Speaker 1: You're listening to the Freeway Fanom, a production of iHeartRadio,
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Speaker 2: Here's the reality of missing youth in a sad reality,
Speaker 2: the reason why you all don't see it. So if
Speaker 2: you're listening to this right now, I want you to
Speaker 2: go on DC's website, police website and look for missing kids.
Speaker 3: And I'm missing children that come up.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you right now, ninety percent of
Speaker 2: the boys and girls I'm in my program. The hard
Speaker 2: thing is we can't tell you who because these are
Speaker 2: still open cases.
Speaker 3: So it's hard when it's trafficking.
Speaker 4: The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 4: This child was laying on the side of the road.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't go no way, I would call up my house.
Speaker 2: Those first five murders should have been a huge warning
Speaker 2: bell for the police.
Speaker 3: We just want to know what happened.
Speaker 4: This person must have saw that. They were thinking that
Speaker 4: maybe it's just one person, and he says, uh, they
Speaker 4: need to know.
Speaker 1: This is me.
Speaker 5: I thought that they would catch him.
Speaker 1: I thought it was just a matter of time.
Speaker 5: I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. Over the
Speaker 5: course of this season, we've covered the murders of eight
Speaker 5: young black girls that occurred in Washington, DC between nineteen
Speaker 5: seventy one and nineteen seventy two. Six were confirmed victims
Speaker 5: of the Freeway Phantom and two were unconfirmed. In talking
Speaker 5: about each of these cases, we've uncovered bigger systemic issues
Speaker 5: at play, like racial bias in the media and police response.
Speaker 5: But while talking to Henderson Long of DC's Missing Voice,
Speaker 5: we became aware of another issue that's sadly too prevalent today,
Speaker 5: human trafficking. Today, many of the reports of missing children
Speaker 5: can be attributed to child sex trafficking.
Speaker 6: Whenever you talk about missing people, you better address trafficking
Speaker 6: because it's always going to come up.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty two, twenty five thousand children were reported
Speaker 5: to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as runaways.
Speaker 5: The Center reports that one in six of those kids
Speaker 5: were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
Speaker 6: Anytime a young person is missing, they can fall victim
Speaker 6: of sex trafficking, they can fall victim to physical abuse.
Speaker 3: This is important, whether.
Speaker 6: They ran away on their own or whether they were abducted.
Speaker 3: It's so important.
Speaker 6: And I don't want to minimize structures in the family.
Speaker 6: And voluntary when the person leave voluntarily, don't mean he
Speaker 6: left voluntary. It's coercion going on from the pimp. And
Speaker 6: Tina's going to get.
Speaker 3: Into all of this.
Speaker 5: Henderson told us about Courtney's House, a DC based organization
Speaker 5: that works with survivors of childhood sexual exploitation. The organization
Speaker 5: receives dozens of referrals every year. For this bonus episode,
Speaker 5: we sat down with its founder, a domestic sex trafficking survivor,
Speaker 5: to discuss the issues currently facing other survivors and the
Speaker 5: work that her nonprofit does to advocate for and support them.
Speaker 2: My name is Tina Front, executive director and founder of
Speaker 2: Courtney's House, is based in Washington, DC.
Speaker 3: The mission isn't.
Speaker 2: To rescue right, is to get survivors a place of
Speaker 2: community and encouragement to help them get it out the
Speaker 2: life and that they learned the tools so they.
Speaker 7: Won't re enter the life.
Speaker 2: It's not about saving people. What the hell that's got job.
Speaker 2: I can't save you, but I can help you and
Speaker 2: lead you.
Speaker 7: To the water and encourage you to drink it.
Speaker 3: That's what I can do without judging.
Speaker 5: As a trafficking survivor herself, Tina decided to devote her
Speaker 5: life to helping others escape exploitation. She joined advocacy groups
Speaker 5: fighting to support other survivors, but it wasn't easy, and
Speaker 5: her own journey out of trafficking wasn't quite over. After
Speaker 5: years working in anti trafficking nonprofits, she considered going back
Speaker 5: into what she calls the life.
Speaker 2: I actually was in a very bad place, couldn't make
Speaker 2: no money, correctly lost jobs.
Speaker 7: It was crazy doing all this stuff. Want to see
Speaker 7: in the Heroes of.
Speaker 2: Water that still I'm doing good because I wasn't supposed
Speaker 2: to be there. So I went out on the track.
Speaker 2: This is like two thousand and seven, So I went
Speaker 2: out on the track of track. It's like where you go,
Speaker 2: right if you want to sell yourself. I'll never call
Speaker 2: it the sex one because I never thought it was.
