Transitioning Times

My name is Jamie G. and I am blessed to be Transitions new Legal Advocate for all of Northumberland County.   As a veteran of the United States Air Force , I was able to earn my first of three college degrees from the Community College of the Air Force.  I continued my education by earning an Associate degree in Criminal Justice from Luzerne County Community College and a Bachelor degree in Administration of Justice from Penn State University.   Finally, I capped off my educational pursuit by attending Widener University School of Law just before returning back to my hometown of Lewisburg.  I’m truly excited to be part of the Transitions team and can’t wait to utilize my training to help others. 

“But it’s their choice,” you might say. Well, I’d like to tell you why buying sex from a person is degrading and criminal even if the person is “choosing” to sell sex. First off, I do not like the terms “choose” or “choice” when it comes to prostitution. More often than you might think, prostitutes are actually forced to sell sex – otherwise known as sex trafficking.  According to rapeis.org the average age of entry into “sex work” is around 13-14 for girls (Farley, n.d.).  Other sources are estimating this number even lower. Because they are under 18, not able to consent to sex, they are actually victims of sex trafficking. As a result, a lot of women, so called, “choosing to sell sex” started off in sex trafficking and this is the only life they know. In my opinion, for the others who this might not be the case, there is almost always a reason or circumstance that leads to a person choosing to sell sex for a living. I do not believe that anyone truly wants to sell hi...

January is the National Human Trafficking Awareness Month and Sunday, January 11, is the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. What is human trafficking? It is the modern day slave trade, which is worse than it ever has been in history. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (n.d.), the Trafficking Victims Protections Act, defines human trafficking and sex trafficking in the following ways: “Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age, (22 USC § 7102). “Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bon...

This powerful video portrays how entry into sex trafficking can feel, as told by a survivor, GEMS founder Rachel Lloyd.

The end of 2014 has been traumatic.  Too many people are losing their lives to violence in general, and books can, and probably will, be written about this time in history.  What I would like to focus on in this post is specifically the shootings of law enforcement officers and the connection to domestic violence. On December 20th , two NYPD officers were shot and killed in their patrol car by  Ismaaiyl Brinsley, it is believed that he traveled to New York City after allegedly shooting his girlfriend in Baltimore. A Flagstaff, Arizona officer was shot and killed on December 28th while interviewing a suspect relating to a domestic violence case. I write this blog post not to solve the problem, or offer solutions on how to prevent law enforcement officers from being killed.  I am not nearly qualified enough to offer such advice or information.  I write this blog post to bring attention to the connection. Domestic violence abusers seek power and control. ...

We are pleased to introduce you to one of our Americorps volunteers, Missy! My name is Missy H. and I am a current Americorps Volunteer at Transitions. I graduated from Bloomsburg University in December 2013, after completing an internship with Transitions. I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Social Work along with a minor in Psychology and a concentration in Family, Children, and Youth. After graduation I spent a few months working as a waitress full-time, followed by 2 months spent on a mission trip living among the people of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation of southeastern Montana.  This past summer I came on board at Transitions again to do a paid internship for 12 weeks and in September, I started in the Americorps position. I have a side job as a waitress at Applebee's in Selinsgrove, where I have been employed for 4 years, but I am slowly working my way out of that job, thankfully.  I also attend Millersville University part-time where I am a year ...