WestCoast Children`s Clinic Partners with Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (M.I.S.S.S.E.Y)

A Collaboration to Prevent the Sexual Exploitation of Children
OAKLAND, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
WestCoast Children`s Clinic (www.westcoastcc.org), a community psychology clinic
serving youth and families in the Bay Area, announced today that it will partner
with M.I.S.S.S.E.Y, a non-profit based in Alameda County. The collaboration
joins two community based groups that can now further help commercially sexually
exploited children. There are two components to WestCoast Children`s Clinics
involvement: data collection and analysis; as well as mental health services for
this population of exploited youth. This complements the mission of
M.I.S.S.S.E.Y in addressing the specialized and complex needs of commercially
sexually exploited youth through advocacy, specialized treatment, and recovery
services; in addition to professional training and data reporting. WestCoast
Children's Clinic`s partnership with M.I.S.S.S.E.Y represents a continuing
commitment to children that communities often fail to protect.

"Whether we are aware of it our not, children are being bought and sold for sex
- sometimes in our own neighborhoods. Our partnership is really the best
marriage between an advocacy organization and a community psychology clinic,"
said Stacey Katz, Executive Director of WestCoast Children`s Clinic.

In this partnership, WestCoast Children`s Clinic has three priorities: 1)
increasing the understanding of how complex trauma impacts these youth, 2)
helping commercially sexually exploited girls regain a sense of themselves
through intensive case management, and 3) collecting relevant and useful data on
commercially sexually exploited children.

According to Katz, "the faster we can collect data on the children who are most
vulnerable to exploitation - the faster we can stop it."

About West Coast Children`s Clinic

West Coast Children's Clinic (www.westcoastcc.org) is a private, non-profit
children`s community psychology clinic serving the greater San Francisco Bay
Area with facilities in the East Bay. The Center was founded in 1979 by faculty
and students of the Wright Institute graduate school. Today the Clinic serves
over 1500 children annually with a professional clinical staff of more than 50.
Services are clinic based, school based, or home based and last for as long as
they are needed. The Clinic`s mission is simple, to provide consistent
psychological services for children, adolescents, and their families. Most of
the children and families served live in high-risk environments and the Clinic
provides care regardless of their ability to pay. Over the years West Coast has
trained over 300 therapist interns, provided an estimated 450,000 hours of
therapy and assessment services to more than 8,000 ethnically diverse children
and families.

West Coast Children`s Clinic

Helping children discover who they are and what they can become.

West Coast Children's Clinic
April D. Fernando, PhD, 510-269-9098
Director of Research and Training
afernando@westcoastcc.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009