Speaker 8: So.
Speaker 2: With that being said, it's Chicago. It's one of real winner.
Speaker 2: It is literally five degrees outside, you know, it's people out.
Speaker 2: But what I was paying attention to was I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna walk around and see if any pimps out here.
Speaker 7: It's a pemp track, and it was the car start
Speaker 7: following me.
Speaker 8: It was a pimp.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, shit, I can't go home because he
Speaker 2: following me. So I'm like, I'm about to cut through
Speaker 2: the alley. I hear this sound and I'm about to
Speaker 2: run because I think that it's a wreck. It's I'm
Speaker 2: about the hall. But then I'm like, that's not a wreck.
Speaker 3: So it was this girl, it was.
Speaker 2: Like fifteen, hiding behind the dumpster. And then I realized
Speaker 2: like that Pip was also looking for her. So I
Speaker 2: was like, hey, I'm about to help you.
Speaker 3: So I did.
Speaker 2: And at that time, like I really couldn't find anything
Speaker 2: in Chicago, you know that really worked in trafficking or
Speaker 2: really did what they said for.
Speaker 3: A place for her to go to.
Speaker 2: But I was able to talk to Foster Care and
Speaker 2: like find this placement and then I realized I'm supposed
Speaker 2: to go back to DC.
Speaker 5: Teni's calling was clear helping survivors like herself get back
Speaker 5: on their feet, but she still struggled to find her
Speaker 5: place within the system. Her previous experience is working for
Speaker 5: domestic trafficking advocacy groups left her feeling burned out and exploited.
Speaker 7: I didn't want to start my own organization.
Speaker 2: And when I say that, that's because I was at
Speaker 2: another organization and being a survivor is actually pretty hard
Speaker 2: in this movement. Being at this organization, it was difficult.
Speaker 2: I worked ninety hours a week, took care of my mother,
Speaker 2: and also had two small children at that time. And
Speaker 2: when I left that place, I was drained. I was
Speaker 2: mentally drained. So I was feeling pretty down. And as
Speaker 2: a survivor, I felt you sing that, I felt like
Speaker 2: I had another pimphany. It was an organization as a
Speaker 2: black woman, I felt like this movement wasn't created for
Speaker 2: me as a survivor.
Speaker 3: I felt that, and that's crazy because it was off.
Speaker 2: Of my teas of what happened to me that it
Speaker 2: was created off of.
Speaker 3: But I was feeling pretty down. So my mom at the.
Speaker 2: Time was like, look, you gotta start your organization, Like
Speaker 2: I want you to start my your organization.
Speaker 3: She's very religious and I.
Speaker 7: Said, uh uh no, that's not no girl, that's not
Speaker 7: the science.
Speaker 2: Two weeks after that, I get a call from the
Speaker 2: foundation that used to find the organization I was with
Speaker 2: from the housing so they funded this. So they do
Speaker 2: iran it and it came to me and said we
Speaker 2: have a grant coming out you should apply for it.
Speaker 2: Got the grant was one hundred and twenty thousand ain hand,
Speaker 2: no staff. So I said, well, why don't you do
Speaker 2: with team to know how to do street over reach.
Speaker 2: So we started with street over reaches like I started
Speaker 2: for other people. Said I'll start that getting people. I'll
Speaker 2: get volunteers and I'll train them correctly and we're gonna
Speaker 2: do real ass street outreach, right like on the pimp
Speaker 2: control tracks on the ground with were pemps at so
Speaker 2: I did. So we did things different. I switched up
Speaker 2: the items we gave out every six months. So first
Speaker 2: it was like chapsticks.
Speaker 5: Mirrors getting into the neighborhoods themselves, showing up in these communities.
Speaker 5: Her willingness to meet people where they were helped establish
Speaker 5: Tina and her volunteers as friendly and supportive faces in
Speaker 5: the communities.
Speaker 2: What made me feel good at night. Like what really
Speaker 2: made me feel good was that you would see people,
Speaker 2: they would pull them out and move on past and
Speaker 2: smile and they would say things because you have to
Speaker 2: bring a message that's you for them. This is not
Speaker 2: you get in one situation and then you out. We
Speaker 2: had a youth I first met her at thirteen when
Speaker 2: they started doing raids. She didn't come to me until
Speaker 2: she was fifteen, but I used to see her at
Speaker 2: the raids. And what happened was most of Barby firls
Speaker 2: come word of mouth. And I'm so honored by that
Speaker 2: because it's other youth in the program to tell their friends.
