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Golddigger Trust’s prevention and awareness work featured on ITV News at Ten.
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Golddigger Trust’s prevention and awareness work featured on ITV News at Ten.
ITV NEWS
Great to see that the work of Golddigger Trust has been featured in ITV’s news blog about Sexual Exploitation, following the arrests of 12 men, accused of exploiting 24 girls aged 11-16.
Convictions and arrests in Sexual Exploitation cases are sadly, quite rare, and so it’s brilliant to see such a large case coming to light today. Plus there are another 4 court cases going on at the moment, just in the North of England, looking to bring exploiters to justice.
We worked with ITV recently as they wanted to feature us in a documentary looking at Sexual Exploitation, and so they came up to Sheffield to film an awareness session and anonymously interview one of our brave girls. Hopefully the programme will make it to broadcast as we have seen first hand just how effective tv documentaries can be in helping girls understand and escape sexual exploitation situations.
ITV were so impressed with our work with exploited young people here in Sheffield that they have featured our work in their article today- check it out here…
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-03-22/sexual-exploitation-the-hidden-crime/
Real Men Don’t Buy Girls
Golddigger Trust’s new boys project co ordinator, Joel Toombs, challenges what being a ‘real man’ is…
Real Men Don’t Buy Girls. That’s the slogan coined by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore’s DNA Foundation’ trying to raise awareness about the sex trafficking trade. It’s interesting on a day like Valentine’s Day to reflect on how messed up our perceptions about love and sex and manliness have become. I love the ‘Real Men Don’t Buy Girls’ idea – getting celebrities to hold a placard to that effect to raise awareness. I hope it grows and catches on and is very successful…
But…
This is not a question about whether men are ‘real men’ or not (which would conjure up images of whether or not they think downing pints of beer is cool or not); this is about whether men are severely sick and depraved enough to be comfortable committing atrocities against humanity. I know DNA are just harnessing a creative idea to get normal people more aware of the huge breath of this terrible industry – but there are a few deeper questions that spring to mind. ONE: Are we supposed to now ‘know’ that these celebrities are ‘real men?’ – or indeed, TWO: did we ever have the misguided idea that child sex traffikers are, or might think they are, ‘real men?!’ And are they the sort of people who are going to notice a facebook campaign – let alone respond to it?! I’m being facetious of course, I realize that is not really the point – but I’m struck by what it illuminates actually IS the point…
What IS being a ‘real man?’ – clearly the criteria to be one needs to go a little further than just NOT partaking in child prostitution! Call me a revolutionary but should we not just aim for MORE than just to NOT be criminals?! Could we rather STRIVE to empower, uphold, protect, honour and cherish women (and of course men too!) – particularly those at risk or exploited by others for sexual and financial gain?
Being a ‘real man’ is necessary at the lowest common levels of interacting with women – not just the hideous and criminal end of the spectrum!
What I mean is that we need:
• Men who honour the girls they go out with – who certainly don’t hit them, don’t verbally abuse them or undermine their self-worth or pressurize them to have sex, and actually empower them to grow and flower and succeed…
• Men who honour the women they fancy going out with - not manipulating them to get their own desires, being derogatory about them to others or sleazing over them but actually caring about them as a person; sharing and respecting their values and desires, especially around sexual activity
• Men who honour the women they see in the street or at school or work – not intimidating them, teasing and making degrading comments and jokes or looking at them in lustful way, or objectifying them but being respectful, having some sense of what the world is like in their shoes…
• Men who honour the women they see in magazines – not believing the photoshopped fantasy that is sold to us; and building a view of women that is constantly measured against that idea of stereotypical ‘perfection’ in looks, size, shape, and behaviour – particularly in regards to how they are portrayed by porn. Men who enough respect for women that they refuse to get sucked into a world where they desire things they should never even see and have the right to gossip and judge women and contribute to a culture that encourages women to drop their own values.
I recognize that this doesn’t fit quite so neatly on a placard for a celebrity to hold up to a camera – and it only scratches the surface of how men should sort out our standards and attitudes. Men need to ‘man up’ not by going rock climbing or making stack loads of money – and not even by with holding certain activities – sex trafficking, watching porn or whictling at girls in the street - but by changing direction completely – aiming for positive empowerment of women, celebration of their equality and unique and special contribution as sportswomen, businesswomen, mothers, wives, doctors, cleaners, builders, rocket scientists, supermarket checkout assistants, astronauts, farmers, lovers and friends…
Are celebrities who hold up a sign implying they are ‘real men’ because they don’t buy girls REALLY ‘real men?’ I doubt it – but then I’m certainly no angel either and need to grow in my commitment and practice of empowering and honouring women myself.
