The Behavioral Corner 
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us, as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while

Steve Martorano 
Hello, everybody, welcome once again to the Behavioral Corner. My name is Steve Martorano. I hope you are familiar with this a little bit. We've been around here for a while hanging on the Corner. Because it's our belief that if you stay in one place long enough, everybody important and interesting, will cross your path. And we're lucky and that's what we like to think we do every week. We talk about issues that affect our behavioral health, the decisions we make, how they make us feel emotionally and physically, and spiritually. So that's really a podcast about everything. Some things are uplifting. Other things are grim, but it's all intended to inform. That's the Behavioral Corner. Tell your friends about us. Well, a new year, believe it or not, or how about 22 years into the end of the 21st-century stack. It's staggering how old I am. If you, for instance, think that the trading and human lives. The buying and selling of human beings is something out of the dark ages, you would be sadly wrong. Human trafficking is as current a problem as anything you can imagine. Just a few weeks ago, I opened my iPad to see a headline that said the federal government had busted modern-day slavery. This was in Georgia, horrible, horrible conditions of forced labor and sex trafficking. That's as current as can be. This problem is going on right now. And we're going to be focusing on the best basically the Palm Beach area and the work being done there to fight this scourge. My guess is that wherever you're listening, there's some evidence of this some certainly some impact of human trafficking going on, not far from where you are. So to a tough topic, but we need to know more about it. So we're delighted to have our guest couple of experts who have dedicated their lives to doing something about, this horrible situation. Our guests are Char Talmadge and Becky Dymond. As I said they had been working for a very long time focusing on domestic sex trafficking. So we welcome both those ladies with us. Char is with the Rescue Upstream and -- I'm going to get this right -- and Sharing One Love Palm Beach County -- she's the executive director. And her colleague, Becky Dymond is with Lighthouse of Palm Beach County. And again, as I said they're fighting this specific area of human trafficking that involves the sex trade. Ladies, thanks for joining us on the Corner. They get all that right? 

Char Talmadge 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
Tell us just very briefly about the organizations you are with and because we can set this up and find out what works is being done. Char, tell us about your organization.

Char Talmadge 
Oh, sure. Thanks, thanks so much for having us on today. As you mentioned, this is a dark issue but there's an opportunity for everyone to listen to make a difference. And our heart is that you walk away from this discussion, and you're prompted to make that decision. So I represent Rescue Upstream and Sharing One Love Palm Beach County. I'll start with Rescue Upstream. We launched in 2013, as a Ministry of Journey Church here in Palm Beach County. In 2020, became an independent nonprofit. The primary areas of focus we have are sexual abuse prevention, and we provide that training in English and in Spanish, both virtually and in person. And we'll talk about why that's important a little bit later. And then also in outreach. So we are working directly with the Palm Beach, Human Trafficking Task Force. We do several areas of outreach directly to those girls both working on the streets, as well as the many more that are being sold on...on the Internet. In 2019, just before the pandemic, we begin the formulation of a Sharing One Love Palm Beach County and this is essentially collaborative of very diverse organizations coming together to look at the local problem. Determine what piece of the puzzle they own, and what pieces of the puzzle are still missing. And with the end intent of creating a solution that can engage the community to address the issue. So hopefully that made sense.

Steve Martorano 
Becky, tell us about Lighthouse Point.

Becky Dymond 
We provide mental health counseling, trauma therapy, life, and job skill training in the form of an outreach program where we can build relationships with gals on the street. And then invite them to a job opportunity where they can be paid cash at the end of the day, just to build relationships. And we also run what's called a John's School for Palm Beach County, if you get arrested for prostitution, which is for both buying and selling. You can participate in a diversion program if you haven't been arrested three times already. But you can participate in a diversion program that will erase those charges from your record. And so for the men, we're looking at addressing the social issues that drive the mentality that I can buy sex like a hammer. We're looking at the mental health issues that deal with addictions, and sexual addictions in particular. And then for the women, we're looking at trauma, most everyone who's been sex trafficked, for most of them, it's just one of the lightest of a whole lifelong experience of trauma. And for most of them, it's not even the worst. So we're looking at early childhood trauma, we're looking at self-worth issues, and helping them at least become aware of the opportunities and the support that's out there to help them start over again. And we're reopening a safe house. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, John's School, I'd love to talk at length about that. That's, that's an inster.... I never heard of a program quite like that. Anyway, terrific. So you guys are you don't just talk about this problem. You're out there, trying to do something about it. When we say human trafficking, it's a big word. I think most of us don't really know exactly what we're talking about it. What is the definition legally of human trafficking?

