Members of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta learned in 2005 that worship wasn’t the only thing going on in the neighborhood: teenage prostitutes had begun working within a few steps of the church’s doors, according to a mayor’s report.

In the four years since then church has helped build a wide-ranging coalition with the goal of eradicating child prostitution from the streets of Atlanta.

Included in the fight are Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, conservative Christians, feminists, Jews, Muslims and others — united over the issue despite differences in other areas.

“When you talk to a girl who is 15 and has been prostituted, it doesn’t matter anymore if you are pro-life or pro-choice,” said Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), who has become active in the campaign. “You just want to help.”

The group isn’t waging their battle on the streets. Instead they have taken the campaign to the Legislature and waged fundraising efforts to help.

They provided hundreds of volunteers this year to lobby at the Capitol for anti-trafficking legislation and members also are paying for safehouses for child prostitutes, tripling the number of beds from seven to 23.

The nonprofit Juvenile Justice Fund estimates that 200 to 300 children are serving as prostitutes in Atlanta each month. The children’s backgrounds typically include chaotic home lives, abuse, acting out in school and expulsion, poverty, running away and being “rescued” by men who later pimp them.

North Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Rev. Scott Weimer remembers the mayor’s report, which contains stories like that of a 12-year-old Atlanta girl who was imprisoned by an adult pimp in a bedroom with barred windows. The girl was rescued by an aunt as the pimp was preparing to take her out of Georgia.

“If we are a congregation that extends the love of Christ first to our community, then to the world, what does this mean for us?” Weimer asked.

His congregation connected with members of the Regional Council of Churches, Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta and a group of largely suburban nondenominational churches that had formed Unite!, an organization dedicated to justice and social issues.

Together they formed “Street Grace,” the latter word an acronym for Galvanizing Resources Against Child Exploitation.

“Being a self-proclaimed feminist, I haven’t had much chance to work with the far right,” said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser on women’s issues for Mayor Shirley Franklin. “But the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children creates an automatic response in any human being.”



Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.