Seattle donors step up to save program aimed at rescuing teen prostitutes

In the fall, a Seattle investment adviser pledged $100,000 of his own money to help launch the state's first program aimed at rescuing teenage prostitutes from the control of violent pimps and the dangers of sex work.

In the months since, the 51-year-old father of four has worked behind the scenes, conducting his own research and challenging a group of wealthy acquaintances to match his donation. Many of them did, including Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard and Mike McCready.

Plenty of others stepped forward, too — so many, in fact, that Terri Kimball, of Seattle's Human Services Department, looked forward to opening her mail.

Once in danger of dying before it even got started, the program has been saved by a combination of public and private dollars. The city has raised $1.2 million of the nearly $1.5 million needed to fund the two-year pilot program to provide roughly 20 juvenile prostitutes a year with emergency-shelter beds, transitional housing and dedicated social services.

Kimball, who directs the city's division of domestic-violence and sexual-assault prevention, said many of the envelopes that crossed her desk contained $5 or $20.

It's just as gratifying to receive those donations as it is getting checks for $1,000 because, she said, it's an indication that even people without much to give recognize the desperate plight of girls forced to sell their bodies.

"People don't want to overanalyze it. They hear it, they know it's out there, they think it's wrong and they want to do something about it," Kimball said.

Plan seemed doomed

Not quite six months ago, Kimball announced at a conference on child-sex trafficking that the program — which had been two years in the making — was all but dead because money earmarked for the project had been cut from the county budget.

Tim Burgess, the Seattle City Council member who has championed creation of the project, credited news coverage with keeping the program alive.

"The Seattle Times stepped up and tackled it big time, covering both the criminal justice side and the human side" of the story, Burgess said.

The program, now set to launch in early April, is fully funded for 2010. Another $300,000 is needed to meet funding goals for 2011.

Seattle nonprofit

The program will be run by YouthCare, a Seattle nonprofit serving runaway and homeless youth. A site has been chosen to house girls accepted into the program, but the location is being kept secret to protect participants from their pimps.

The investment adviser — who asked to remain anonymous — got involved after reading the initial news story in September.

He explained that he and his schoolteacher wife typically send their donation dollars to "the poorest of the poor" in Africa and Latin America.

But after learning there are between 300 and 500 teen prostitutes working in King County at any given time, the man — who has three daughters — was moved to do something about it.

"It just touched my heart," he said.

"I believe most people understand these teenage girls aren't doing this by choice," he said. "Anytime people become aware of an injustice and can do something about it, they're moved to do so. We all do what we can do — that's what makes Seattle such a great place."

He hopes the program is so successful that it becomes a model for other communities in the state. There are currently only three other residential rehabilitation programs for teen prostitutes — in New York City, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Community effort

For Burgess, the program represents "the power of the unified community voice," since it is being supported by police, prosecutors, politicians, service providers, the media, private citizens and charitable foundations.

As a young Seattle police officer roughly 30 years ago, Burgess said, he couldn't do anything but arrest women and girls involved in prostitution. But in the intervening years, he said, there's been a huge shift in thinking: Juvenile prostitutes are now seen as crime victims, and police are increasingly targeting "the pimps and the predators" who prey on them, he said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com