GEMS: Helping Survivors of Sexual Exploitation Develop to Their Full Potential

In 1997, Rachel Lloyd came to the US to serve as a missionary and help women exit prostitution. While working with women on the streets and in correctional facilities, she noticed that young women at risk for sexual exploitation were being neglected by traditional social service agencies. Recognizing the overwhelming need for specialized services, Lloyd started Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) the following year with just a computer and $30.

A survivor of sexual exploitation herself, Lloyd founded GEMS to support girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Starting out as a one-woman kitchen table project, GEMS is now a nationally recognized and acclaimed organization – one of the largest in America and the only one in New York state that specifically serves commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked youth in the country.

GEMS provides girls and young women with empathic and consistent support as well as viable opportunities for positive change. The organization's services include prevention and outreach, direct intervention, holistic case management, transitional and supportive housing, and court advocacy. Following a multifaceted, holistic approach to sexual exploitation, GEMS bases its programs on the philosophy that every girl and young woman is deserving and needs help to treat the violence and trauma she has gone through. Additionally, GEMS advocates at the local, state, and national levels to promote policies that support those who have been commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked. Since its inception, the organization has helped hundreds of girls and young women ages 12 to 24 leave the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential.

An Ashoka Fellow and recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, founder Rachel Lloyd has been named one of “50 Women Who Change the World” by Ms. Magazine. She played a key role in the passage of New York's Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the US to end the prosecution of child victims of sex trafficking.