Speaker 2: And so that's what actually happened with her. She knewed
Speaker 2: so many people that were receiving our services, she decided
Speaker 2: to trust us.
Speaker 5: After months of hard work securing funding, five oh one
Speaker 5: C three status and establishing community relationships, it was time
Speaker 5: to find a home base. Tina settled on a house
Speaker 5: in the Congress Heights neighborhood of DC. This would become
Speaker 5: Courtney's House, which opened in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: My youngest daughter's name is Courtney and my oldest daughter's
Speaker 2: name is Shaney. For the housing was going to be
Speaker 2: Shay and Courtney's House, but I didn't name it. My
Speaker 2: mom left that in her will the name, and she
Speaker 2: left me a small amount of money to star Courtney's House.
Speaker 5: Courtney's House works with youth survivors of trafficking. They come
Speaker 5: to the program through referrals and many of them have
Speaker 5: been on the Missing Children registry. Tina and everyone who
Speaker 5: staffs Courtney's House had built a robust community in the
Speaker 5: DC area, connecting with many of these missing kids who
Speaker 5: might otherwise be forgotten by the system.
Speaker 2: So if youth are missing, there's two parts of that story.
Speaker 2: If they're currently missing right now, foster care, others parents,
Speaker 2: they still refer them to me.
Speaker 3: I still look for you from mine. There are sites.
Speaker 2: But more importantly, most of our kids, Norman and people
Speaker 2: who are in the life you all, we all know
Speaker 2: that it's the same people. So that's my first start.
Speaker 2: And because I have a relationship with them, we can
Speaker 2: work with the police and help in that sort. Is
Speaker 2: because I usually have more information than the police do,
Speaker 2: So that's one. And I know a lot of different
Speaker 2: places where people put people, so.
Speaker 3: That's one too. Henderson Long and I've been thinking a
Speaker 3: ways where we can say things.
Speaker 2: So behind the scenes I do email Henderson long and
Speaker 2: say who's in our program or not and if we
Speaker 2: need their help, but publicly he cannot give that information.
Speaker 5: Henderson and Tina agree that when legal terms like trafficking
Speaker 5: are turned into buzzwords through media firestorms, the risk of
Speaker 5: misinformation that comes with the heightened detention is high.
Speaker 2: The way I kind of break down a few words
Speaker 2: so that we can understand modern day trafficking, trafficking. These
Speaker 2: are buzzwords we've all heard. So the reason why they
Speaker 2: came up with trafficking that confuses everybody. Think of the
Speaker 2: other things that are connected to trafficking, right, drug, trafficking,
Speaker 2: oregan trafficking, Guys, it's a government word.
Speaker 7: Government doesn't make.
Speaker 3: Up new words for things.
Speaker 7: They don't.
Speaker 3: They added to one.
Speaker 2: So then it confused all of you because it's created
Speaker 2: by the government and lawyers, not by people. So what
Speaker 2: that meant is the charge of trafficking. So that can
Speaker 2: mean you walker to came here today to interview me
Speaker 2: and I and.
Speaker 3: That's what I told you.
Speaker 2: But I locked the doors, took everything, and I forced
Speaker 2: you either to clean the drop in center, force you
Speaker 2: to have sex with somebody against your will. You're over
Speaker 2: the asia eighteen just barely, so then I have to
Speaker 2: prove any trickery, any fraud. So trickery, how did I
Speaker 2: trick you to come here?
Speaker 3: Fraud? I lied about something.
Speaker 2: And then you're over the age of eighteen, so I
Speaker 2: have to prove that you didn't choose it.
Speaker 7: If you are twelve or under.
Speaker 2: The age of eighteen, then you don't have to prove
Speaker 2: any force of fraud. So that's what trafficking is.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The next thing that confuses people is a pimp and
Speaker 2: a trafficker. The reality is a pimp and the traffic
Speaker 2: is the same. Pimp is a trafficking charge. They don't
Speaker 2: get a pimp charge, they get.
Speaker 3: A trafficking charge.
Speaker 2: That's the confusion, right because we try to separate it
Speaker 2: because the TV glamorizes pimps.
Speaker 7: Oh they're just fun. They had a pimp slab.
Speaker 8: They fun.
Speaker 7: It's so fun.
Speaker 5: But it's not, Tina says. The business of sex trafficking
Speaker 5: is much more complicated than most people realize. It can
Speaker 5: take shape in various forms, influenced by gender, ethnicity, and
Speaker 5: a number of other social and cultural factors.
