this ministry to young women began by dr. lois lee may be a model to follow for others with a God-given
fire in their belly to help free slaves...worldmag, 4.5.14, p51
...Children of the Night is not a christian organization,
but christians can learn from it...
lee...has rescued more than 10,000 children from prostitution
and sent 100 of them to college.
she's developed a nationwide law enforcement network that helps prostitutes
who call COTN'S 24 hour hotline.
..she knows what it takes to run a 24 bed shelter that provides psychological help, education and security
-all without government support.
lee's work with child prostitutes began in the 1970s
as she did research for her doctoral dissertation.
by going through arrest records she discovered that
police officers typically arrested prostitutes but not their customers,
so she decided to sue the department for discrimination.
as she interviewed and befriended prostitutes,
they started turning to her with their problems.
one night in 1977, lee received a call from a prostitute who said her friend
had gone to meet with a client and had not returned.
lee tried but couldn't get the police to care about the missing hooker.
the next day the girl's body was found, murdered by the hillside strangler,
who killed 10 women in a four month period.
outraged, lee went on national tv and asked sex workers to call her if they had information
and she included her phone number.
here phone started ringing with tips that led to the capture of the two men behind the stranglings.
after the strangler case, lee continued receiving phone calls
-many about child prostitutes.
when lee looked into government services, she found the children were falling through the cracks:
social services wouldn't take them in because prostitution is a crime
and the juvenile court wouldn't detain them with common criminals
because they didn't commit a crime against property.
with nowhere to turn, lee from 1979 through 1981 opened up her home to 250 child prostitutes.
some ended up back on the streets,
but others left their pimps and old lifestyles behind.
businessmen who heard about the work lee was doing
gave her the money to open a drop in center in hollywood.
that allowed more kids to come for showers, food and clothes.
in 1984 president ronald reagan took notice,
honoring her at the white hose with the presidents volunteer action award.
COTN now sits in a spanish style building in van nuys,
a majority hispanic suburb in the san fernando valley section of los angeles.
the building's signage is discrete.
security cameras and a buzzer system at the front door
protect against pimps trying to reclaim their livelihood.
a young woman at the front desk answers the center's 24/7 hotline,
receiving calls from prostitutes all across the country.
the scripted emergency response aims to get the child away from the pimp
and the help of nearby police to come and PRETEND TO ARREST the child. (note: SAVE the child)
some COTN residents..come via court advocates and law enforcement.
others find the hotline number through ads on an online classified section
where prostitutes sell their services.
as lee walks down halls lined with the names of children who have finished high school or received GEDs,
she compares the shelter to a middle class boarding school.
the residents share a bedroom with one other person,
attend class during the day, eat in the dining hall
and meet with case managers who arrange for medical and counseling appointments.
another difference between COTN and most government funded groups:
COTN doesn't try to take formal custody of children from their parents.
'a lot of parents are not bad,
they just have so many heavy issues that they need to figure out themselves', lee said.
each week the case manager sets up phone calls home
and as relationships improve the children are allowed home visits.
on the day of my visit , the girls took a break from class
and flopped down on couches surrounding a tv.
a bright mural hangs over the couches, next to a row of computers
and a cabinet piled high with board games.
only a p0rinted list of forbidden tv show and movies
-sunset strip, MSNBC sex slaves, COPS, any talk show
-gives clues to what its inhabitants are trying to forget.
lee says that after 35 years, people now talk more openly about prostitution but
law enforcement still drags its feet.
FBI stings and pimp tracking on the internet are rarely successful.
pimps are difficult to prosecute and often end up back on the street.
mistrust between prostitutes and police is high
and many women return to their pimps after being 'rescued'.
at first lee found it hard to interest people in funding her work.
she shied away from government money because of its stifling rules and regulations.
she said she knows better than government bureaucrats how best to spend
the money that comes in.
even if she was inclined to accept federal money,
it wouldn't work well with her clients:
the government typically gives money per head per month,
but child prostitutes often run away, making it difficult to keep money flowing in.
yet surviving off private donations means lee is always throwing fundraisers,
speaking to groups, networking and writing grant applications.
every time she walks into a hair or dentist appointment,
she walks out with more volunteers to help the shelter's children.
money often comes in through wills and trusts and the aids epidemic prompted a lot of donations.
COTN has also had a strange bedfellow: Playboy founder hugh hefner, who normalized
the commodification of women by popularizing pornography.
what to make of that?
it's true that at a time conservative funders had never heard of lee,
hefner funded and ran ads for COTN and got a documentary made about her.
the playboy foundation grants to COTN have been a great investment for him,
leading to oodles of positive press and a 'hero of the heart award' from COTN.
hefner introduced lee to wealthy celebrities like johnny carson,
who ended up giving millions over the years
and lee has reciprocated with over the top laud:
'you have been a saint to countless american children who had nowhere else to turn to for help'.
sitting in her office with framed certificates lining the wall,
lee ticks off her responsibilities as executive director:
picking bugs out of a girl's hair, paying for the girs' complete medical and psychological care,
creating a shelter security system, paying for around the clock staffing
and ensuring each girl gets individualized education.
lee remains 'on call any time of the night or day
through a remote video system installed on her computer.
none of that is possible without funding, so lee also has to solicit donations
and make it possible for donors to visit the shelter and see exactly where their money is going.
people walk in, they see my office and go,
'i want to be you,' lee said with a laugh.
but those who know her see a different story.
'my lawyer said to me, 'who would want your life?'
there's no elevator, you have to take the stairs'.
lee says many people talk about creating similar shelters in other cities.
she's met people who have passion but lack the qualifications or understanding
to make a shelter work.
sometimes they lack the qualifications or understanding to make a shelter work.
sometimes they lack the funding go build an adequate shelter
or to earn the needed certifications.
she's seen government funded shelters with fancy brochures and nicely designed websites,l
but they won't let her visit their facilities:
'why would i send a 12 year old to a place i can't see?'
she's also seen firsthand how quickly something can go wrong.
once while on vacation, she received a call from a frazzled staffer.
a girl had gotten upset, picked up a computer and swung it by the cord
-destroying everything in the room.
by remote video intercom, lee told staff members
how to deal with the girl and instructed them to call the police.
but in their panic, the staff forgot lee's emergency script that gets police to the shelter in three minutes.
instead, it took 45 minutes before the cops showed up.
by then the girl had inflicted $20,000 worth of damage.
'i have written 300 pages of training manual (material) of what to do
and how to deal with the population, lee said.
'if you follow everything to a tee, it all works.
if you drop a piece, it doesn't work.
...so you're always on the brink of major disaster'.
lee thought about the technology and personnel needed to expand her work.
she's created an online GED program, called With Out Walls (WOW),
that helps anyone on the streets prepare for the test and everything that entails
-including helping them find a shelter or library with internet access to take the course
and pointing them to programs that can help them get clean.
she's also helping to start COTN-like programs in italy, england and the philippines,
using existing catholic charities and structures run by nuns and priests willing
to make a lifelong commitment to helping child prostitutes.
lee knows that child prostitutes often came from abusive and broken homes,
so they'll do anything to please pimps who not only feed and house them but claim to love them.
that's why, despite rampant abuse, prostitutes will often return to their pimps.
lee said she first realized she was making an impact in the 1980s
when she heard one boy asking another if he was a 'cotton kid'.
when the boy explained to lee, 'a cotton kid is a Children of the Night kid',
she asked why he used the word cotton.
he replied, 'C-O-T-N and cotton because it's soft'.
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