*Y.C.* Social Support
My idea is to implement support groups through out neighborhoods that are known to be risky for women. This "riskiness" would be defined as a high number of brothels, low overall socio-economic status, a high amount of relative deprivation, and a high measure of disenfranchisement. This would begin in the riskiest neighborhoods of a developing country, and would be open to all women but specifically target women who have been victims of sex trafficking and human trafficking, abuse, prostitution, social stigmatization,and those suffering from disease.
This group would start with several trained individuals who will encourage these women to start a new chapter in their lives. This would happen through women starting their own businesses, that would be financed through microloans.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Patricia
Last Name
Tiffin
Website
Organization
Country
United States, IL
Are you an individual between the ages of 18 and 35 who would like to apply for a nine month Young Champions Program mentored by an Ashoka Fellow?
Yes
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Organization Website
Organization Phone
Organization Address
Organization Country
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Your idea
Name Your Project
*Y.C.* Social Support
Country your work focuses on
Describe Your Idea
My idea is to implement support groups through out neighborhoods that are known to be risky for women. This "riskiness" would be defined as a high number of brothels, low overall socio-economic status, a high amount of relative deprivation, and a high measure of disenfranchisement. This would begin in the riskiest neighborhoods of a developing country, and would be open to all women but specifically target women who have been victims of sex trafficking and human trafficking, abuse, prostitution, social stigmatization,and those suffering from disease.
This group would start with several trained individuals who will encourage these women to start a new chapter in their lives. This would happen through women starting their own businesses, that would be financed through microloans.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Support groups are not a new idea; however, groups that sustain themselves through continuous personal and community proliferation are unique. This idea is unique because it implements an ideological change, it has the potential to be self-sustaining, and observing these women change internally would bolster other women who are in need to join.
What makes this idea unique is that it executes an ideological change in these women's minds. This ideological change would improve mental and physical health of the women, the culture of oppression would be less commonly tolerated, and the community's economy would also increase because these individuals would have jobs.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
This project is still in the idea phase, therefore it has had little observable impact in the target community.
Problem
The problems being addressed by this project are poor community development, human trafficking, the slave trade, and public health measures.
The specific issues addressed in this project are the lack of jobs that are present in developing countries, which spurs people to take jobs in other countries. Individuals subsequently take these jobs, which also act as a cover for human traffickers who then sell these individuals in to a vulnerable situation.
Furthermore, if a person does become free of the slave trade, it is often difficult to find services for either mental or physical problems. Also, it is even more difficult to find a community that is willing to except them back.
Actions
The first step that would need to be taken is to find women that are in risky situations, such as prostitutes, sex slaves, and victims of abuse. These women would be recruited in to a safe house where they be taught life skills in order to gain independence and become self-sufficient. Mentors would be integral to this process, these mentors would start with basic life skill training, and then teach them business skills so they can become a reliably profitable entrepreneur. These women would then become the mentor for new women who would be entering in to this program.
Results
The results of this program would include the education of women resulting in higher economic growth, lower rates disease prevalence, and more successful futures for themselves, and their children. Additional results would include a culture that fights against the exploitation and oppression of women, therefore bolstering economic proliferation and making developing country no longer as poor.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year one:
The first thing to do is to make sure that funding for this program is planned out in detail. This would include room and board for all the women, medical expenses, staff expenses, as well as business expenses. This could be done through donations, microloans, funding from grants, also attaining partnerships with other organizations such as the Peace Corps, the World Health Organization, Partners in Health, or the United States Agency for International Development involved.
Secondly, in the first year it would be necessary to find a reliable safe house for these to stay and stay safe. In addition this house would need to be staffed with someone with trained experience dealing with human behavior who would be there at all times, to attend to the needs of the women both emotional and physiological.
Thirdly, is recruiting women in to this program, and maintaining a high rate of retention. This would come with high security risk, as well as any ties they may have such as family and friends.
In months 3-5 of this program drug dependency, physical problems, and life skill training would then be implemented in that order. In months 6-8 business training and mentorship would begin. Month 6 would be allocated to business determination for these women, they would decide what type of business they would want to start, and then start designing a business strategy. Month 7 would be dedicated to training, then it would be implemented in month 8.
Months 9-12 would be dedicated to ensuring the success of these businesses, and then these women would subsequently mentor for these three months, and then the program would end for that first round of women.
Year two:
Year two would be a repeat of the first year, the continued assurance of funding, and community proliferation. However, months 1-3 would be finding continued funding as well as the business training stage of the women. This would be designed such that months 9-12 would be dedicated to finding another location to start in a neighboring city with similar problems.
Year three:
This year is dedicated to maintaining and promoting success of the program at both locations. This opportunity would also be used to measure the level of outreach the first project had attained and base the proximity of the second house on those results in order to ensure a high success rate.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
A lack of funding would be a very big problem, in that it would prevent the safety of the women being recruited, because they would not have any housing, or there simply would be no money for security measures.
A lack of cultural acceptance would also be very detrimental to the success of this program because community acceptance plays a key role in this process.
Also, retention is very important for this program’s success. If there are no participants, the program would have no impact.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Is your organization a
Not registered
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating?
Less than a year
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
These partnerships are critical to the success of this innovation, in that they will provide for more funding and more exposure, which are integral in this idea's growth.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
The three most important actions that must be done in order to make this initiative grow, is to see this plan enacted, get positive exposure in the community in order to ensure its success, and measuring demographic response rates in order to know and understand who and how in the population is responding to this and what reactions the posses.
The Story
What was the defining moment that you led to this innovation?
The defining moment that led me to this innovation was when studying female genital mutilation in a Biological Anthropology class. This led me to do more research on the subject, which brought me to book after book discussing the culture and oppression that women across the world endure. Due to my desire to study Public Health on a professional level, I started looking at this from an epidemiological level. These people are being trading as commodities, essentially products of the oppressive culture of sex slavery. This oppression and lack control leads to high rates of stress, which subsequently increases susceptibility to disease, therefore exacerbating the problem. If sex slavery is not resolved and dealt with on a moral stance, then it will be approached from an epidemiological level. My idea is an innovation that combines both moral and logical perspectives by confronting sensitive cultural issues and linking disease rates.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
The social innovator behind this idea has a passion for pointing out severe injustices occurring in the world. She believes it is a human right that everyone ought to have the choice to do what wish with their bodies, and not what they are forced to. she also believes, understanding how people, society and culture interact from a non-biased view point is integral to understanding any kind of relationship present in the world.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
College or university
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
 | 108 weeks agoPatricia Tiffin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 113 weeks agoPatricia Tiffin said: Maternal health would be because it would providing women, who may or may not be mothers currently, services they would need to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 113 weeks agoJessica Sewall said: Hi Patricia, You have identified the need to provide support for women at risk to vulnerable situations such as trafficking, as well ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 114 weeks agoPatricia Tiffin updated this Competition Entry. |
| 116 weeks agoPatricia Tiffin submitted this idea. |
