Mission Statement
Courtney’s House is committed to providing a safe space and loving home environment - in a therapeutic and emotionally healing atmosphere - for domestic sex trafficked girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Courtney’s House is dedicated to the mission of ending domestic sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of all children. We focus our efforts on providing long-term group home and providing direct services.
Vision
The vision of Courtney’s House is to raise awareness so all will want to help end the commercial sexual exploitation and domestic sex trafficking of children.
Philosophy
We believe that providing a safe space for sex trafficked girls is a small but much needed key to success. By providing them with staff survivors and giving them their own voices, we equip them with the ability to pass on their own keys to success.
About Courtney’s House
The Courtney’s House initiative was started in August 2008. The organization was founded by Tina Frundt, herself a survivor of domestic child sex trafficking. Courtney’s House is projected to be a 6-bed long-term group home for sex trafficked girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years – the only one of its kind in the Washington, D.C.area to cater specifically to this vital population segment.
Although Courtney’s House’s group home will open in 2010, we remain committed, in the interim, to providing girls with the skills and safe environment required to get them out of their trafficking situations so that they can go on to live healthy, happy lives. We currently provide services at our D.C. location, and we serve the D.C. Metro Area.
We also conduct weekly street outreach Fridays and Saturdays in D.C., 12:30am-5:30-am. We operate a hotline by survivors, for survivors; the hotline number is for victims or to make a referral 888-261-3665
Our services include group therapy (art/dance/yoga), survivor led CSEC support groups, individual counseling/therapy, and intensive case management
Is CSEC Different from Sex Trafficking?
The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) consists of sexual abuse by adults and payment in cash or kind to the child, or a third person or persons, and is a fundamental violation of children’s rights.
Commercial sexual exploitation is a contemporary form of child slavery and consists of practices that are demeaning, degrading and, in many instances, life-threatening to the child. The child is treated as a commercial and sexual object.
CSEC manifests itself through multiple forms of prostitution and pornography, as well as the sale and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
