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By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
August 21, 2013
Saint Paul School of Theology’s former campus in Historic Northeast could soon become a national model for addressing the needs of sexually exploited individuals.
Kansas City Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation (KC CASE) expects to finalize the sale of the campus in the next 80 days.
For 47 years, Saint Paul School of Theology called 5123 E. Truman Rd. home, but with dwindling financial resources, the school opted to consolidate its campus and move inside the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., beginning this fall.
Their move left behind a 217,000 square foot campus of nine buildings which includes three residence halls, a chapel, library, office building, a social, dining and meeting facility, among others.
“We consider it (campus) to be a real treasure,” said Steven Wagner, president and founder of Renewal Forum, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to abolishing human trafficking in the United States. “We took a look at the site and said not only could this be the place to provide us the shelter space that we’re looking for, a residential program targeting rehabilitation, this could be a campus of social service delivery; it could be a one-stop shop for people who are in need.”
In addition to providing transitional housing and counseling services for women and minors who are victims of sexual exploitation, the campus would also provide a number of programs open to the public, including a charter school, day care, early childhood development programs, adult education programs, English as a Second Language (ESL), GED, legal services, job training and possibly a health clinic. Wagner envisions KC CASE could use the Holter Center on campus to train individuals in hospitality and the culinary arts and operate a catering business out of the facility.
Although KC CASE will own the campus, it will seek out other organizations and government agencies to operate the programs, Wagner said.
From 2003 to 2006, Wagner served as the director of the Human Trafficking Program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As director, he created the “Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking” public awareness campaign, initiated a trafficking information and referral hotline and helped create local anti-trafficking community coalitions in 17 cities. Grants and other programs were also founded under his leadership to identify victims and further address their needs.
KC CASE, which also includes the Renewal Forum, formed in 2010 with the goal of abolishing commercial sexual exploitation in the Kansas City metro. Other founding organizations of KC CASE include Veronica’s Voice, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Human Rights Office and Ozanam Pathways.
WHY KANSAS CITY
One of the goals of KC CASE is to make Kansas City a model city for providing programming to address the needs of sexually exploited individuals and promoting the prosecution of sex crimes.
“It just happened that the doors opened here,” Wagner said. “There just are so many concerned citizens when we talk about this issue; so many people and organizations step forward to be involved.”
Sexually exploited victims are a severely underserved population, he said.
“We had this thing in the ’60s called the ‘Sexual Revolution’; our attitudes changed,” Wagner said. “We were told that this is a victimless crime and therefore we shouldn’t be concerned about it. We have to change the way society looks at this problem.”
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