Speaker 2: I want to break down real quickly so you all
Speaker 2: can understand the four forms of domestic sex trafficking. Right,
Speaker 2: there's pen control, most people just talk about that. There
Speaker 2: is family control. Since the pandemic, forty two percent of
Speaker 2: our youth family control. The next thing gain control, which
Speaker 2: you see a lot here of our Latina population, so
Speaker 2: you'll see MS thirteen in eighteen street Los Locos, so
Speaker 2: that'd be the most popular. And then of course the boys.
Speaker 2: And the reason why the categorize that way is.
Speaker 7: Because different you go do different things.
Speaker 2: Right, you're not traffic the same. So it's very difficult
Speaker 2: with the boys because what boy wants to say they
Speaker 2: were sex traffic sexually abused without unfortunately the African American
Speaker 2: community thinking their game.
Speaker 3: And I'm just it's that's the saddest piece to me.
Speaker 5: Tina points out that it's not just a misunderstanding of
Speaker 5: the terminology hurting the movement, but also a misunderstanding of
Speaker 5: how to combat trafficking as well. Throughout this season, we
Speaker 5: talked about how the twenty seventeen hashtag Missing DC Girls
Speaker 5: went viral. What began as a way to raise awareness
Speaker 5: of several cases involving missic black and brown teenagers quickly
Speaker 5: led to complications for the DC's police Department and organizations
Speaker 5: like Courtney's House.
Speaker 3: But they got everything wrong.
Speaker 2: One it was just girls and not all the boys
Speaker 2: that were online missing as well, who were also in
Speaker 2: my program.
Speaker 3: I'm like, wait, it's a whole section on the boys.
Speaker 2: They didn't understand the trafficking and didn't even reach out
Speaker 2: to people to help them understand. They just like hash
Speaker 2: egg and not. We were furious, our kids was furious
Speaker 2: coming to the center, like not understanding trafficking also made
Speaker 2: the kids angry and having trauma. They were literally telling me,
Speaker 2: like they always do, Miss Tin, you need to call
Speaker 2: them I love them because they think I have more
Speaker 2: power than I have. And they're like, you need to
Speaker 2: call them a tellone because it's misinformation.
Speaker 3: It's not true.
Speaker 2: You heard the cause when you leave out a whole gender,
Speaker 2: So the real the kids are missing, like right now,
Speaker 2: that is a quick that lasted for a few.
Speaker 3: Months, child a couple of months and.
Speaker 2: Then that's it and no one cares and the list
Speaker 2: has grown more than it was and.
Speaker 3: That's what it did. It hurt. And again with the boys,
Speaker 3: it's more boys missing right now than girls.
Speaker 7: But we're not talking about that hashtag nothing.
Speaker 5: And this begs the question, if more young boys are
Speaker 5: missing than young girls, why aren't they receiving at least
Speaker 5: an equal amount of attention.
Speaker 2: They don't want to believe the trafficking good boys. That's
Speaker 2: why I think it is. I really think is they
Speaker 2: don't like I have to convince people, which doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: and the way I say it just to make them
Speaker 2: think always is this. Why do we think we know
Speaker 2: that boys are abused just like girls, So why would
Speaker 2: we think, oh, I'll just abuse them but not profit also.
Speaker 3: Done like say it out loud. It don't make sense right.
Speaker 2: But the problem is the boys are the perfect you
Speaker 2: know why they look down The girls will the boys won't.
Speaker 5: Tina says racial disparities are another hurdle in the movement
Speaker 5: to help traffic teens. These disparities are present in the
Speaker 5: legal system, in policing, and even in institutions meant to
Speaker 5: provide support the nonprofit organizations. She says, Courtney's House is
Speaker 5: fighting against that and trying to set a better example.
Speaker 3: I'm part of whole court.
Speaker 2: Hope Court in DC is a specialized court for sex trafficking,
Speaker 2: so I'm part of that. I don't believe in a
Speaker 2: court system that you should go into a court system.
Speaker 2: I'm on it so they can get the right services.
Speaker 2: At the same time, Courtney's House is trying to shut
Speaker 2: it down. Why because it's all youth of color, And yes,
Speaker 2: Caucasian kids are traffic here.
Speaker 3: They come to me a different way.
Speaker 2: They come to me byby firls do through therapists you are,
Speaker 2: and they're at private, very well known private schools in
Speaker 2: the area. But because I trained therapists, it always comes
Speaker 2: that way. The police returned them home to give them
Speaker 2: a therapist, and then they come to me. It's not
Speaker 2: that way for you, fo A. People of color are
Speaker 2: black and brown. Yeah like that if you look right now.
