Vested Interest

I finished a conference call recently where one of the individuals on the Zoom meeting reported that they would be unable to assist my colleagues and me in offering us the mental health contract we sought for keeping open the treatment doors for sex trafficked youth.  Reasons cited?  They simply did not have a "vested interest" in doing so, but let me back up.  I'm doing consultation work for a San Diego County short-term residential treatment facility (STRTP) in need of mental health contract procurement to sustain their organization.  Long story short, if they don't obtain a county contract to oversee their mental health program, they will be forced to shut their doors and re-home the girls currently in their care, which will invariably perpetuate, not resolve, the very trauma that landed them where they are. This particular facility provides a wide array of specialized educational, psychiatric, medical, and social services to female youth, ages 12-17 who have been rescued from the sex trafficking world.  Due to reasons outside of their control, namely San Diego County's refusal to extend contract services, the STRTP is in danger of shutting their doors to these youth.  I usually love a good story of ironic proportion, but in this case it grieves my heart and spits venom at my soul.  Read on.  According to Forbes, the sex trafficking industry rakes in about 150 billion in annual revenue on these young girls, and what I'm discovering in my quest to keep this STRTP's doors open is that the very county agencies who purport to support these youth are the ones who decidedly refuse to help because they simply don't have a "vested interest" in supporting them.  I was told by this most recent county official that "financially, it just doesn't make sense." So, I'm left wondering - if we strip away the bureaucracy, the inconveniences, and the excuses, would we then have a "vested interest?"  The trafficking moguls make money off stripping these girls of their innocence and using their bodies for monetary gain, while the county agencies positioned to keep STRTP doors open for servicing the same girls' healing refuse because the cost is too high and the risk of more work too great. I'm angered, but fascinated by the ironic dynamic of money in this appalling outcome. At what point does the "vested interest" cease to be based on policy and cold indifference and start to be influenced by a genuine heart cry to save even just one girl?  

I've worked closely with this STRTP in a variety of functions since the beginning of this year, so I've seen the anger, rebellion, remorse, guilt, shame, insecurity, and tears of 13-year old girls who have lived there since I began working with them.  I've argued with them, hugged them, and prayed over them.  I've seen them at their worst when they flee the safety of the house and run back to the only life they know.  I've watched them at their best when they unknowingly let their guard down and  welcome you in to their vulnerable places. You can almost catch a glimpse of hope for something better pushing through the mire of doubt and disbelief in any such notion.  I've seen them hide behind emotionally erected walls, and I've seen them fall. It's not a pretty world they've come out of, but when the dysfunction is all that is known, it's hard to break free because in the dysfunction, one learns to function.  To believe that you're beautiful, smart, worthy, and full of purpose when you've been where these youth have been is an arduous process, but it's precisely what STRTP's like the one I contract with does.  The doors don't just need to stay open, they must stay open.  

Having contacted all 58 counties throughout the state in an effort to secure a mental health contract, I've heard a number of similar justifications from many kind and well-intentioned people, but the only thing that has refused to bid farewell to my thoughts is the phrase "vested interest."  I don't want to hear how you'd love to help, but can't because policy won't permit. Policies are made and changed by men and women everyday.  I need not listen to another bureaucratic justification of why your county can't foot the bill of supporting the teenage youth in our care, because guess what?  I can tell you who'd be happy to manage their expenses if we have to rehome them and they somehow fall through the cracks.  It's not pretty, but you don't want to hear that, yet I cannot apologize for saying it.  If you feel discomfort at my words or anger or frustration, then I implore you, county officials, to stand up and tell me again about your lack of "vested interest" in offering a small STRTP a mental health contract that will sustain their operations and continued services for teenage girls who are finally safe from the shadows of sex trafficking.  Or, have you no vested interest in further considerations?  

"Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a different direction" - Germany Kent