SARAI THEOLINDA SMITH MAZARIEGOS
Sarai has been helping high-risk youth in various capacities for over 15 years and has achieved groundbreaking strides in her field. She has worked with survivors of domestic violence, domestic minor sex trafficking, runaway/homeless youth, foster care/probation minors, group homes/shelters, and juvenile courts. In the last 13 years, she has specifically supported commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) with various services.
Sarai is a specialist in crisis intervention and trauma-informed care services for women and children who are at risk or have experienced domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) and/or sexual abuse. She has extensive knowledge in residential and direct services management, victimology, youth development, and program and resource development, community building though awareness and teach-in events, advocacy in addressing gender violence and social injustice with young girls. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the City of Oakland CSEC Task Force, Program Committee Co-Chair of San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking, member of SBCEHT-No Traffick Ahead, CEASE (Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation) Network and Former Co-Chair of Alameda County Sexually Exploited Minors Network.
Sarai is also one of the four Co-Founders of MISSSEY and former Chairwoman for MISSSEY's Board of Directors. She was previously the Youth Support Center Site Supervisor & CSEC Program Coordinator for Alameda Family Services-DreamCatcher Runaway/Homeless Youth Services Division, where she managed a support center, provided a variety of support services to high-risk youth and coordinated the development of the first Alameda County CSEC Home, Nika's Place of Alameda Family Services, which is opening soon. She is also Founder, CEO of Survivors Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment (S.H.A.D.E.) – which is a survivor-run consulting, advocacy human trafficking organization, that provides trainings, public speaking, crisis intervention-victim/survivor advocacy, program and policy development, awareness events, peer counseling and survivor leadership. Sarai's commitment to the young people she works with has proven her to be a prevailing force in the area of CSEC-specific services. Survivor Leadership!
Regina Evans
Regina Y. Evans, a native of Oakland, California, is a Poet, Playwright, Actor, Entrepreneur, Modern-Day Abolitionist and a Survivor Leader in the fight against sex trafficking. She is the owner of Regina's Door, a vintage boutique located in Oakland, CA. Regina's Door is an artistic safe haven and healing sanctuary for at-risk youth, homeless youth, young Oakland Creatives and survivors of human trafficking. Regina's Door was honored to receive the 2015 Oakland Indie Award for Social Changemaker. Ms. Evans holds a Performing Artist residency at the Flight Deck, Oakland, CA. Her most current stage play, 52 Letters (writer, producer, director, performer), a poetic stage play bringing awareness to the issue of sex trafficking in the United States, was honored to win a Best of 2013 San Francisco Fringe Festival Award.
Additionally, Ms. Evans has performed 52 Letters in venues including the Berkeley Festival of Ideas (Excerpt performance, Berkeley Repertory Theatre); The Flight Deck (Oakland, CA), The Marsh Theatre (San Francisco, CA), 2015 Freedom Summit (Santa Clara, CA), Merritt College (Oakland, CA), Eliza's Pearl Arthouse (Oakland, CA), Rescue Is Not Enough Trafficking Awareness Event (San Jose, CA), YWCA of Silicon Valley Anti-Trafficking Freedom Week Event (San Jose, CA), The Ignite Conference/UC Berkeley (Berkeley, CA), Human Trafficking Freedom Seder, Beth Am Congregation (Los Altos, CA), 2013 DIVAS Tell All Series (The EXIT Theatre, SF, CA), and the 2013 DIVA fest, (EXIT Theatre, SF, CA). As a Modern Day Abolitionist, Ms. Evans volunteers with Love Never Fails, a Bay Area Anti-Trafficking organization founded by Vanessa Marie Johnson Russell. She is also a member of the S.H.A.D.E. Project (Survivors Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment), a survivor run consulting/advocacy organization, founded by Social Justice Advocate and Survivor Leader Sarai Theolinda Smith-Mazariegos.
Ms. Evans is a board member of the non-profit Seek and Save which serves Bay Area at-risk youth by providing mentoring and financial resources. Seek and Save was founded by Humanitarian Mark Fisher. Ms. Evans has traveled extensively throughout the world and resided in Sydney, Australia where she operated and owned The Diva's Closet Vintage Clothing Boutique which catered to a celebrity clientele including Beyonce, Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Claudia Karvan, Bridie Carter, and Georgie Parker. The boutique was also a costume and red carpet styling resource for the Australian theater, music, television and movie industries. Her dresses were seen at Cannes Film Festival, MTV Awards, Aria Awards, Logie Awards, and AFI Awards.