Vednita Carter

Vednita Carter is an American anti-sex trafficking activist, author, and executive director of the "Breaking Free" organization which helps women escape prostitution.

Vednita Carter
Born
Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Author
  • activist
Years active1996–present
TitleFounder and executive director of Breaking Free

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]

Carter has been published in Hastings Women's Law Journal,[10] the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, and the Journal of Trauma Practice.[11] Carter contributed the piece "Prostitution = Slavery" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.[12]

Activism

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]

Chapters in books
  • Carter, Vednita (2003). "Prostitution = Slavery". In Morgan, Robin (ed.). Sisterhood is forever: the women's anthology for a new millennium. New York, New York: Washington Square Press. pp. 315–324. ISBN 9780743466271. Details.
  • 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. ISBN 9781876756499.
  • 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. ISBN 9781136764905. 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. ISBN 9780804749381.

Journal articles

References
  1. Savarese, Lynn; Abolitionists, New. "The Believer: Vednita Carter". www.worldwithoutexploitation.org. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  2. Williamson, Celia (2008), "Abolitionist approach to prostitution (present-day advocates)", in Renzetti, Claire M.; Edleson, Jeffrey L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence, 1, Sage Publications, p. 2, ISBN 9781412918008.
  3. 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, ISBN 9781569765654, Vednita Carter, an African American stripper turned activist ...
  4. "2010 Norma Hotaling Award Recipients". Global Centurion. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  5. Coolidge, Sharon (18 August 2006). "Out of 'the life,' they learn to live". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  6. Budig, Susan (27 October 2007). "Prostitution: Should it remain a crime?". Twin Cities Daily Planet. Twin Cities Media Alliance. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  7. Baran, Madeleine (27 October 2009). "Group holding vigil to remember victims of prostitution-related violence". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  8. Norfleet, Nicole (11 February 2015). "Breaking Free to close Jerry's Place housing for trafficked girls". Star Tribune. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. 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, ISBN 9780470497043.
  10. 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, ISBN 9780615451800.
  11. Dismantling Rape Culture Conference. "2013 Keynote Speaker: Vednita Carter founder and executive director of Breaking Free: "Sex trafficking/prostitution, racism and slavery"". University of Vermont. Archived from the original on 10 October 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  12. Carter, Vednita (2003), "Prostitution = Slavery", in Morgan, Robin (ed.), Sisterhood is forever: the women's anthology for a new millennium, New York, New York: Washington Square Press, pp. 315–324, ISBN 9780743466271. Details.
  13. "World Without Exploitation". www.worldwithoutexploitation.org. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  14. Toner, Kathleen. "Helping women escape 'the life'". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  15. Livingstone, Nancy (16 November 2012). News release: Century names women of distinction for 2012 (PDF). Minnesota: Century College. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
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