The average age a child is first exposed to exploitation is 11 years old in Hawaiʻi — three years younger than the national average. Trauma can be caused by a number of factors, but for many girls across the islands, sex trafficking and forms of exploitation continue to be a looming threat.
Pearl Haven, an Oʻahu-based program that takes a community-led approach to healing deep trauma, recently marked its five-year anniversary. The program is part of Hoʻōla Nā Pua, a local organization that strives to end exploitation and trafficking across Hawaiʻi.
Since its inception, Pearl Haven has helped more than 100 girls between the ages of 11 and 17 recover while getting their normal education, gathering practical life skills, and learning how to process their past.
Elizabeth Porter, the program’s director, emphasized the importance of creating a safe space for the girls to be themselves and have autonomy over their decisions. She added that the staff and program can only do so much if the girls are not ready to seek help on their own.
“It's like an addict — you can't make an addict stop using, they have to ultimately want to make that decision themselves, and it's the same thing with these girls,” Porter said. “If the kids aren't ready, they're just simply not ready, and we can't make them ready because we want them to be.”
Porter explained that the intake process starts with a few baseline interviews so that she can get an idea of where the girls are at, how receptive they may be to treatment, and to get a better picture of who the girl is away from the trauma they experienced.
“If their favorite color’s purple, we make sure the bedding, their pillows, and their blankets are all purple before they get here,” she said. “We ask their favorite snack because breaking bread is the oldest tradition of building relationships and rapport. So if it's Hot Cheetos, we'll give you a bag and we'll sit there while we do your intake so that you have something you find comforting.”
Once the girls are brought into the program, they work with the team to develop an individualized treatment plan that includes benchmarks for therapy, education, and practical skills. Every girl gets their CPR and first aid certifications, a 10-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration card and their Food Handler’s card by the time they graduate.
Beyond their normal education, the girls also take robotics, coding, STEM programming, and movement classes.
This is all part of Pearl Haven’s holistic approach to healing, which looks at each girl as an entire person, not just for what they went through or what they need to heal from.
Andrew Aguirre, the program’s senior director of development and education, noted that the stereotypical idea of therapy is not the only option for healing, and in some cases, it is not the best option.
“We do have world-class clinical technicians, psychologists, therapists and case workers that are absolutely crucial and important for healing,” Aguirre said. “But we also have the ability to do a session sitting in a field of grass, feeling the waves hit your face from the beach, and talk about what trauma is doing to them in that moment, and they're able to talk about it in a safe space.”
For some of the youth, their safe space is with the horses or goats that live on the property. For others, they open up when they are out surfing or skateboarding.
A big part of feeling secure enough to be vulnerable is the trust they build with their mentors.
Pearl Haven's mentorship program is a year-long initiative that creates a one-on-one relationship between a vetted volunteer community member and one of the girls in the program.
“It’s been so humbling and joyful,” said Tiare Venuti, who has been a mentor since April. “She’s probably taught me more than I’ve taught her.”
But underneath the connection they’ve built lies the knowledge of why Venuti's mentee is in the program. Pearl Haven’s recent Youth Experience Survey revealed that nearly 70% of the girls in the program last year had experienced trafficking or some form of exploitation.
“From that sort of more palatable, easily digestible topic of mentorship and all these wonderful things that I'm doing, and fun things with this youth, I can start to talk more about why I'm doing it and what’s happening to our women and our girls,” Venuti said. “Exploitation and sex trafficking, people want to put that under the rug.”
She added that the issue hits close to home, as the sex trafficking industry has a disproportionate impact on Indigenous women.
“While it may not be the responsibility of indigenous women and Kānaka Maoli women to combat that themselves, if you can, you should. Because that's your sister, that's your aunt, that's your mom,” Venuti said.
Aguirre noted that providing preventative measures to this population is often difficult, because many of the girls are not put on anyone’s radar until after they have been hurt.
But Pearl Haven stands firm in its mission to bring hope to these girls. Despite it being difficult and frustrating at times, Aguirre said seeing the girls grow, learn how to speak for themselves and take ownership of their life will always be fulfilling and rewarding.
“You see a bad day happen, you see a trigger being hit, and then you get to witness what's going to happen next. Will they have an episode? Are they going to shout at somebody or try to hurt somebody?” Aguirre said. “But then you see something click — they take a deep breath and you see that fight or flight instinct be kind of silenced for a moment. That power for me is hope.”