Becky Dymond 
So, human trafficking is where you are -- people are being coerced to do either sex or labor trafficking. It's unlawful, obviously, it involves transportation, but not necessarily across international borders. Smuggling gets people across the border. Trafficking is where they get across the border, and they're not free to do what to live their lives to go and do whatever they want to do. And so people often get those two things confused. The smuggling, you know, human trafficking in terms of smuggling people in across international borders, versus trafficking, where your work is benefiting someone else, you know, whether that's sex or labor trafficking.

Steve Martorano 
Hmm. And how big a problem is this?

Char Talmadge 
Wow. Yeah, that's a great question and I think Becky, and I would both agree, a great precursor to this whole discussion is, this is hard to get your arms around. I think the fair statement that most organizations in this fight will say is that less than 1% get rescued. So what does that mean? That means we're basing a lot of our data on the 1%. And extrapolating that to a bigger picture. We're going to quote...we're going to quote some statistics, some numbers, we feel there are reputable entities out there tracking this. And but know that it's just the tip of the iceberg. So ILO, which is the International Labor Organization, a very well known entity estimates, up to 40 million people are in modern-day slavery. So when you look at that, from a revenue perspective, that really translates -- because it is about profit, it's about a lot of things, but it's about money. So the money side of it looks at $150 billion a year.

Steve Martorano 
That's in forced labor?

Char Talmadge 
That's it...that's in human trafficking. So yeah, that's enforced the force fraud or coercion of those that are performing services in labor, and or sex also includes a segment of organ trafficking to which we will really not talk about today. But yeah, that's the overarching figure that is pretty consistently shared out there. And then when you look at that, and you break it down, well, what does that mean on a daily basis, the math takes us to a number of over $400 million a day. So it is a moneymaker. It is an absolute moneymaker. And again, that's really a global picture. So I want to talk to you a little bit about Polaris Project because we're going to spend a lot of time talking about domestic trafficking. And then very specifically domestic sex trafficking. Polaris Project is an organization that runs the National Human Trafficking hotline number. So I'm going to do a little promo for them right now. So anybody that's listening to this, if you have your phone or a pen handy, I'm going to ask you to write a number down because the number one way individuals are rescued is because somebody reports and so that number is 1-888-373-8888. And that, again, is a National Human Trafficking hotline number run by Polaris. That's a highly promoted number and that's the conduit for the data that you're going to be hearing as we talk about the United States.

Steve Martorano 
You keep returning to this issue of the difficulty in identifying the people who need the help because after all, they're not in the best position to go looking for help. Let me ask both of you, do you think that some of the difficulty in reaching the population, particularly the women who are in the sex trade, is that they feel if they were to reach out for help they might wind up either being deported or going to jail, there will be some negative consequence in trying to escape that? Is that a problem?

Becky Dymond 
I would say yes. I, for one, the traffickers are master manipulators. And so they, I'm sure you've heard this short-term blame shift, right? My dog ate my homework, right? Traffickers, shame shift. So that the woman, it's this is who you are, this is all you're good for, this is your life. Nobody else wants you to nobody else cares, I care for you, you know, like, Oh, that's a weird way to care. And so very often, it's us against them. And the whole dynamics of trauma bonding, make it very difficult for a woman to break away.

Steve Martorano 
Right. 

Becky Dymond 
Most of the women that are being trafficked, sex trafficking in the United States are American. 

Steve Martorano 
They are?

Becky Dymond 
Yeah, American men, appetite for American women. So there are international, you know, there are definitely people trafficked internationally that come in, you know, bait and switch, you're gonna clean hotel rooms and end up being sex traffic but primarily, it's Americans.

