Vednita Carter is an American anti-sex trafficking activist, author, and executive director of the "Breaking Free" organization which helps women escape prostitution.
Biography
Carter grew up in
Twin Cities,
Minnesota. Unable to afford college, she responded to an ad looking for dancers, which turned out to be an ad looking for strippers.[1][2][3] Carter saw many women in her profession migrate to prostitution, she said it was a "stepping stone to prostitution". She worked in the industry for a year before she was able to escape.[1]
In 1989, Carter began to work with women in prostitution in Minnesota at a different agency, which later closed, and became program director.[4] In 1996,[5] Carter founded Breaking Free, an organization that aids girls and women in exiting prostitution.[6] She subsequently became this organization's executive director,[7] and the program expanded to offer more support, including: "emergency services such as food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance, legal assistance to victims of trafficking".[4] By 1998, the organization rented an apartment block to permanently re-house women and girls, and by 2010, they had more apartments and three "transitional houses".[4] In 2015, the housing block named "Jerry's Place", after
Sgt. Gerald Vick, was closed due to funding issues.[8]
In their book Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice, Francine Sherman and Francine Jacobs call Carter "a leading service provider for exploited women and girls".[9]
In 1996, Carter founded the organization Breaking Free. Breaking Free is a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota with the goal of helping women escape prostitution.[13] Breaking Free provides a variety of services to the women. These services include food, clothing, and emotional support. Breaking Free also provides addiction services, permanent and temporary housing, as well as legal assistance and job training.[14] The services are offered with no strings attached.
Since 1996, Breaking Free has helped over 6,000 women.[14]
Carter also established a "John School", which educates men arrested for solicitation about the effects of their actions to persuade them not to solicit again. Carter believes that as long as men continue to purchase sexual favors, sex trafficking will not end.[14]
Awards
Carter won the 2010 Survivor Centered-Service Provider category from the
Norma Hotaling Award.[4]
Carter was one of six women granted the Women of Distinction award by
Century College in 2012.[15]
Carter was awarded the Path Breaker Award from Shared Hope International in 2014. That same year, she was also named a CNN Hero.[13]
In 2015, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, Ambassador-at-Large and Chaplaincy from CICAInternational University and Seminary.[13]
Selected bibliography
I know that working with women and girls who have been used in prostitution/trafficking is my destiny in this life. ... it is what I am meant to do. When I think about the millions of women and children throughout the world who are exploited and have no other options to change the course of their life, I feel compelled to do all that I can do to help them in some way.
—Vednita Carter explaining her motivations for her work[4]
Carter, Vednita (2004). "Prostitution and the new slavery". In
Whisnant, Rebecca; Stark, Christine (eds.). Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography. North Melbourne, Victoria: Spinifex Press. pp. 85–88.
ISBN9781876756499.
Carter, Vednita (2004). "Providing services to African American prostituted women". In
Farley, Melissa (ed.). Prostitution, trafficking and traumatic stress. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press. pp. 213–222.
ISBN9781136764905.
Pdf.
Carter, Vednita; Giobbe, Evelina (2006). "Duet: prostitution, racism and feminist discourse". In Spector, Jessica (ed.). Prostitution and pornography: philosophical debate about the sex industry. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 17–39.
ISBN9780804749381.
^Sher, Julian (2011), "High-risk victims", in
Sher, Julian (ed.), Somebody's daughter: the hidden story of America's prostituted children and the battle to save them, Chicago:
Chicago Review Press, p. 36,
ISBN9781569765654, Vednita Carter, an African American stripper turned activist ...
^Sherman, Francine T.; Goldblatt Grace, Lisa (2011), "The system response to the commercial sexual exploitation of girls", in Sherman, Francine T.; Jacobs, Francine H. (eds.), Juvenile justice: advancing research, policy, and practice, Hoboken, New Jersey:
John Wiley & Sons, p. 336,
ISBN9780470497043.
^Belles, Nita (2011), "What's love got to do with it? Absolutely nothing!", in Belles, Nita (ed.), In our backyard: a Christian perspective on human trafficking in the United States,
Nashville,
Tennessee:
Free River Press, p. 117,
ISBN9780615451800.