Speaker 2: Most of the organizations are Caucasians that work on trafficking,
Speaker 2: that have houses, and most of them are faith based.
Speaker 7: Most of them when you go on.
Speaker 2: Their website, will also tell you and no shape because
Speaker 2: God led me to this. But God led me to
Speaker 2: this to be sure I had skills. But they say
Speaker 2: I just prayed on it all that and God gave
Speaker 2: me a house. I've never seen it because they call
Speaker 2: me all the time. I've never started a housing the
Speaker 2: day of my life. I don't know what to do,
Speaker 2: but God put in my heart to do this, and
Speaker 2: I say, in that right, I said, well, God, I've
Speaker 2: also probably told you.
Speaker 7: Contact people and contract people that know what they're doing, so.
Speaker 2: They don't partner with me. They want to steal my
Speaker 2: information for free. They always tell me how they don't
Speaker 2: have money for it. So you think these are the
Speaker 2: places I will refer to any of the black youth,
Speaker 2: and also all the programs they go to they want
Speaker 2: to leave because of the racism, other kids teasing them
Speaker 2: that are Caucasian, the staff not saying nothing.
Speaker 7: The racism is throughout this movement.
Speaker 3: It's very difficult.
Speaker 5: And Tina solution to get involved in every aspect of
Speaker 5: the movement, from working on policy to training judges to
Speaker 5: implementing a curriculum on domestic sex trafficking in the school system.
Speaker 2: I will tell you if you talk to anyone in
Speaker 2: this area, they are going to say, Tina, do everything
Speaker 2: Hanti you have to, because one needs the other. I
Speaker 2: started a youth policy group and it's funded and our
Speaker 2: youth get paid. I don't believe in these things where
Speaker 2: they ask the youth and give them twenty five dollars
Speaker 2: gift cards to get seventy five dollars every week and
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars for all politicians you know they talk to.
Speaker 3: First, we worked on because they really wanted to work
Speaker 3: on the.
Speaker 2: Not legalizing prostitution in DC, so we were able to
Speaker 2: block that bill. And right now we're focusing on foster care,
Speaker 2: change some policy. Then I am the first faculty survivor
Speaker 2: African American for the National Judicial of Judges Training Center,
Speaker 2: So we train judges on like how to identify and
Speaker 2: not arresting. So I focus heavily on don't arrest because actually,
Speaker 2: because they're judges, were all over them. Okay, I just
Speaker 2: want to tell you how many of them are like,
Speaker 2: you know what I do? I just put her in
Speaker 2: jail and then she'll talk. And that's actually the behavior
Speaker 2: that we try to change other alternative ways. The other
Speaker 2: way I work on that is we have a curriculum
Speaker 2: coming out in schools not in DC, Maryland, or Virginia,
Speaker 2: but twenty three other states, and it is for kindergarten
Speaker 2: through twelfth grade.
Speaker 3: I really feel like it all has.
Speaker 2: To be a community of understanding what's going on in
Speaker 2: our own neighborhoods and what's affecting our kids who are
Speaker 2: getting good grades, who go to good schools in the area.
Speaker 2: Things about grown people manipulating, so of course any one.
Speaker 3: Can get manipulated.
Speaker 2: We have to work on five hundred things of changing laws.
Speaker 2: If we didn't change laws like we have to write,
Speaker 2: because we have to still do the work and support them.
Speaker 8: Tina says.
Speaker 5: Approaching the issue holistically like this makes a huge difference because,
Speaker 5: unlike many other similar organizations, Courtney's House provides support that
Speaker 5: lasts four years down the line.
Speaker 2: Think about us is several long term program We have
Speaker 2: people right now that are at college and surrounding areas
Speaker 2: doing well, went through college, maybe when it became you know,
Speaker 2: dentistry work or chefs that we were able to help.
Speaker 2: The thing is I get to see the growth, which
Speaker 2: I love. We go to their events. I get to
Speaker 2: see that they're getting in college. So some of the
Speaker 2: things that we did for two of our youth that
Speaker 2: got into college and are going away, we were able
Speaker 2: to get a grant and pay for books.
Speaker 3: Y'all know how expensive books are, so we were actually
Speaker 3: able to do that.
Speaker 2: Because we have a fund for scholarships and school items.