Steve Martorano 
Let me ask you about the outreach, to shame to use that kind of sanitized phrase for what these people do. But how do they...where do they place those ads that wind up being phony? In newspapers? Online? How are women who are being tricked into this hearing about this opportunity? Are they in newspaper ads or...

Char Talmadge 
No, no, you know, interesting question. There's been a real shift. Again, Polaris did some analysis on pre-pandemic stay-at-home mandates, compared to post and they saw a definitive shift in reporting to online. So web-based online, actually increased 30% over reporting from the street. So we know, a lot of the activity, the majority of the activity is online. And there are websites, we track several here in Palm Beach County, where we actually scrape the advertised numbers and create a CSV file that we can then text to them, get them help. Prior to that, we would actually go on to the websites, there are all kinds of websites, some of which are modeled under escort services. But anyway, you are able to locate the girls there. They're not using their real name, but there's always a phone number. And that phone number is our entryway point.

Becky Dymond 
Steve, were you asking about how women get trapped in the life?

Steve Martorano 
No, no, I mean, what's the first point of content? I mean, he sounds like they're looking for jobs or looking for work. And they see an ad saying, you know, we're looking for mates or something

Becky Dymond 
Internationally, there's actually recruiters and the recruiters will go to, you know, typically poor countries where there's, you know, high unemployment, and, you know, no opportunities and they'll say, hey, we can get you to the United States, we'll just do a great job. And then they ship the women over, which really makes it difficult for the women that are trafficked internationally because the recruiter is still in their home village. Right? And very often, cultures are such that if they knew that their daughter or their neighbor or their friend was being sex trafficked, they would have nothing to do with her. Plus, if she reports, there's always, you know, that threat, I will burn your family's house down if you report if you say anything.

Steve Martorano 
Sure. Sure.

Becky Dymond 
So they are, like, double-bind all over for American women. There's a number of ways that people get trapped in it. There's gorilla pimping, where they grab somebody off the street, and, you know, force them into that, which happens a lot to runaways, you know, especially vulnerable sectors of our culture that are like transgender, and, you know, people that are kind of on the outside because they already feel, you know, excluded. They already feel like, you know, they don't have options. And then there's the Romeo situation where a guy's going, I love you, you're the most beautiful woman, you know, we're going to live together forever, you know, we're just in this really tight place and, hey, if you could do this, we could save money and we'll go buy a farm in Montana or whatever. You know, the whole baloney. That's probably the most common way. Another way though is for gals that are already working like in strip clubs, the traffickers I don't want to call them pimps because that's kind of a compliment in some parts of our culture. So the traffickers will go to where there's already, you know, gals are already in the sex industry and go fishing. You know, they're like, "Oh, aren't you worried about coming out at night and you've got, you know, $8,000 cash? Well, you know, I can meet you and I can escort you to your..." you know, it's a mess.

Steve Martorano 
You know, I had at your suggestion, when they asked you about, you know, who's vulnerable to this kind of situation, the women who are vulnerable, but I think some of that so painfully obvious, certainly. Poverty is a big factor and maybe education levels, I don't know. But it seems to me what you're describing are people who have been one way or another thrown away. They are just sort of, you know, the refuge of society, no one seems to care about them. Why else would you turn to people who are going to exploit you sexually, unless you had absolutely no other opportunities is that pretty much the case with a lot of these people?

Becky Dymond 
I've worked with gals that have college degrees. One gal, and when I first started, I didn't work with this gal, but I read an article and she was a college grad, single mom, and the car blew up. And this guy loaned her money to fix the car, you know, it seemed like a good deal. And then she couldn't pay it back fast enough. So he said, "Well, I'll watch your son, and you go out and turn tricks to pay me back. And if you mess up, I'll take your son out." And she was so terrified that the police would botch it, and put her son at risk that she was trafficked for about six months before she finally said, "Alright, this is just not working." And you know, she was able to get out with her son intact, and everything was good. But, you know, it's like people that...things that happen where you go, I that was just the craziest thing you never expect.

