19 March 2011

By Patrick Butler
ResonateNews.com

GARDEN VALLEY — She was “sex-trafficked” in 16 states before she was 15 years old. Taking a time out last year from a “glamorous” high-priced call-girl lifestyle, “Shannon” spoke bluntly about her life and her change of direction at Living Alternatives maternity home in Garden Valley.

“Anyway, being a working girl seemed glamorous at the time,” Shannon said. “Well, it is glamorous when you’re young. The food, the clothes, the cities. Men with money. I got involved at such a young age, I didn’t know anything else.”

                              Photo By Patrick Butler
Living Alternatives, a maternity home primarily serving teenage mother, is shown Friday in Garden Valley, Texas. Until she found she was pregnant, Shannon was shipped out by her pimps, she said, on a regular basis to cities such as Los Angles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta and other metro areas easily imagined as a hot-bed of prostitution. But there was a list of smaller cities she was trafficked in, she said, such as Council Bluffs, Iowa, or Toledo, Ohio, and Pine Bluff Arkansas.

“Basically, anywhere there is a casino is where we worked,” she said.

False IDs called “scripts” were given to the girls by the pimps, “proving” they were of age.

“We would work the casinos until it looked like we were going to get caught, and then move on,” Shannon said.

There were times she wanted out she said. But with nowhere to go and no alternatives offered to her life of prostitution, there was little motive to run away from her pimps, she said.

“I had been having trouble at home since I was really young,” she said. “By the time I was 12, I was out of the house, on the streets, hanging around bad people … gangs, dealers, whatever.”

When she was 13, she was approached by a pimp who offered her a life of travel, clothes, plenty of food — and pleasure. All she had to do was go where she was needed for the night.

“It did seem like fun at first,” she said. “Movies that make it seem alright make you think it’s almost normal, at least acceptable. It was pretty cool at first…for awhile. Then…”

When she got tired of “doing tricks” and a constantly moving life, she found she had no options.

“I did run away a couple of times, but ...there was nothing to run to,” she said. “When I came back, both times I got beat up.”

Though Shannon’s is an exceptional case coming through the unwed mother’s haven, Nancy Brown — the Living Alternatives overseer — said her story underscore the necessity of having maternity homes up and running, prepared to meet the challenge of young women needing help. And to let the word get out such homes are available.

“There are many girls who don’t fit the mythic mold of an average girl making a one-time 'mistake' and needing a temporary home,” Brown said. The FBI even came out to interview Shannon to get some idea how to break the cycle of prostitution throughout the country.”

But open and welcoming homes such as Living Alternatives are dwindling, she said. In addition, Brown said, some girls have little or no outside infrastructure, spiritual training, or even church support outside of Living Alternatives.

“It’s really hard on some of these girls, having to make the adjustment to ‘normal’ society,” she said.

“Some of the girls have parents who don’t have any faith in God themselves, or don’t care if their kids go to church or not. They don’t really support them in their quest to know the Bible, go to church or listen to God’s direction. If we weren’t here for them, I don’t know what they would do.”

To help Living Alternatives help young women like Shannon with shelter, food, certified charter school classes, parental skills and spiritual guidance, a Tennis Tournament fundraiser will be held at the end of March, Brown said. The 15th annual Hope Open Tennis Tournament will take place on March 25-27 in Tyler, Texas, starting at 6 p.m. on March 25, and all day the following two days.

The event has become of critical importance to the crisis pregnancy organization.

“It’s sad to think that homes for unwed mothers are actually closing across the country,” Brown said. “This is definitely not the time to give up on hope. The need is still so great. Kids like Shannon prove that.”

 

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