Speaker 2: We're going to go with one of the youth because
Speaker 2: she's in care, so we'll be going with her and
Speaker 2: buying items and setting it up. We helped pick out
Speaker 2: her list of what she thinks she wants to do
Speaker 2: right now. So when we say a family, I get
Speaker 2: to see all of y'all get to see their.
Speaker 3: Children live healthy.
Speaker 7: You find a need that they need, and you make
Speaker 7: sure you do it.
Speaker 8: That's what I say.
Speaker 5: After sitting down with Tina, she agreed to give us
Speaker 5: a tour of Courtney's house. It's a large, two story
Speaker 5: house with five rooms, a communal kitchen, and a spacious
Speaker 5: living room. We started at the front door, working our
Speaker 5: way through the house as she walked us through how
Speaker 5: it works.
Speaker 2: So Courtney's House, let me kind of start from the
Speaker 2: beginning real quick.
Speaker 3: We're dropping center. So a driving center is not housing.
Speaker 2: So the popular misconception is everybody just need housing and
Speaker 2: we can't provide services because they need housing.
Speaker 3: Like that doesn't actually make sense. So the reason why we're.
Speaker 2: In a house is because I always tell you this
Speaker 2: is like their house right there, a center. We just
Speaker 2: happen to work out it here. So I think that's
Speaker 2: important for a community. But also a lot of our
Speaker 2: youth do have placements. You know in foster care has placement,
Speaker 2: so they do, some don't. And then here in DC,
Speaker 2: so youth age go to twenty four in DC, which
Speaker 2: is good.
Speaker 3: That's because they had specialized housing.
Speaker 2: And what was happening in like the regular over eighteen
Speaker 2: houses is they were being sexually assaulted, they were being retrafficked.
Speaker 2: So DC had to like do something different, right, So
Speaker 2: our ages here are eleven to twenty four. So again
Speaker 2: it goes up, so we can find housing for people
Speaker 2: who need it because of the youth at that past here,
Speaker 2: so more people provide housing. Even though they provide housing
Speaker 2: in these places, say we accept sex traffick king, they
Speaker 2: really don't do the case management. So you still need
Speaker 2: a program to work with them. And again we have
Speaker 2: a relationship and usually those programs don't know anything actually
Speaker 2: really about them. So the next part of that and
Speaker 2: we work with boys and girls and always have because
Speaker 2: of my own experience, so we've always worked with boys
Speaker 2: and girls.
Speaker 7: At the beginning of Coordina's House almost twelve years ago.
Speaker 3: Twelve years ago.
Speaker 2: So with that being said, when you come I'm here,
Speaker 2: you're signing right. The other thing is we have because
Speaker 2: of the young population. Every day we have your activities,
Speaker 2: So we have a calendar that we have with different
Speaker 2: activities that the survivor's service coordinators do, so we don't
Speaker 2: say case managers that coordinates house. So if day there's
Speaker 2: an activity we have one on ones. One on ones is counseling,
Speaker 2: but no kid wants to be like, I can't wait
Speaker 2: to go to counseling. It's so great, So we call
Speaker 2: them them one on ones because that's what it is.
Speaker 2: They get to pick a topic. But I promise you
Speaker 2: can pick a topic and I'm always going to be
Speaker 2: able to make it back to trafficking. But that's the
Speaker 2: good thing is that we say thirty minutes on purpose.
Speaker 2: Those are how long the sessions are, but they're not
Speaker 2: and that's because they talk more. So it's usually forty five.
Speaker 2: So with kids, you gotta be like thirty right to
Speaker 2: get them to forty five right. So we do that,
Speaker 2: but you earn points. So when I go upstairs, I'll
Speaker 2: show you what are like. You know, when you go
Speaker 2: to the subway or get something to eat, and they
Speaker 2: have those little cards. You know, my hairstyles got those
Speaker 2: and the fifth one you get free, your half off
Speaker 2: or whatever. So here we have those cards and they
Speaker 2: gets punched when they do group group. It's on Saturdays,
Speaker 2: so those are still in online right now and they're
Speaker 2: call transitioning your mindset out of the life. Then we
Speaker 2: have a boy's group specifically too that's here and it's
Speaker 2: thirty minutes. All of them say thirty minutes, but again
Speaker 2: they go over of course. So with that being said,
Speaker 2: June was prime month, so we also did some prime
Speaker 2: Black Lives matters.
Speaker 3: And look how it's just artistic they are because.
Speaker 2: Girl, I can't ain't not them around none.
Speaker 7: So this is some of our work from some of
Speaker 7: their things.
