Teen is up to the challenge

Of the three topics being tackled by the St. Paul Youth Commission this year, there's little doubt which one is the most difficult and controversial — and there's also little doubt 16-year-old Franceska Moua is up to the challenge.

The De La Salle High School student and St. Paul West Side youth activist is a member of the Youth Commission's subcommittee on sex trafficking. As such, she has the unenviable task of trying to raise awareness and form community partnerships around a subject that many adults — including parents — don't even want to admit exists.

It's a tall order, but Franceska and other members of her youth group say they believe it's worth the considerable effort and have chosen to bring it to the forefront because it's an extremely relevant problem for teens. Their strategy is to present the sex trafficking issue in a "youth-to-youth way" that removes the taboos and judgments many adults bring to the table regarding it.

"One of the main things we've all talked about is how to introduce the topic in a way where it's welcoming, so that people, especially youth, are more willing to talk about it," she said. "It's so controversial that some adults are uncomfortable to even hear certain words, so we wanted to have it be a youth-to-youth conversation.

"We don't want it to be a lecturing-type situation. We want it to be an open conversation where people can express their opinions. Some parents don't want their kids to know about such things."

The teen activist says that perhaps because of the taboos associated with it, the problem of sex trafficking of minors, much like cyberbullying before it, is being swept under the rug by adults.

"Everyone on our subcommittee is on the same page in realizing that this is something that we don't want to become a social norm," she said. "We compare it to bullying, and cyberbullying especially. Our world doesn't pay attention to problems that affect youth until they hit a crisis, and we don't want it to reach a crisis because after that it's harder to bring down.

Franceska says she has seen the FBI statistics identifying the Twin Cities as one of the 13 U.S. cities with large concentrations of child prostitution enterprises. The Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force, run by the state Department of Health, cites studies indicating that minority girls are especially at risk, including one finding that among Minneapolis African-American women engaged in prostitution, half had first traded sex at an average age of 13.

Her goal is to use grant funding provided to the Youth Commission by the St. Paul Children's Collaborative and the nonprofit Youthprise to set up a student-run educational conference in the spring, in which she aims to use her networking talents to gather community resources committed to preventing sex trafficking together under one roof.

The rest of the subcommittee's budget is being given as a direct donation to the nonprofit 180 Degrees, which this year opened a youth services campus on St. Paul's East Side that includes a shelter for sexually exploited girls.

"It's very important that (the conference) be taught by youth, that we teach it ourselves," she said. "It's more one-on-one that way. It won't seem like it's a teacher telling you, 'This is information you need to stick in your head.' We want it to be conversational. That way it stays with you and you are more open to speak about it."

But she admits it hasn't been easy so far.

But, she quickly added, she remains optimistic, and with the help of her fellow youth commissioners and adult program advisers, is finding ways to overcome obstacles.