Carson City non-profit is working to end human trafficking of both adults and children in the rural counties

Ten years ago, Brenda Sandquist sat in a Carson City hair salon when she noticed a woman who had come in to get her hair done. Sandquist was shocked to see patches of hair missing from the woman's head.

She asked the hairstylist if the woman may be suffering from cancer, but she told her it was the result of a “rough episode” while engaging in sex work with a client.

“That was just my eye-opening moment to say it’s not all fun and games, that there's violence that happens,” Sandquist said.

Sandquist decided then that she would become an advocate against sex trafficking and abuse.

She founded Xquisite, a non-profit organization based in Carson City. Their mission: to empower every woman to embrace the truth that no matter what life has presented, her value remains strong.

While the organization has now grown to include domestic violence and sexual assault of women and children, Xquisite’s original focus was on women who were human trafficked and sexually assaulted back when the non-profit was established in 2012.

Sandquist said the misconception of sex work being empowering and loved by the women who perform it is common among people in the local communities who see the profession as a conscious choice young women make.

Hoever, factors like poverty, homelessness and loneliness can lead to sex work. Sandquist called these “on-ramps”, where women are vulnerable in their life and can easily be exploited. This is common right now with many women and children being stuck at home due to COVID-19 restrictions, said Sandquist.

Nicole Reilly who works in the Attorney General’s office and is a member of the Committee on Domestic Violence, often works side-by-side with Sandquist and Xquisite. She also used the example of “on-ramps” to explain a cycle of abuse she sees with women who come through the program.
“Poverty, lack of options, previous abuse,” Reilly listed. “89 percent of Xquisite’s victims, when canvased, were sexaully assalted as a minor beginning as young as the age of 3.”
Reilly said School Resource Officers (SROs) within the Carson City and Douglas County School Districts are now seeing the signs of grooming from abusers beginning in students as young as middle school. A center in Reno called Awaken provides resources for sexual abuse, which SROs and juvenile probation officers alike were in need of in Carson City and Douglas County.

“These committees were biting at the bit to have a local service provider that will specifically deal with sexual exploitation and trafficking,” Reilly said.

Sergeant Matt Smith is head of the School Resource Officer program through the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. He and his team of SROs work in conjunction with school administrations throughout the district to provide a safe resource for students to utilize in times of need.

“We want to educate the parents, the children, and really provide services to help overcome dangers,” Smith said. “We want our community to feel safe and feel they always have someone to reach out to.”

Similar to the grooming Sanquist found among minors referred to Xquisite, Smith and his team make it a priority to educate students and parents alike about the dangers of social media being readily available for use by underage children.

“A lot of (trafficking) is now being derived from social media and the internet, and with the children in this day and age, it seems that every child in our community has a cell phone,” siad Smith. “They have internet access or service to some kind of application, which can easily be perpetrated by someone who’s looking for wrongdoing.”

Smith said phishing schemes are one way in which online predators try to solicit information or procure explicit photographs from children over the Internet. Smith hosts training on phishing education and awareness, involving both students and parents, to eliminate these possibly dangerous circumstances.

“We like to educate the kids on being careful and showing examples of what kind of acts we are seeing that are luring kids into doing something they shouldn’t be doing, or being influenced into doing,” Smith said.

Through education of these potentially harmful encounters, SROs around the Carson City area are doing their part to be involved in the lives of students in positive ways that may not be reciprocated at home with parents or guardians.

“Our biggest driving points are building a meaningful relationship and encouraging kids to build their self-esteem and self-worth,” Smith said. “We want them to stop focusing on the shortcomings that are in their lives and the failures they may have experienced, and to focus on their goals in life and how to achieve those goals.”

Awareness of these situations in a small community is important in order to bring traumatic circumstances into the light. Once awareness happens, and people are conscious of such traumas, this is where real change stems from, according to Sandquist.

“We always want to bring it back to ‘it’s a person’ and what if it was your daughter, your sister, your mother,” Sandquist said. “If people began to think of it that way, I think we could shift the atmosphere a little bit on that.”

Sandquist quickly began forming relationships within the Carson City community and beyond to further her mission with Xquisite. The Diamond Strong Freedom Center, dubbed after their motto “Diamond Strong”, boasts a wide variety of services for incoming women to the program. Services such as job skills training, financial literacy training, counseling services and even a 24-hour emergency help hotline can all be found within the organization.

“We talk with them,” Sandquist said. “We’ll ask, ‘what’s your dream, what do you want to do? How can we help you?’ We want them to choose what they want to do, we don’t want to say ‘here’s our program and here’s what you need to do.’”

Xquisite’s partners in the community help provide resources for women to begin on their journey to a different life, a life with a well-paying job, a stable home, and hope for the future. Women are able to receive training certifications in cosmetology, CNA licensing, and bookkeeping to quickly begin earning a livable wage.

“One thing I’m super excited about with Xquisite is how many pathways of opportunities that Brenda has actually developed with the community,” Reilly said. “Accessing their needs, how to get them stabilized, and then looking to the future. We've got a ton of options.”

A sister organization of Xquisite’s, Awaken Reno, also has a mission to serve woman who are victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Sandquist finds it important to have a resource center closer to the smaller, rural communities of Carson City, Lyon County and beyond.

“There are not a lot of services for our rurals, so that’s why we want to be here, as a resource,” Sandquist said. “That’s important for our community: to be aware, to look in young ladies’ eyes -- you can always tell a lot by their eyes -- and just then be a part of change.”

Sandquist said she meets with local law enforcement to ensure women and children in dangerous situations are referred to her and the services of the Diamond Strong Freedom Center. Xquisite also facilitates public training to promote community awareness of human trafficking.

“We’re working hand-in-hand with law enforcement,” Sanquist said. “We want to be good citizens. We want our community to be a part of the solution and change. We’re building community events so people know we’re here. We want to be a help.”

Other services offered within the organization include connections to the financial aid and academic counseling offices at Western Nevada College, resume building and interviewing skills, and even a direct contact to the Small Business Administration for free business planning for those who have a dream to pursue their own start-up.

“It's a small community, and in this community, Brenda’s been able to get real personal relationships,” Reilly said. “That’s what I love to focus on, the outcomes of what can be provided through Xquisite. It’s really about opportunities, people are just stuck in victimization and trauma and violence. I want them to realize they don’t have to live like that, and that’s not all that exists or what’s possible for them.”
Xquisite’s namesake was founded under the ideals of a diamond being mined from underneath the earth, where the jewel is developed in the dark with heat and pressure. Once the diamond is uncovered, cut and polished, the value of it skyrockets.

“No matter what’s buried you in your life, we believe you can have purpose and have that diamond come out and have value,” Sandquist said. “We try to instill that into each woman, that they have great value and potential and we just want to walk with them when they’re ready.”
To learn more about Xquisite, visit https://www.xquisite.org/