; Dr. Lela Bachrach, of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and HEAL Trafficking Education and Training Co-Chair Melissa Farley, Ph.D., executive director of Prostitution Research and Education; and Daryle Allums, founder of Oakland Frontline Healers. They requested that the City of Oakland assure sexually exploited persons are prioritized and included in the county’s response to COVID-19.
The coalition submitted a letter to the City of Oakland officials requesting $250,000 per year for three consecutive years to provide exploited individuals support for those who want to escape the sex trade, including those formerly incarcerated. Funds would focus on women ages 18-26, by providing safe shelter and an exit strategy.
“We want women to have real choices, not a fake ‘choice’ between hunger and exploitation,” said Smith-Mazariegos. “Any blueprint for a sustainable fight against an injustice resides within those who have had the misfortune of being seared by that injustice.”
Survivor Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment (S.H.A.D.E) Movement is a survivor-led, survivor-based advocacy anti-human trafficking organization who believe that it is necessary to provide survivors of trafficking with a safe living space where their voices, ideas, and skills can be nurtured, increased, and fortified in a compassionate manner.
“S.H.A.D.E’s success lies within its ability to place empowerment within the hands of survivors with the notion of both receiving and delivering much-needed healing, training, and resources. This is the very definition of Survivor Leadership. And the very definition of love in full flight,” Smith-Mazariegos said.
“There has to be a multi-prong approach that includes restorative justice initiatives for women and children, programs for men to help heal from their addiction to sex and sexual violence, and a forum, where society deals with the fact that we have raised wounded men who need just as much help as their victims,” said Chase of Liberated Wellness who partners with Regina’s Door.
“We’re doing everything possible to reach these children, but, as usual, there are not enough resources,” Evans said.
Regina’s Door and Conjure and Mend currently utilizes art to reach exploited youth, creating art zones where young creatives can learn viable skills in theater. Art murals and altars are constructed on The Track, hot spot areas for trafficking, as a reminder, to those being exploited, that healing and beauty still exist.
MISSSEY is trauma-informed, survivor-centered and youth-focused. They recognize the crucial voices of survivors in facilitating healing in victims of commercial sexual exploitation and the value of young people empowering other young people.
They work in partnership with youth, helping them transition from victim to survivor to leader, encouraging their long-term stability and success in whatever path they choose.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Activism
Who are the Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Candidates’ Top Campaign Contributors?
Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.
By Zack Haber
Nate Miley, who has served on Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors since 2000, is running for reelection to the District 4 supervisor seat.
Jennifer Esteen, a nurse and activist, is seeking to unseat him and become one of the five members of the powerful board that sets the county’s budget, governs its unincorporated areas, and oversees the sheriff, Alameda Health System, and mental health system.
District 4 includes most of East Oakland’s hills and flatlands beyond Fruitvale, part of Pleasanton and unincorporated areas south of San Leandro like Ashland and Castro Valley.
Voting is open and will remain open until March 5.
In California, campaign donations of $100 or more are public record. The records show that Miley has received about $550,000 in total campaign donations since he won the previous District 4 election in March 2020. Esteen has raised about $255,000 in total campaign donations since she started collecting them last July. All figures are accurate through Feb. 20.
While Miley has raised more money, Esteen has received donations from more sources. Miley received donations of $100 or more from 439 different sources. Esteen received such donations from 507 different sources.
Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.
Nate Miley’s top campaign contributors:
The California Apartment Association, a trade group representing landlords and investors in California’s rental housing business, has spent about $129,500 supporting Miley’s election bid through about $59,500 in ads against Esteen, $55,000 in ads supporting Miley, and $15,000 in campaign donations.
The independent expenditure committee Preserve Agriculture in Alameda County has spent about $46,025 supporting Miley through about $27,200 in their own ads, and $18,825 in donations to his campaign. Preserve Agriculture has supported reelection efforts for former Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley, and Sheriff Greg Ahern, a republican. It’s received funding from Chevron, PG&E, and a the California Apartment Association.
Organizations associated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA, have donated about $35,000 in total. Construction and General Laborers Local 304, a local chapter of the union representing which represents over 4,000 workers, donated $20,000.
Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition, which represents 70,000 LiUNA members in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico, donated $15,000.
William ‘Bill’ Crotinger and the East Oakland-based company Argent Materials have donated $26,000. Crotinger is the president and founder of Argent, a concrete and asphalt recycling yard. Argent’s website says it is an eco-friendly company that diverts materials from landfills. In 2018, Argent paid the EPA $27,000 under a settlement for committing Clean Water Act violations.
Michael Morgan of Hayward, owner of We Are Hemp, a marijuana dispensary in Ashland, has donated $21,500.
Alameda County District 1 Supervisor David Haubert has donated $21,250 from his 2024 reelection campaign. He’s running unopposed for the District 1 seat.
SEIU 1021, which represents over 60,000 workers in local governments, non-profit agencies, healthcare programs, and schools in Northern California, has donated $20,000.
UA Local 342, which represents around 4,000 pipe trades industry workers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, donated $20,000.
The union representing the county’s deputy sheriffs, Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Alameda County, has donated $17,000.
Becton Healthcare Resources and its managers have donated $14,625. Becton’s mission statement says it provides “behavioral health management services to organizations and groups that serve the serious and persistent mentally ill population.”
Jennifer Esteen’s top campaign contributors:
Mary Quinn Delaney of Piedmont, founder of Akonadi Foundation, has donated $20,000. Akonadi Foundation gives grants to nonprofit organizations, especially focusing on racial justice organizing,
Bridget Galli of Castro Valley has donated $7,000. Galli is a yoga instructor and a co-owner of Castro Valley Yoga.
Rachel Gelman of Oakland has donated $5,000. Gelman is an activist who has vowed to redistribute her inherited wealth to working class, Indigenous and Black communities.
California Worker Families Party has donated $5,000. The organization’s website describes itself as a “grassroots party for the multiracial working class.”
David Stern of Albany has donated $5,000. Stern is a retired UC Berkeley Professor of Education.
Oakland Rising Committee—a collaborative of racial, economic, and environmental justice organizations—has donated about $3,050.
Fredeke Von Bothmer-Goodyear, an unemployed resident of San Francisco, has donated $2,600.
Robert Britton of Castro Valley has donated $2,500. Britton is retired and worked in the labor movement for decades.
Progressive Era PAC has donated about $2,400. Its mission statement says it “exists to elect governing majorities of leaders in California committed to building a progressive era for people of color.”
East Bay Stonewall Democrats Club has donated $2,250. The club was founded in 1982 to give voice to the East Bay LGBTQIA+ communities.
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