The Dreamcatcher Foundation

Last updated
The Dreamcatcher Foundation
Formation2008-present
Founders Stephanie Daniels-Wilson, Brenda Myers-Powell
Headquarters5401 S Hyde Park Blvd, Chicago, IL 60615
Location
  • Chicago, Illinois
Website thedreamcatcherfoundation.org

The Dreamcatcher Foundation is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that helps women who want to stop working in the sex industry, especially female prostitutes. They offer services to help the women reintegrate into society. The non-profit organization is working towards creating a facility of their own where the women will be able to stay while getting help. They have saved 87 women since their foundation.

Contents

History and background

In 2008, Brenda Myers Powell and Stephanie Daniels-Wilson founded The Dreamcatcher Foundation. The organization was established to help combat the issue of sex exploration and for those seeking to escape the sex industry. [1] Both Myers-Powell and Daniels-Wilson have personal experience with sex work. In an interview with MSNBC, Myers-Powell shared her experiences in the sex industry, which led her and Daniels-Wilson to found The Dreamcatcher Foundation. [1]

The Dreamcatcher Foundation's primary goal is to help women trying to get out of sex trafficking and/or sex exploitation. These are women who were placed into this lifestyle by someone or on their own. [2] The foundation helps as many victims get out of dangerous and desperate situations, especially those in which they cannot get out of themselves. They offer support to the victims through different resources and services. [3] The foundation also works to help prevent at-risk youths from becoming sex workers by giving talks at high schools, and attending events to spread awareness. [4]

To help a victim, the foundation uses a harm reduction approach, which involves going to the working site where prostitutes work. The workers are approached at night by one of the founders, Myers-Powell, with the pretext of asking them if they need condoms. After some talk by Myers-Powell, she gives them the choice to go with the foundation and get help, or decline. If the woman agrees, the foundation looks for outside resources to help each girls' specific needs. From drug abuse rehabs to educational classes, the foundation finds the appropriate services to help the victim recover and succeed. [1] Though the foundation has no center, they have saved 87 women from prostitution since the foundation of the organization. They have also contacted about 2,500 trafficked and exploited women in Chicago by giving away clothes, condoms and their business cards. [5]

On March 25, 2014, The Dreamcatcher Foundation formed a partnership with JUF Government Affairs, Congregation Hakafa, Congregation Judea Mitzpah Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), and other organizations in a project called "The Coalition" to fight against sex trafficking by spreading awareness to the public and education for the survivors. [6]

On September 13, 2015, Brenda Myers-Powell gave a speech named "Dreamcatcher - A Story of Personal Strength and Human Trafficking Victims" at the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago organization. The speech focused on sexual exploitation and human trafficking in which gave exposure to the Dreamcatcher Foundation organization and its goal to the community. [7]

Other events include Myers-Powell's speech on behalf of the foundation at a convention that helped lead to the creation for the House Bill 2822, which provides state help to trafficked victims. [8] Also, the foundation has become a resource for state courts and affordable care act. [9]

Programs

Harm reduction approach

The Dreamcatcher Foundation utilizes a harm reduction approach, in which they attempt to reach the sex workers in the streets as they work. The women receive full autonomy in the choices and decisions that are made to help them rehabilitate themselves. Using this approach will allow the survivor to have the freedom to decide what they want to do. [10]

Youth empowerment project

The Dreamcatcher Foundation has a holistic approach to assisting women and girls in the transition from prostitution and being owned by pimps to normal civilian life, but also prostitution prevention. The Youth Empowerment Project gives women preventive approaches to avoid sexual exploitation, through education. They receive classes on self-defense, assertiveness training, and high school education. [10]

My Life, My Choice

The My Life, My Choice program helps women who took part in sex trade. It is a 12-week program that focuses on healing and recovery services. They give the women mentors, and help them learn how to build and maintain meaningful relationships. They also provide free HIV and STI testing, as well as general check ups and drug prevention education. [1]

Residential Center

Due to a lack of onsite housing for the recovering prostitutes, the Dreamcatcher Foundation must place the girls they are helping in homes and shelters across Chicago. The Foundation continues to raise money to have their own residential complex and shelter, so that the girls they rescue from being human trafficked can have their own beds and spaces. [1]

Media

The Dreamcatcher Foundation has been depicted on the media as a positive addition to Chicago's communities. Since it provides awareness of the sex industry in Chicago, most of the local newspapers and news broadcastings have featured the organization in their news. [11] [2] [12] [13] Some of the major points that the media has picked up on is that the organization creates discussions of the reality of sex workers towards the goal of combating the issue that is sex-trafficking and the sex industry. [2] It aims to unravel the negative stigmas and stereotypes associated with sex workers by giving former sex workers a platform and voice to share their testimonies. [12] As they aid in the reintegration of women into everyday society after traumatic life circumstances, they have been a fundamental part in the processes of passing laws to help sex-trade survivors. [13] The Dreamcatcher Foundation hopes that with their outreach to the community and their appearances on news outlets, they will get enough donations to build their own center where they can be better equipped to help the victims. [1]

In 2015, director Kim Longinotto released Dreamcatcher , a documentary which revolves around Brenda Myers-Powell, the Dreamcatcher Foundation organization's founder. [11] The documentary captures the founder's story in the sex industry and her activities with the organization. It won a directing award for best World Cinema Documentary by Sundance Films. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Ukraine</span> Overview of prostitution in Ukraine