There is a spectrum that exists – at one end is a drip feeding of slightly inappropriate values and behaviour – slightly sexist jokes or expectations about the role of your girlfriend or wife in the home – through all kinds of unhelpful pictures that the media sell us that are a large cause of our ‘lad mag’ culture of ogling over every single girl in sight and a growing epidemic of promiscuity, immaturity regarding sexual health and low self esteem around the value of our sexual selves – right through to perpetuating the violent and depraved hard core porn industry, the sex trade, sexual predators, rapists and sex traffikers.
Men might not easily recognize themselves as having much in common with sex traffikers and rapists but unless we choose to educate our selves and DELIBERATELY change direction about how we see and treat girls, we are just somewhere a little further down the spectrum on the same slippery pole of disrespect.
After writing all that I don’t know if I can confidently claim I am a ‘real man!’ – but I certainly do wholeheartedly agree that ‘real men’ DO NOT BUY GIRLS.
Golddigger
Beth and Mandy at the Golddigger Charity Auction
21st January 2012, The Prince of Wales, Sheffield
The Golddigger Charity Auction
What an amazing night we had at the Golddigger Charity Auction! It was amazing to have so many friends and supporters joining us for a night to celebrate the work of Golddigger Trust while enjoying free champagne, extremely tasty canapes, live jazz and scribbling down bids on the silent auction lots. It was great to see everyone getting appropriately rowdy for the main auction with prizes ranging from a night in a castle, to a signed picture of Dermot O’Leary (which actually brought in a ridiculous £52!), to a limited edition gold plated John Lennon disc, to tickets to see Snow Patrol, to a night in a Mongolian yurt, to a behind the scenes set tour of C4’s Shameless…and so so many more! Thank you to all who came for being involved in such a special night. We were overwhelmed both with the quality of the prizes which were so generously donated for the evening and with the generosity of all of you who came. The auction alone raised over £3000 and so far (as it just keeps coming in) we know the night has brought in over a whopping £6500! Wow!
We would like to say a special thank you to the Prince of Wales on Ecclesall Road for hosting such a brilliant event for us. (Do pop in there for a meal if you’re near by…we thoroughly recommend it, particularly if you fancy an amazing steak, and I promise they’ve not even asked us to say that!) Their provision of the beautiful venue, the food and drinks meant that every penny of the funds raised can go strait into Golddigger’s work with vulnerable children and young people.
If you would like to give a donation to this project or to become a regular supporter please visit our charity giving page where you will be able to gift aid your donation. If you would just like to have a look at some more photos from the Charity Auction Night you can check those out on our Golddigger Trust facebook page. Please ‘like’ us for regular updates on news, blogs and more exciting fundraising events!
Natwest Community Force Awards…and the winners are…
First things first THANK YOU! We had to keep it a secret for so very long but after all of the pestering and blogging and asking your aunties to pick up the phone to vote or register an email account YOU GUYS got us right to the very top of the Natwest Community Force award votes for this area and won it for us! We are SO grateful! Thank you so much for your support and for all the donations that have come in alongside for furniture, paint, tea, hot chocolate and running costs for our centre as well as completing our wish list of fridge, kettle etc. You guys are amazing!
And that’s not the extent of the good news - we are now about 4/5ths into raising what we need for this year and the project is in full swing. We also have just confirmed that our much needed boys project will be able to commence from January 2012 and we’ve had a great vision meeting today planning out what that will look like. We welcome Joel onto team Golddigger Trust who is going to head that up and develop some mentoring and life coaching with some of the most at risk teenage boys.
Sounds like we should have a party to celebrate, right? Well… we’re going to do that too - and you are invited! Put January 21st 2012 in your diaries! The Prince of Wales, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield are everso generously hosting a night for us in aid of raising more much needed funds for this project. You’re £15 ticket fee will go directly to this project whilst the Prince of Wales are donating yummy tasters of their new menu and champagne and cocktails on arrival. It’s a beautiful venue and there’ll be some live music and prizes just keep getting better and better for our amazing auction. All the details for the night are RIGHT HERE and keep checking over on that page for the updated list of the auction lots. We really hope you can join us (and it gives us ladies another chance to get our moneys worth out of our Christmas party dress!)
In the meantime… enjoy putting up your Christmas lights and singing santas!
Golddigger Trust have been at the forefront of self-esteem work in Sheffield and across the UK for over 6 years, being a registered charity (no 1120689) for the last 4 years. Golddigger Trust’s youth work specialists have developed innovative and creative projects to work with young people, showing them their true value and worth as a unique individual. Golddigger Trust have helped change the futu…res of thousands of young people over the last few years, however, there is still much more to be done. Recently Golddigger Trust have become aware of the need for ongoing support for the girls they work with, plus an urgent need for intervention with young girls who are becoming entrapped in sexual exploitation and grooming gangs right on our doorstep.
