Updated: December 18, 2020

When Rachel Lloyd came to the United States to work with organizations serving adult women emerging from the commercial sex industry, she didn’t see herself working with youth at first. It wasn’t until she started visiting Rikers High School for Girls in NY, and one of the largest jails in the country, that she realized she connected with these girls on a level they likely had not experienced before. Rachel realized that through her own experiences, she was able to connect with young women and girls who had found themselves in a similar situations to Rachel’s past.

As Rachel describes in her book, Girls Like Us, it wasn’t long until the girls started sharing with Rachel. Sharing their own stories and pain, and recognizing that Rachel was able to understand on some level. In the book, Rachel describes how horrified, shocked, and saddened she had been by numerous stories and cases of girls she worked with. How she is constantly reminded of the pain and violence brought on by pimps and johns (sex buyers). And beyond that, the pain caused by the stigma and lack of care or resources that are available to young girls in these situations. Girls who were as young as 11, and the overwhelmingly majority were, and often still are, low-income girls of color.

So in 1998, Rachel founded Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS). Since then, GEMS has served as the nation’s leading organization for empowering commercial sexually exploited and domestically trafficked girls and young women. GEMS is New York’s first - and only - organization designed to provide trauma-informed strengths-based services. In the last 20+ years, GEMS has serviced thousands of girls and young women.

GEMS’s unique Victim, Survivor, Leader™ program model has received the title of gold standard for organizations serving trafficking victims and survivors across the country. In addition, GEMS trains thousands of professionals every year on its best practices.

At GEMS, it is believed that commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking are systemic problems of a world where girls are not valued and where poverty, racism, and sexism exist. We here at Rollerskate to Liberate believe in this as well. And our communities and citizens deserve better.

“If we’re going to address trafficking in our country, we have to address poverty, racism, and gender-based violence.” - Rachel Lloyd.

A huge part of Rollerskate to Liberate’s mission is to empower survivors. While Rollerskate to Liberate does support and work with survivors through contract and membership opportunities, we don’t currently offer programs built for survivors. This is why we turn to existing organizations that do.

Our first partnership with GEMS began for our “Giving Tuesday” fundraiser. 10% of all donations received over a month’s period, a total of $142.44, went directly to the members of GEMS.

Donate now to support RS2L and our partners! To learn more about GEMS and support them directly, visit here.

Think you know of an organization that deserves fundraising support? Contact Us and tell us all about it! We prioritize supporting directly to survivor-led long-term care programs.