Prostitution in Ukraine is illegal but widespread and largely ignored by the government. In recent times, Ukraine has become a popular prostitution and sex trafficking destination. Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Ukraine's dissolution from the Soviet Union, saw the nation attempt to transition from a planned economy to a market economy. The transition process inflicted economic hardship in the nation, with nearly 80% of the population forced into poverty in the decade that followed its independence. Unemployment in Ukraine was growing at an increasing rate, with female unemployment rising to 64% by 1997. The economic decline in Ukraine made the nation vulnerable and forced many to depend on prostitution and trafficking as a source of income. Sex tourism rose as the country attracted greater numbers of foreign tourists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. It is distinct from people smuggling, which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span> Human trafficking as it relates to the United States

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution law</span> Legality of prostitution

Prostitution laws varies widely from country to country, and between jurisdictions within a country. At one extreme, prostitution or sex work is legal in some places and regarded as a profession, while at the other extreme, it is considered a severe crime punishable by death in some other places.

Transnational efforts to prevent human trafficking are being made to prevent human trafficking in specific countries and around the world.

Sex trafficking in Thailand is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Thailand. Thailand is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sex trafficking. The sexual exploitation of children in Thailand is a problem. In Thailand, close to 40,000 children under the age of 16 are believed to be in the sex trade, working in clubs, bars, and brothels.

Human trafficking in Nepal is a growing criminal industry affecting multiple other countries beyond Nepal, primarily across Asia and the Middle East. Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women and children subjected to the forced labor and sex trafficking. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.

Greece is a transit, source and destination country for women and children who are subjected to human trafficking, specifically forced prostitution and conditions of forced labor for men, women, and children. Female sex trafficking victims originate primarily in Eastern Europe and former Soviet bloc countries. Traffickers use physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for coercion. Greece's European Union membership, coupled with a shared border with Turkey, means the country sees massive flows of illegal immigrants looking to enter the EU. Traffickers also use Greece not only as a destination but also as transit stop and also as a source country where even Greek women are prostituted on the way to Western Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Texas</span> Overview of the situation of human trafficking in the U.S. state of Texas

Human trafficking in Texas is the illegal trade of human beings as it occurs in the state of Texas. It is a modern-day form of slavery and usually involves commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, both domestic and agricultural.

<i>Nefarious: Merchant of Souls</i> 2011 film by Benjamin Nolot

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a 2011 American documentary film about modern human trafficking, specifically sexual slavery. Presented from a Christian worldview, Nefarious covers human trafficking in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, alternating interviews with re-enactments. Victims of trafficking talk about having been the objects of physical abuse and attempted murder. Several former prostitutes talk about their conversion to Christianity, escape from sexual oppression, and subsequent education or marriage. The film ends with the assertion that only Jesus can completely heal people from the horrors of sexual slavery.

Vednita Carter is an American anti-sex trafficking activist, author, and executive director of the "Breaking Free" organization which helps women escape prostitution.

<i>Dreamcatcher</i> (2015 film) 2015 film by Kim Longinotto

Dreamcatcher is a 2015 British-American documentary film directed by Kim Longinotto focusing on Brenda Myers-Powell, a former professional who runs The Dreamcatcher Foundation, a charity which helps women in Chicago leave the sex industry. The film won the World Cinema Directing Award in the documentary category at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Showtime Networks acquired the rights to the film on 23 January 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Nevada</span>

Human trafficking in Nevada is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Nevada, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

Brenda Jean Myers–Powell is an American activist and advocate against human trafficking. Myers–Powell, a human trafficking survivor is the co-founder of The Dreamcatcher Foundation, a nonprofit which aims to fight human trafficking in the Chicago area.

Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. China, the world's second-most populous country, has the second highest number of human trafficking victims in the world. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in South Korea</span> Overview of sex trafficking in South Korea

Sex trafficking in South Korea is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of Korea. South Korea is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons. Sex trafficking victims in the country are from South Korea and foreigners.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Q & A with Brenda Myers-Powell, Co-Founder and the Executive Director of the Dreamcatcher Foundation". MSNBC.com. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Goudie, Chuck; Markoff, Barb (January 24, 2019). "Second chances after life in the sex trade". ABC7 Chicago. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  3. ↑ "'Dreamcatcher' documentary follows former sex worker back to the streets: TRFN". TODAY.com. February 8, 2015. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  4. ↑ "Student Committee Awards Berkowitz Grant to the Dreamcatcher Foundation". Francis W. Parker School. 2019-05-17. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  5. ↑ "Dreamcatcher Documentary Features Zealous Work of Former Prostitute Turned Activist". The Solutions Journal. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  6. ↑ "JUF News : Sex trafficking in Chicago: 'Modern-day slavery'". JUF News. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  7. ↑ "Sunday, September 13, 2015". ethicalhumanistsociety.org. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  8. ↑ "Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for HB2822". www.ilga.gov. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  9. ↑ "Affordable Care Act Assists Human Trafficking Victims | Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative" . Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  10. 1 2 "Human Trafficking Chicago one of the Leading Cities of the global epidemic". NPR Illinois. June 1, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  11. 1 2 Lodge, Guy. "'The Dreamcatcher' review: Compassion, rehab for sex workers". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  12. 1 2 "Local sex trafficking survivors, organizations aim to help young women". ABC7 Chicago. May 3, 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  13. 1 2 "Rep. Bobby Rush holds meeting after dozens of women found strangled to death in Chicago". WGN-TV. 2019-06-06. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  14. ↑ "2015 Sundance Film Festival Announces Feature Film Awards". www.sundance.org. February 1, 2015. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
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