Coins in Pool Aid Minneapolis Program for Sex Trafficked Youths

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — It’s hard to know what passersby were wishing for when they tossed coins into the pool in the atrium of the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis. In a perfect, symbiotic world, it might have been that their pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters would support programs that help youths escape the bonds of sex trafficking and rebuild their lives.

If that’s so, the spare change might help girls like Sarah, who was introduced to prostitution before she was a teenager. “When I was 11, one of my friends that I hung out with a lot was having sex and stuff with men due to some of her own family members pimping her ought to them,” she wrote of her experience the website of The Link, a nonprofit social services agency in Minneapolis. “Without realizing what I was getting into, I was right there with her.

“From then on I was in the life through different pimps and sometimes ‘on my own.’ It was horrible and I could go on about the things I went through but it was bad and I ended up getting addicted to crack, survived a lot of violence and everything else.”

When she turned 18, Sarah discovered The Link, a nonprofit that provides social services to Minneapolis area youths, and her life began to change.

Though gut-wrenching, her story is one of several website testimonials to the strength of The Link and its Passageways program, which provides emergency shelter and other services to youths 16-23 who have been ensnared in sex trafficking or sexually exploited in other ways.

And now Passageways is the latest charity to receive a donation, officials said as the pool was cleared of its loot on Tuesday. More than $18,000 has been collected for charity since 1988 in the four-times-a-year cleaning ritual, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The Passageways program, whose services are offered countywide, will use the money for hygiene items, bedding and towels, and craft items, as well as bus and cab fare, the program’s manager, Lorraine White, told the Star Tribune in an email.

County Commissioner Marion Greene tapped to designate the charity for the last collection of coins. Each time the pool is cleaned, one of the seven commissioners on the County Board is selected to designate a charity.

Photo: Public Domain