Day Star Academy

The FY 2019 Specialized Services and Mentoring for Child and Youth Victims of Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Category 1 supports efforts of eligible applicant organizations to increase the availability of direct support services for children and youth who are victims of sexual exploitation/domestic sex trafficking (SE/DST), develop or enhance their mentoring capacity, and facilitate outreach efforts to identify these youth. Under this category, OJJDP expects successful applicants to provide mentoring and other needed support services to these youth, develop or enhance mentoring service models and mentor training based on best practices to focus on the needs of youth who are at risk for or are victims of SE/DST, and develop or update strategies to recruit and maintain mentors to serve these youth. This program is authorized by Pub. L. No. 116–6, 133 Stat. 13, 115; Pub. L. No. 115-141, 132 Stat. 348, 423.

Day Star Mentoring and CSEC Education, established in 2017, provides mentoring for children and youth at risk of and/or currently impacted by CSE, and training for adults, in the San Francisco East Bay, including QOZs in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The proposed project will leverage its past experience, successes, and lessons learned; its status as a multiservice organization; its recent development of Claire’s House, a home for minor CSE survivors currently awaiting state licensure; and its expertise in restorative, trauma-informed practices to develop “Day Star Academy,” a year-long best practices-based mentoring program that will also include enhanced adult training, improved identification for CSE survivors and those at risk, and enhanced access to direct services for survivors.

Day Star Academy will achieve the following goals: 1) Develop and deliver enhanced Day Star mentoring services and mentor training, including group and individual mentoring and ongoing support for mentors; 2) Enhance access to wraparound services for at-risk youth; and 3) Raise awareness of CSE in the community, creating greater safety for CSE-impacted youth. Objectives undertaken to achieve these goals will include: 1) Develop and deliver an enhanced Day Star curriculum, drawing on the evidence-based Lotus model, including baseline training for adult allies and mentors and ongoing mentor support; 2) Deliver Day Star Academy group mentoring services, a summer intensive session, and ongoing supportive activities to 10–15 youth impacted by CSE annually, with a subset of up to 8 youth receiving one-to-one mentoring; 3) Facilitate referrals to services, such as medical services, mental health services, sexual assault support services, parenting classes, and high school credit recovery; 4) Develop and train staff in an agency wide CSE screening and action plan protocol; 5) Train 60–80 youth and adults in schools in CSE awareness and response; and 6) Disseminate learnings from the program through two conference workshops or presentations by the end of the grant.

CA/NCF