Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe sees prostitution as something best addressed from its demand side and its supply side.
He’s tackling the demand by prosecuting those who promote and solicit prostitution.
But those supplying prostitution often begin as victims and continue to be victimized by human trafficking, Roe said. The young women who turn to prostitution do so because they, in almost all cases, are escaping abusive situations as children in their own homes.
“Compared to what they’re running from, prostitution looks good,” he said. “And isn’t that sad?”
Of all the proposed solutions for discouraging prostitution, Roe says he’s most impressed with a project that officially launches tonight called Peoria Home.
Peoria Home, said its founder Paula Newman-Skomski, aims to replicate the success of a similar project in Nashville, Tennessee, that provides a two-and-a-half year residential program for women seeking to leave prostitution. It provides free and safe shelter but also connects women with an array of services, including drug and alcohol counseling, medical and dental care, job skills training and help getting a GED, said Newman-Skomski, a nurse practitioner with Providence Intervention Center.
In its 17 years, Nashville’s Magdalene Home has a 72 percent success rate with women leaving the program clean and sober and able to sustain themselves independently, Newman-Skomski said. It has grown to six homes in the Nashville area, sheltering 30 women at a time, funded by donations, grants and revenue from a commercial enterprise, Thistle Farms, which makes bath and beauty products.
Peoria Home will start modestly, hoping to begin with a home for four women and an as-yet-undetermined commercial enterprise that will give the women the opportunity to develop job skills. It will also provide some financial support for the program.
To start, Newman-Skomski said, Peoria Home will need about $500,000, enough to purchase a suitable house for the program and a year of operating expenses. The fundraising campaign launches tonight with an introduction to city officials, business leaders and members of Everett’s faith community. The public will get its first chance to contribute at Peoria Home’s Beacon of Hope Auction, 5 to 9 p.m., March 21, at the Downtown Holiday Inn, 2105 Pine Street. Tickets, $50 each, are available online at springevent2015.bpt.me/.
The hope, Newman-Skomski said, is to provide an alternative to prostitution and a safe place to turn lives around.
“Many of the women at Magdalene who successfully graduated have purchased their own homes and gotten their children back from foster care,” she said. “We want the same thing here for the women in our community.”
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