Steve Martorano 
You couldn't imagine...well, it's easy to imagine a financial hardship. It's hard to imagine that it could be solved by that means where your child is being held, hostage. So thanks for dispelling that myth of mine. But let me ask you while we're on the topic, Char for instance, what do most of us get wrong about the women in the sex business?

Char Talmadge 
There's a whole lot of myths that need to be dispelled. It's even, you know, at a 20,000-foot level. When we look at, you know, some of the bad messaging that's been out there on human trafficking, you know, that children are being sold on Wayfair, for example. There have been organizations that have promoted a lot of misinformation. and so what's really important about this, for your listeners, is that they really understand what this is, because the issue that bubbled up and going into the pandemic, with all this bad marketing on human trafficking, and kids being stolen, stole on grocery carts, and, and all of these things really clogged up the service system, those that are trying to help real victims. So it's really important that you understand the issue so that when you're reporting, it's based on fact. So, that's just a sidebar comment and you know, people have seen the movie, Liam Nelson's Taken, right?

Steve Martorano 
One, two, and three. He's the unluckiest man in the world.

Char Talmadge 
Yeah. And, and so can that happen? Yeah, that can happen. But that is not the normal way it happens. Like Becky was saying, you know, like, if I look at data, which I have right in front of me, for U.S., 2019, number one recruitment tactic, intimate partner relationship. That's the Romeo she was just talking about. Job offer, false promises, and familiar trafficking, which is the trafficking of somebody...by somebody in your family that, you know, which again, what's the root cause of that? Likely substance abuse. So we haven't talked about substance abuse yet. But substance abuse plays a huge role along with prior sexual abuse. So again, to answer your question, and this number we need to dispel is really about it's not a choice. So people view prostitution as a choice. In most cases is simply the exploitation of a vulnerability. And what I like to share with individuals when we're doing outside, you know, the event is asked three 10-year-old girls, what do they want to be when they grow up? Does anyone say they want to be a prostitute? No, no, it's not a career path choice, right? It is the exploitation of vulnerability.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, and the problem is exacerbated and much more difficult when the perception is often warped by the media. 

Becky Dymond 
Can I toss in a couple more things about the myths?

Becky Dymond 
Absolutely.

Becky Dymond 
Ninety percent of the women that are in the life want out. Ninety-two percent are controlled by pimps, gangs, (or) mafia, and don't keep the money that they make.

Steve Martorano 
So it is slavery, no matt...no matter how you slice it?

Becky Dymond 
It's slavery. The odds of being murdered are 18 times higher than a 7-11 clerk, which is one of the most deadly jobs that are in the U.S. So the average life expectancy for a woman in the life is seven years. Seven years. Because by then she's either, so spawns out. So traumatized PTSD, she can't, you know, add 2 and 2. She's either, you know, spun out on drugs or dead, because the trafficker can't go, "Hey, it's been great. It's been real, you know, you're not pretty anymore. You know, so, you know, have a good life." No, he's, he's gonna take her out, and they'll find her in a dumpster someplace.

Steve Martorano 
It's actually staggering. We're not talking about stuff that occurred in the wild beginnings of the 20th century. And we're talking about right now. It's shocking. So let me ask you, how can prevention be addressed? And to reduce the risk of all that? What's going on in that regard?

Char Talmadge 
You know, I can speak to what we're doing here in South Florida. You know, one of the things that are important is giving people the right...the right information. So I think that it's upon us to put it out on all of our social media platforms and provide training that really has people understand what the real facts are. So on the prevention side, we feel very strongly about sexual abuse prevention. It is the common thread of vulnerability in particularly domestic sex trafficking victims. And so being able to understand what that looks like that it's not a stranger danger, that most of the victims of sexual abuse know the abuser is critically important. We must protect our youth. Because, and I know Becky could talk about this, you know, many of her cases, you know, they have said, well, you know, they took it from me, I figured to survive, I could at least get a little bit of money. You know? So it is the precursor of sexual abuse, that plants that seed in there that allows that coercion to thrive if you will. I think the other thing on...on the prevention side, or really the awareness side is understanding that our victims here speak many languages. So how can we get them the information? So, you know, excitingly enough, when you look at the Polaris data, in 2019, there was a 19% increase in victim reporting. That's huge. That means those of us that are in this fight, are getting the information out there so that the victims themselves are receiving it, understanding it, and then reporting. So there, there needs to be a continued commitment to that. And, you know, we...we are fortunate we have a partner we're working with who's a survivor, traffic out of many different countries. Now living in South Florida, who developed a QR code that has been translated...those resources are now translated for the state of Florida in 10 different languages. So that means those foreign victims that we have here, can scan that code. And whether they're Asian Russian, they can find out something you brought up earlier, Steve, which is, you know, if their foreign victim here under force, fraud, or coercion for sex trafficking, they're not going to get deported, they don't know that they're telling lies. They can now read that, and then understand how to get help. So it is about, like anything else, applying technology, understanding, working with survivors is critically important to create the solutions that will drive prevention,