What happened to pass the parcel?!?
Well it’s all go in Golddigger HQ- we had a brilliant girls weekend away with 16 teenage girls from York, followed by half term which saw our office/girls course room get a big makeover- gone is the horrible 80s yellow, hello ivory!! :) 2 weeks ago we were also chuffed to hear that Trust Greenbelt (The charitable grant making arm of Greenbelt Festival) have decided to award us with £2000 towards our work! THANKS TRUST GREENBELT! And then we heard last week that the Church Urban Fund have awarded us a full grant of £5000 too… hurrah! We’re so thankful for the grant funding we’ve recieved recently which means we’ll be able to stay open next year. We should hear in the next few days if we got the Natwest Community Force grant… and a huge big thank you to all of your who voted, reposted, convinced your collegues and family and friends to vote- together we managed to mobilize a little army of Golddiggers which hopefully means we should be given £6000 thanks TO YOU! But back to what we’re all about…
I was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago and we were talking about her daughter, who has just moved into the heady realms of Y6 and the glorious age of 10! When I was 10, my life was taken up with blue peter, Nancy Drew books and wanting to be so grown up that I could have sparkly nail varnish. Birthday parties were held in the garden ,with obstacle courses and jelly, and maybe even a trip to the cinema or our first sleepover. It seems things have progressed rather quickly though, as 13 years later, at a friend’s birthday party, this lovely little 10 year old was greeted with champagne, served by the parents, before they were taught drinking games (with shots of lemonade of course!) Me, and my friend, were totally appalled, not only is it illegal to serve 10 year olds champagne- but also, why? What happened to pass the parcel and making exciting craft and party bags?! When did it get replaced with underage drinking and bitchy games? We were so proud of my friend’s daughter who was the only one who stood up to her friends (and their parents) and said no, that she wasn’t old enough and that she didn’t want to.Kids are acting older and older, younger and younger, now, and although we see articles in the press about push up bras for 7 year olds and children’s pole dancing kits in tescos, I think are more subtle things going on. Many researchers accredit this to Generation X (those born between the late 1960s and early 1980s) ‘s complex with being “friends” with their kids, rather than parents. and so if you’re a friend, why not give you kids alcohol, let them stop out all night, sleep with different guys, as long as they like you, right?!
When talking about our work, we regularly get asked about where the parents are in the whole situation, and thankfully, for some of the girls we’re working with, they have amazing parents who are so concerned about their daughter and are working really hard to try and help them. But for others, the parents lack support, having been teenage mums themselves, and they just don’t know what to do. Being friends with their daughter is all they’ve known, but as hormones hit and girls are co-erced away from their families by those who exploit them, they find their child slipping away from them as they lack the parenting skills to help.
At Golddigger Trust, we’re really keen to bring the family back together, and offer support to parents and siblings who are concerned about their daughter/sister and want to help. We provide long term support to the young women, but also give the family the skills and advice to be able to deal positively with the situation at home. We long to see girls reunited with their family and friends, given the opportunity to move forward and to make a better life for themselves.
Urgent appeal to save project from Mandy and Beth
I need to put this bluntly. We really need help in saving this project with some of the most needy teenage girls and children. The government SHOULD be doing more. There SHOULD be enough social workers available to support these girls and their families. Girls as young as 11 years old are being targeted for sexual exploitation. It is wrong and we MUST do all we can to stop this happening! There SHOULD be enough intervention work going on with the perpetrators of the sexual offences to reduce - and stop these situations happening - but there isn’t.
Some of the girls who have been identified as most at risk of sexual abuse, trafficking, repeated kidnapping, running away from home, grooming need to access support urgently. A lot of things can go very wrong in a very short space of time for these girls. We believe we should be stepping in where no one else is helping these girls. And amazingly we, as Golddigger Trust, are in a position to do so. The Sexual Exploitation Service (social services, the police and charity Taking Stock) have brought us in to refer girls to us from their waiting list. We are now working in some of these heartbreaking situations.
Currently we only have funding to keep this project going until this January - but we know the need will outlast that- YOU can be a crucial part of investing into these precious and vulnerable lives JUST by voting for us by midday tomorrow. (Monday 24th Oct) Help us to access some of the Natwest Banks charity grant funding to keep this project going. Its FREE and takes just 2 minutes of your time. You can freephone 0800 2100 246 or click this link http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/353 and register your vote for Golddigger Trust, Sheffield.
We are in with a really good chance of winning - but the votes between the top few projects are extremely close - your vote REALLY matters to us.
Thank you so much those of you who’ve been passionately spreading the word about this need. We are a tiny charity with a huge work load that we put everything into - your support is so valued Xx
Mandy and Beth