Speaker 3: We have a lot of no competitions. Won't play with
Speaker 3: the no.
Speaker 2: And then Thursday we unfortunately had a we fortunately we
Speaker 2: had a pool day, so you know, kid games, light
Speaker 2: mintos and sharp and you know, and I think saying
Speaker 2: these things and are hide and seek competitions here will
Speaker 2: tell you the young population.
Speaker 7: So when I say I work with youth, I don't
Speaker 7: know why people think the.
Speaker 2: Higher age when like our average change is between eleven
Speaker 2: and seventeen.
Speaker 5: Next, we moved into the downstairs kitchen which leads out
Speaker 5: to the backyard.
Speaker 3: Okay, so we eat all together.
Speaker 2: We have a dropness center eight that cooks every day.
Speaker 3: She's putting a new menu up.
Speaker 8: Holda turned my legs on.
Speaker 3: She's putting a new menu up. So that's not here.
Speaker 2: But we do have all our babies, you know what
Speaker 2: their allergies are and such here too.
Speaker 3: We had some.
Speaker 2: Stuff donated and when it was those high winds.
Speaker 3: It tore up our little umbre looon. But this is
Speaker 3: our back game. We do all of that was donated to.
Speaker 3: We do cookouts and stuff for the kids.
Speaker 2: When it's not a hundred degrees, they like to do
Speaker 2: their on the ones outside.
Speaker 5: Walking back inside, Tina tells us how COVID nineteen has
Speaker 5: impacted their services, including how they do meal times.
Speaker 2: We're open right now since because of the pandemic two
Speaker 2: days a week here Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 3: Twelve to six.
Speaker 2: So we say they like to call it dinner, but
Speaker 2: it's like lunch and really dinner whenever people come towards stands,
Speaker 2: so it's really two meals today. But nothing so here
Speaker 2: you're not allowed to use cans to process foods, so
Speaker 2: actually everything is clicked from scratch, even the chicken. NOI kets,
Speaker 2: everything clicked from scratch, just so they can learn what
Speaker 2: fresh food is. And I mean the kids, y'all. I
Speaker 2: still got to force them to eat vegetables. So we
Speaker 2: just find new ways. The Dropping center a of doing
Speaker 2: that so they'll be able.
Speaker 3: To eat things to introduce.
Speaker 2: But Thursday I have food from another organization at barbecue
Speaker 2: for the kids.
Speaker 3: So that was like a treat.
Speaker 2: Chipotle like donate, so we get a lot of food donation.
Speaker 3: I'm good at free.
Speaker 5: Tina has set up the lower as a hangout area
Speaker 5: for the kids.
Speaker 3: This is the basement area.
Speaker 2: Okay, so there's two bathrooms, once upstairs, once down here
Speaker 2: with a shower so people.
Speaker 3: Do take showers. We have all this stuff.
Speaker 2: They love being down here, and then more artwork and
Speaker 2: items for the survivors as well. Gangs you have, like
Speaker 2: I said, gang competitions, washing and.
Speaker 3: Drying, so people are allowed to wash clothes.
Speaker 2: I have a ton of things so they're also able
Speaker 2: to get all the toiler trees things. We have clothing
Speaker 2: donations as well, and that's another bathroom.
Speaker 5: Tina says working with so many kids can be challenging.
Speaker 2: They have to clean every two hours here. I mean
Speaker 2: I work with kids that do not believe in getting fascinated.
Speaker 2: Out of seventy two, we have four youth. That's why
Speaker 2: we couldn't really come in because people were getting COVID.
Speaker 2: No one stayed in the house. I mean, it's wasn't
Speaker 2: the story at all. So I have to do a
Speaker 2: thing that we're all fascinated, but all the kids aren't.
Speaker 2: So we still take them down the street. There is
Speaker 2: a test site, so we take them once a month.
Speaker 2: I mean our work with cares go. You can't take
Speaker 2: them there fourteen days and ain't gonna have them. And
Speaker 2: we go with them, you know, to get tested.
Speaker 3: And it's the quick one so that they'll know. Oh,
Speaker 3: and movies.
Speaker 2: We have a screen, so we usually put something up
Speaker 2: and it's usually movies and shows like we've been watching
Speaker 2: Grown Ish too, because I love some of their topics,
Speaker 2: you know. So and then it's a discussion about it
Speaker 2: over food.
Speaker 3: I like that, and I make popcorn for scratch because
Speaker 3: won't go like a wave.
Speaker 5: While walking us around the second floor offices, Tina takes
Speaker 5: us through the price system that's meant to encourage participation
Speaker 5: in counseling sessions.
