For seven years (2006-2013) Britt Bravo interviewed over 70 people with Big Visions for a better world. You can contact her through her website, brittbravo.com.
Nola Brantley is the Parenting and Youth Enrichment Director, and
the Coordinator of the Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited
Youth Program at the George P. Scotlan Youth Program in West
Oakland.
According to Nola, not only is the sexual exploitation of minors
increasing, "the young ladies are getting more savvy because some
of them, who went in at 14, are now 16 or 17. They're
recruiting 12 or 13 year olds. . . . We have girls that come from
out of state to prostitute in Oakland who are under 18 and I've
asked them, 'Well, how did you end up in Oakland?' They say, 'Don't
you know that everywhere else, coming to Oakland to do your thing
is a big thing?'"
One of the many aspects of Nola's job is to be an advocate for
young girls who are arrested for prostitution and she is often
called upon to use her expertise in the field of sexually exploited
minors to train clinicians and case managers in Oakland and the
surrounding counties.