Last month when Epstein passed, we invited survivors to tell us about their reaction to his apparent suicide. Three survivors responded—and wrote beautiful expressions that focused less on Epstein’s death, and more on a collective commitment to dismantling systems of abusive power and bringing forth justice in their day to day lives.
In the last two months, three powerful men—billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, R&B singer/songwriter R. Kelly, and megachurch founder Naasón Joaquín García—have been arrested and charged with various crimes surrounding the sexual abuse, creation or possession of child pornography, and trafficking of minors.
In April of 2018, the federal government seized and shut down Backpage. In a blog earlier this year, we wrote about the unintended consequences of the shutdown—and among them was a resurgence in sex trade activity on the streets.
That’s why we recently relaunched our Street Outreach Team.
Today, by mayoral proclamation, is Be More Kind Day in Seattle—and we are excited to be celebrating kindness along with local businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Today in Seattle, local media outlets are collaborating on a project called Day of Homelessness, focusing on the homelessness crisis in our city. It has been a little over a two and a half years since a state of emergency on homelessness was declared in Seattle and King County. As of January, it is estimated that there were over 12,100 people experiencing homelessness in King County—and just over 2,200 shelter beds.
Before its shutdown, Backpage was estimated to account for 80% of the sex trade in the US. In the anti-trafficking movement, there was cause for celebration that Backpage and other website providers could be held accountable for their role in facilitating sex trafficking. At the same time here at REST, however, we have seen an influx of individuals seeking help because of unintended consequences from the shutdown of these sites.
Every year, as we draw near to the Super Bowl, news cycles and our social media feeds see an increase in articles about sex trafficking. If you look at Google Trends for the terms “sex trafficking” and “human trafficking”, you’ll see searches for those terms take a sharp uptick in late January and February.
Most of the photographs on this website are stock photography, featuring models used for illustrative purposes only. With few carefully evaluated exceptions, we do not publish or share photos of REST clients.
