Homeless Youth Social Policies

UK protests: Cameron & morality

Cameron called UK protests a moral problem not a political one. He is in denial and it has raised serious questions about his judgment and style of governance. In his Wednesday press conference, he failed to accept the blame for the Tottenham police murder of Mark Duggan. The initial findings of IPCC have shown that Duggan’s gun was not discharged. As PM, Cameron failed to explain why authorities kept Duggan’s family waiting for (five) hours outside a police station. Cameron is appeasing middle class population at the cost of poor and homeless, vowing to crackdown on basic human rights and social media, and support the police, instead of showing moral courage and accepting responsibility for failed economic and social policies. Cameron has resorted to militarizing to save himself and the opposition has shamelessly played along. It could well be his nemesis to fall.

Morality is not part of the national curriculum, social life and political culture. It is neither taught in schools nor rewarded in our daily life so it was very naïve of Cameron to take it for granted. He bemoaned sick society as if his government had been distributing morality by the truckloads and somehow society forgot to return the favor. The fact is morality has to be honored and rewarded in a society to keep it healthy. Since it is not rewarded in our daily life, it will remain an insignificant word for the public and a useful tool for opportunistic politicians. Cameron blamed poor parenting. Look at him; his parents never wanted him to invite Murdoch from backdoors. Obama’s father never expected that his son would kill thousands in drone attacks. Parenting cannot necessarily protect a child from criminality. The News of the World scandal has exposed immoral standards of Cameron. In a way, guilty Cameron was criticizing his own failures when he faulted society for its actions. Cameron is on a collision course with police and state to save his government.

About Homelessness » Blog Archive » Sex trafficking and homeless youth

Last Thursday, I attended a conference at the U.S. Capitol that focused on the commercial sexual trafficking of children in the United States and abroad. Sex trafficking is one of the less talked about domestic issues because people perceive it to be a largely international problem; in actuality, sex trafficking happens right here to our own citizens. Moreover, sex trafficking is severely underreported because victims often feel ashamed and/or are unaware of the resources available to them.

According to estimates, there are 100,000 children trafficked in the United States each year. Of these, many are runaway and homeless youth who fall prey to pimps in their desperate search for food, shelter, and stability.

The conference was sponsored by Children Uniting Nations in conjunction with several prominent members of Congress, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Mary Landrieu, and Congressmembers Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra, Ed Markey, Loretta Sanchez, Joseph Crowley, and Brad Sherman. There were also several panelists representing national organizations committed to combating sex trafficking of children including Shared Hope International , ECPAT-USA , and Fair Fund . All of the experts representing these organizations spoke of a need to fix the child welfare systems that can put children in situations that make them vulnerable to sex trafficking.

The message was clear: There is a lot of work to be done  to bring visibility to the issue and create solutions to the problem.

One of the greatest challenges we face presently is the lack of information about this population. There are few definitive studies that illustrate the scope of the problem and, specifically, the number of young people who are victimized. By investing in research and data, we can better understand the problem and find specific, effective solutions.

Another component of any solution is prevention. Panelists discussed the foster care system and youth homelessness citing the relationship between failed social programs and youth homeless to the increased risk of being a victim of sex trafficking. By creating strong transitional supports for youth aging out of foster care and investing in solutions to youth homelessness, we can reduce the number of young people vulnerable to sex trafficking in the first place.

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