Becky Dymond 
I think something else that's really important is talking to youth. Because a 16-year-old is not going to appreciate Mom, Dad breathing down their neck and telling them about these scary things that are out there, even though they're real. But if you can speak to that 16-year olds, class, right, she's got friends, or he's got friends, right? And they're going What are you doing hanging out with a guy that's eight years older than you really, you know, like, what good can come up that? Why would he be interested in you, you know, stop and think for a minute, because right now, it costs usually less than $100. To build enough of a relationship with a girl to a trafficker, you know,

Steve Martorano 
It's great. It's great. You talk about a sort of peer review. I mean, most kids would be able to tell their peers "You're doing what? That ain't cool, right?" And that's, by the way, that's a big motivator, right? Maybe I shouldn't be doing it.

Becky Dymond 
Well, here's a girl that that, you know, would like a phone, a new phone, or a new pair of jeans or whatever. And like, you know, go get my nails done my hair did, or whatever. And so the trafficker goes, "Oh, yeah, baby, you're so beautiful. I'll do that." You know? And...and here all the time, he's grooming her to take her to the next place where he can make money off of her. And she's so naive. You know, when I was 16, I was naive. My daughter, who has watched me do this for 11 years now. She met this guy who wanted to, you know, wanted to meet her at a warehouse. She had a friend that it was a musician, and she was like, all over it. I'm going, "What are you thinking?!?" 

Steve Martorano 
Right? Well, you know, that period of time among young people is not their judgment at that point it's not state of the art. You know, we hear the problem, it's vast. The difficulties are reaching the people in need. When that all goes according to plan, what are some of the things your groups provide to them? I'm thinking of things like...like housing, and perhaps even drug treatment. What's a few of the things that you need to get to that group of people immediately? Char, give me a couple.

Char Talmadge 
So this is a big, burly question you're throwing out here. There's a lot of different factors that come into play. There's a lot of different solutions that need to be bridged to carry a girl or a boy. And I just want to say there are boys and men trafficked to restoration. So you know, and we all have our lanes. So I'm going to shift a little bit over to Sharing One Love for a minute, because at Rescue Upstream, obviously, as I mentioned, we're sexual abuse prevention, and we're outreach so our lane is to find them...to find them and build relationships with them, so that they will trust them enough. So then we can pull them through, thread them through to the partner, no matter who that is. So let's go to Sharing One Love because Sharing One Love is being developed as a platform that can be then duplicated anywhere across the United States, really. You have essentially some stakeholders, and in Palm Beach County, that's Catholic Charities. They are the grant-funded, long-term case management for victims of labor and human sex trafficking. Sharing One Love who is our technology partner, Becky, with Lighthouse, who is licensed mental health counselor counseling, and then also Rescue Upstream, obviously, for outreach. But more importantly, is the community that's coming around to address those issues. So we have a large church that stepped into a community of hope. So they have a grocery store, that the girls can go grocery shopping. They have a closet, so they can get clothes. We have...we were invited, I don't know if we say this or not, we were invited to participate in this, because there's a great drug and alcohol rehab in South Florida, who has also raised their hand and said, "Hey, we will sponsor so many free detoxes for girls coming out of the life." So that's a resource, you know, and then there are all kinds of other organizations and Becky, you can jump in, that is unfolding and coming in and saying will step into the Sharing One Love partnership to augment the government resources that are there

Steve Martorano 
Becky?

