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Help Us Fight Commercial Sexual Exploitation

and Trafficking

Partner with us today in transforming the lives of girls and young women who have realized their full potential through more than 25 years of service at GEMS. At the $25 or more level, your donation can help with stipends for one girl to attend three groups or go toward one week of participation in a weekly parenting group, a GED prep group, or job training—to name a few. Donations can be made securely online and are tax deductible.

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How You can help

You can help trafficking victims connect to the services and resources they need by helping to support GEMS. Below are just a few of the ways to help GEMS fight for a world where girls are not for sale:

Donate $25 to provide
a member with toiletries
for a month

Photo by Jupiterimages/Creatas / Getty Images

Donate clothes, perishables and household items to help
Survivors on their journey

Get creative
with fundraising
opportunities

You can even make your donation using Zelle. Use donate@gems-girls.org

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TRAINING

We provide training and technical assistance to agencies and institutions across the US that work with at risk youth, victims and survivors of domestic trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

Ask about our

GEMS 2-day Virtual Training on our Award-Winning Victim, Survivor, Leader™ (VSL) Curriculum


Join us for a 2-day virtual training on GEMS award-winning Victim, Survivor, Leader™ (VSL) curriculum. Participants will learn about the GEMS VSL program model, with its two foundational principles, Survivor Leadership and Transformational Relationships, and the six key core values. This training takes participants through the key factors and approaches that make up successful GEMS programming and teaches them how to utilize this model in their own organizations and work.

About our Victim, Survivor, Leader™ (VSL) curriculum: The VSL Training is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the core components of the VSL Model using practical examples of how the model can be effectively implemented in organizations serving and supporting victims and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation who are at different levels of healing and growth in their journey to becoming self-sufficient. This multi-day training focuses on building technical skills and capacity, sharing best practices, and developing tools for implementation through interactive activities.

Content level: Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced; CSEC 101 or equivalent training recommended prior to this training.

Ideal Audience: Social service providers, legal, and healthcare professionals


 

How We Serve Survivors

 

Educational Initiative

Court Advocacy

Holistic Case Management

Transitional & Supportive Housing

Our Impact

Our work works. And we have the numbers to prove it. 
For July 2018, our Educational Initiative program had 122 participants:

 
54%

were enrolled in college

46%

are pursuing a GED/TASC

73%

were enrolled in high school

 

How We Empower Survivors

 

We created The Survivor Leadership Institute and Resource Center (SLI) to help change the way girls and young women who have been in the life are seen by the world. The SLI helps survivors of CSEC and domestic trafficking learn to become leaders in their own life.

 
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Gems Vision

 

In 1998, Rachel Lloyd founded GEMS to give the girls and young women of NYC who had been commercially sexually exploited a place for support and a place to create positive change in their lives. Our vision is to end the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and young women.

 

GEMS VIRTUAL BENEFIT

See Our Stories of Resilience

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COVID-19 Impact at GEMS

 

COVID-19 is reshaping life for all of us, but it’s taking the greatest toll on communities that were already vulnerable prior to the start of this pandemic. The girls and women GEMS serves are at greater risk now and we’ve adapted to mitigate this increased risk.

All of our drop-in center programs are now virtual, ensuring daily connectivity and support for GEMS members including:

  • Daily groups that support and engage our girls and young women are now taking place via Zoom, and usage of social media platforms is acting as additional touchpoints.

  • Supporting our young women in our Educational Initiative program whose schools have transitioned to online learning. 

  • Usage of GEMS’ newly created app that connects our members and staff, provides a calendar of daily virtual activities and provides other important resources.

  • Continued issuance of stipends for group attendance. 

  • A fully operational housing program that continues to ensure the women we serve are safe and well cared for.

As we continue to navigate all of this, we’re going to need your support more than ever. 

One of our most pressing needs right now, beyond the basic necessities of food, diapers, and toiletries, is making sure that our girls have phones and phone cards so they can stay connected. We’re looking to support our young women in college with basic laptops so that they don’t end up missing the whole semester of online learning. We want to support our young women who are parents and need to provide the basics for their children. And we want to provide as many resources as possible for our young women who may be homeless or in unsafe situations so that this virus isn’t the reason, they stay trapped. 

Please support our efforts by making a donation today or visit our Amazon Wishlist to send basic needs items. THANK YOU!

 
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