{"id":44242,"date":"2019-10-30T11:48:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T15:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/?p=44242"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:47:19","slug":"the-boston-globe-boss-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/the-boston-globe-boss-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boston Globe: A \u2018Boss Lady\u2019 and a New Approach to Fighting Sex Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alumna Lisa Goldblatt Grace, a graduate of BU’s dual degree program in social work and public health, leads an effort to prevent sexual exploitation with her organization, My Life My Choice.<\/h4>\n

By\u00a0<\/strong>Stephanie Ebbert<\/span><\/strong>, The Boston Globe |\u00a0<\/strong>Full article<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A photo series lines the wall above Lisa Goldblatt Grace\u2019s desk: Serene but haunting black-and-white scenes from the paths along the Charles River.<\/span><\/p>\n

A girl who worked with Goldblatt Grace\u2019s organization, My Life My Choice, took the photos as part of a project retracing the steps of her abuse. Other girls in the program went to the hotels where they\u2019d been sold. This girl went back further, to a peaceful place, where she used to bike with her father, whose death set her on her own rocky path.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to go back to that moment before,\u201d as Goldblatt Grace put it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is how My Life My Choice sees the world \u2014 from the perspective of survivors \u2014 as it fights the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Goldblatt Grace is not herself a survivor, but her cofounder and more than half of the organization\u2019s 28 employees are. And they believe that the best way to promote understanding is by amplifying the real voices of real people. Audrey Morrissey, associate director and national survivor leadership director, tells chilling stories of working the Combat Zone as a prostitute during her awareness training talks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another photo on the wall focuses on the hands of a young survivor, wearing a bracelet that spells out, \u201chope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

My Life My Choice works with girls who are most vulnerable to exploitation \u2014 because they\u2019re already experiencing abuse or neglect or abandonment \u2014 pairing them with mentors who have survived the sex trade and training them to be savvy through a survivor-led curriculum.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to help prevent them from being exploited, they need more than a 45-minute awareness lecture in their high school,\u201d said Goldblatt Grace. \u201cThey needed in-depth information, skill building, support, relationships. They need to meet survivors and understand what the path in looks like and also what a path out looks like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"The
The crowded main room where Lisa Goldblatt Grace.\u00a0SUZANNE KREITER\/GLOBE STAFF\/GLOBE STAFF<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


About a third of the organization\u2019s funding comes from city, state, and federal funding, a third from philanthropic contributions or foundations, and a third from reimbursements for training. The organization began running its program in one group home or juvenile justice setting at a time, and federal grants helped the group promote and circulate its curriculum. Trained facilitators in 33 states now work with programs around the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the group\u2019s work is showing positive results. A recent study by researchers from Northeastern and Boston University, published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, found that young teenagers who went through the Exploitation Prevention Curriculum showed signs of being less at risk for commercial sexual exploitation, including reporting fewer episodes of sexually explicit behavior and less dating abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Life My Choice is among the agencies housed in a former school that was converted into the Family Justice Center on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton. Created by the late Mayor Thomas M. Menino and former Suffolk district attorney Daniel F. Conley, the Family Justice Center serves as a single destination for families to meet with police and prosecutors in the same building where they visit victim advocates and mentoring programs such as My Life My Choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the wall also displays phone numbers to call \u201cin case of emergency\u201d: police department extensions for the detectives\u2019 offices, the domestic violence unit, and the sexual assault unit. […<\/a>]

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read the full article on The Boston Globe website:<\/em>\u00a0https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/business\/2019\/10\/17\/one-boss-lady-powered-collective-strong-women\/SzkCnk7mgEgpu2BMhWrEgP\/story.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumna Lisa Goldblatt Grace, a graduate of BU’s dual degree program in social work and public health, leads an effort to prevent sexual exploitation with her organization, My Life My Choice. By\u00a0Stephanie Ebbert, The Boston Globe |\u00a0Full article A photo series lines the wall above Lisa Goldblatt Grace\u2019s desk: Serene but haunting black-and-white scenes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14869,"featured_media":44250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7428,4057],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44242"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80923,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44242\/revisions\/80923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}