Speaker 3: Remember they're talking about the one on one survivors.
Speaker 2: So every here we say survivors, and I actually don't
Speaker 2: like when people say survivors and victims, Like nobody wants
Speaker 2: to be a victim.
Speaker 3: So you were surviving when you were out on the street, and.
Speaker 2: That makes them want to tell you and not say
Speaker 2: that they were a victim because then you don't want
Speaker 2: to talk about You want to be stronger than that.
Speaker 2: So survivors, so they have a grand goal. So the
Speaker 2: grand goal when you get your whole chart kind of
Speaker 2: feel can be like getting your hair done braided. Boys
Speaker 2: love getting their haircuts. So one of the one, you
Speaker 2: get one whole punch on your car complaining more than
Speaker 2: your car weekly one on one we're on the special treats.
Speaker 3: So then you get to pick from grab baggs that
Speaker 3: we have of items.
Speaker 2: There's a whole bunch of stuff and you'll see a
Speaker 2: lot of phone things we got do it because.
Speaker 3: Those go quickly.
Speaker 7: Complete three consecutive weeks of one on ones and you
Speaker 7: win a swag bag.
Speaker 2: Then you have like another bag with things they probably
Speaker 2: would like and want that they can win that.
Speaker 7: Complete four conservative weeks of one on ones and you'll
Speaker 7: earn what your grand goal is.
Speaker 3: We have big il ticket items for the winner.
Speaker 2: Like real ug boots and big ones for going to
Speaker 2: all your items. We have a lot of like boy
Speaker 2: boots and things and clothes for them as well, and
Speaker 2: some some slash for both boys and girls.
Speaker 3: So we got some good prices.
Speaker 5: To earn these prizes. She has each person pick various
Speaker 5: goals to work towards.
Speaker 2: Each child is different, so goals could be things like
Speaker 2: that sleeping without a night light because of their nightmares
Speaker 2: and how to work on that. It could be learning
Speaker 2: how to say no to people, not getting a car
Speaker 2: with somebody, So those are some of the Beaconning goals.
Speaker 3: These are not.
Speaker 2: Goals like school and get straight eggs.
Speaker 3: If I can get them to go to school, I'll
Speaker 3: be happy. So that's a goal. Went three days a
Speaker 3: week like amen.
Speaker 8: So yes.
Speaker 5: Courtney's House is a crucial institution in the Congress Heights neighborhood,
Speaker 5: and the work they do extends from the DMV area
Speaker 5: through the rest of the country. Every day, Tina and
Speaker 5: her crew are fighting diligently to help traffic teens and
Speaker 5: eradicate racial disparities in the missing children's system. The work
Speaker 5: is tough, funding can be hard to come by and
Speaker 5: the staff is often shorthanded. As such, we thought we'd
Speaker 5: end this episode by having Tina tell you how you
Speaker 5: can support Courtney's House and all about the incredible work
Speaker 5: they do to support their community.
Speaker 3: You know, I think the.
Speaker 2: Great thing about Courtney's House is that you can support
Speaker 2: from anywhere.
Speaker 7: Www dot Courtney's House.
Speaker 2: We're official ig so on Instagram, we are Official Courtney's House.
Speaker 7: Guess what, y'all we got a TikTok.
Speaker 2: We don't show the kids' faces, but Official Courtney's House.
Speaker 2: Follow us on TikTok. We have TikTok wars every day
Speaker 2: with the youth. That's how they alls from one prizes.
Speaker 2: So there are a few things you can send some prizes.
Speaker 2: We have an Amazon list.
Speaker 7: Do you want to know how sixty youth eat food quickly?
Speaker 3: We go through snacks boxes daily, so we have a
Speaker 3: full food program.
Speaker 2: You can donate and help with that, and that is
Speaker 2: a true need. We really do run out of food.
Speaker 7: We take field trips with our youth.
Speaker 6: We have a.
Speaker 2: Witchelift because we do a lot of art projects and
Speaker 2: I'm telling you our kids are artists.
Speaker 3: So there are some things.
Speaker 2: That people offer online We actually had a cartoon artist
Speaker 2: offer some free cartoon design online with kids and they
Speaker 2: loved it. So think about what you're good at, think
Speaker 2: about what you can do out there, and think about
Speaker 2: what you can do here because you don't have to
Speaker 2: do direct services. There are so many things you can
Speaker 2: do and help and feel an impact at Courtney's house.
Speaker 1: Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV,
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