Becky Dymond 
I think I mentioned earlier for most women that are being sexed trafficking, sex trafficked, this is just the latest in a whole long line of trauma. And so the first thing is to build some level of trust, I can't help you if you won't let me in. And for them, their parents weren't trustworthy, most of them if they were even present, right? And if I can't ask my own parents, why would I even think about trusting you? And so the...that's the beauty of this idea of creating micro businesses where I can pay them cash, they're still on the street, not, you know, you know, resources are available if you want them, but that typically flows through relationships. And so when they see somebody who's been there for six months, a year, two years, whatever, and they go, I think she's real, and then they're going okay, so what do you have? What are the other options because I can get you for gals that are ready, I can give them scholarships to develop a marketable skill I can, I can provide all kinds of things -- when they're ready -- when they're clean when they've you know when they're stable. But you're asking them to give up certain things to be received, right, and that happens along the line of a relationship. And so that's...I think that's really what Char does with rescue upstream making the phone calls what we're trying to do in drawing in grassroots people in the areas you know, that will support participate refer gals, "Hey, have you met this gal?" You know, Char, and I went and handed out, some goodie bags for Christmas. And like, you know, in that group of people, we're going to be known as the red...red bag, ladies, you know, that they, they care, they're invested in us, you know, don't know why don't get it don't understand it. But hey, you know, it's free stuff,

Steve Martorano 
Exactly that sort of thing will seep through and maybe turn the light on. You know, it's a dark dark, there's no doubt, it's a dark topic. It's a, it's a tragedy, trafficking in human beings. But you know, your message is so hopeful. I mean, look, there's help out there, we say this about substance abuse people all the time. It's an isolating situation, you're alone, and you think there's no hope out there. Clearly, there are a lot of people who want to get involved in help. And these two ladies are exact examples of that. You're hearing about this, because first of all, we should hear about stuff like this all the time but January, is, as I understand, set aside, to highlight issues of human trafficking. So we thank our guests for joining us for that.

Char Talmadge 
Yeah. And I would like just to add one other thing, I think we're grateful and blessed to be in Palm Beach County, we have a super strong human trafficking task force here. I don't want to minimize the support that we get from our law enforcement, which was out on the streets with me last night late, handing out more of those red bags -- connecting with these girls on the streets, but also Combi to victim services, who's the front end of intake, when we have somebody coming out of an arrest, or a situation and then again, Catholic Charities who's doing some of the case management. So just really grateful for that network. And again, it's about connecting the dots. I'm a faith-based organization. So is Becky. But we're working for hand in hand with and you know, other NGOs, law enforcement governments, and that is where the solution starts.

Steve Martorano 
You have a local event in your area coming up, I guess, in February that you wanted to talk about?

Char Talmadge 
So Community of Hope -- one of our partners -- the event's February 17, 6 pm, in the evening. We will...they're located on Military Trail, just south...just south for those of you listening local, and we are going to show a local Florida documentary, the story of Florida and human trafficking, it's called Invisible. And it will be followed by a panel, myself and Becky will be on that. We will have law enforcement, the task force will be and we will also have a survivor on that. And most importantly, afterward, we will have in the lobby, a lot of different groups that are touching this issue, looking for volunteers. So if someone's heart tugging right now, saying, "Hey, I can be part of this." I'm going to tell you, there are so many ways you can help. And even if you're a professional, and you're like I don't really have the bandwidth, but I'm a...you know, I'm a professional provider. If it's your heart to sponsor one or two a year, we have a system already built where you...it's a three-step process, that you can come in register and then when there's a need, we can connect with you. So that's our heart.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, you know, it's great. people's intentions are most people's intentions are good. Most people want to help, and most people are sort of blocked about well, what I'm just a person, what do I do? Our guests demonstrate that you can do a lot. But you've got to, first of all, pick up a phone or talk to somebody and get involved. Important topics. Thanks so much for joining us, ladies. And obviously thanks so much for your work. We hope we can call upon you going forward on the Behavioural Corner. It's an important topic.

Becky Dymond 
Thanks so much for the opportunity.

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