Reliever Jason Adam was an afterthought in the coverage of the Padres come-from-behind win. It was slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. who hit the dramatic home run, but it was Adam who was the winning pitcher.
But the next day, Wednesday, Adam was part of an even bigger moment in San Diego’s history – the story behind the creation of a safe haven for young victims of sex trafficking.
Adam was one of several speakers at the launch of a unique drop-in center, a place where the primary targets of sex traffickers, those aged 12 to 18, can get off the street, and obtain help and counseling with no hassles. The center will focus on those still experiencing abuse.
The launch is part of the effort by the nonprofit Olive Crest to provide options for youths who have been trafficked in San Diego.
Adam has four daughters, a strong motivation for him to do what he can to help Olive Crest succeed in San Diego.
He recalled how he and his wife Kelsey felt “wrecked” when they began learning about the trafficking of children in San Diego and “that there’s tons of kids being exploited sexually at age 13.
“It feels paralyzing to me to think about these kids out there,” he said.
Adam told the assembled media and public officials at the Wednesday morning press conference that he wanted to help, to make a difference in the lives of the young people who most often suffer abuse.
”I feel like I get to benefit from the city of San Diego a lot, the people, the fans, the weather, everybody that just comes alongside us as Padres. And I feel personally responsible” to try to help.
Olive Crest has launched an initiative across Southern California, with San Diego joining Anaheim, Bellflower, Coachella Valley and the “Figueroa Corridor” in Los Angeles, considered a busy “track” of prostitute and pimping activity.
The nonprofit is joined by the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, as well as San Diego County Health and Human Services in the effort, which is being funded by a $10 million grant from the state’s Department of Social Services to create the drop-in centers.
Tracey Prior, Chief Deputy District Attorney for the county, said that Olive Crest’s “work is critical in combating child sex abuse. Child trafficking victims cannot get safe if they are unwelcomed, unhoused and unsupported. This drop-in center is going to give the opportunity to victims to be safe in a place where our justice system can then have the opportunity to come in and do its work combating what we call the ugly truth of human trafficking. It’s ugly because it’s big.”
Donald Verleur, the CEO of Olive Crest who also attended the press conference, talked with Times of San Diego about his parents who founded Olive Crest in 1973. His father, Dr. Don Verleur, was a school teacher and counselor and was troubled because he “would see these kids were being abused and neglected,” Verleur said.
This would lead to his mother Lois and his father becoming active in fighting child abuse. They jumped right in, taking in four teenage girls to begin their effort, he said.
“They opened their first home for abused and neglected children in Orange County,” Velour said.
The effort grew over time, reaching out to a wider and wider circle of families in need. Then just five years ago, they were asked to run a residential home in Santa Barbara for sex- trafficked kids.
The nonprofit did a good job, says Verleur, and the state recognized it as “an organization that knows how to work with these kids that are minors.”
It was then that “California said, would you do this as a comprehensive initiative? And we decided to call it PROMISE,” for a program aimed at “preventing and restoring minors who have been trafficked.”
Said Adam, “I can’t think of a better place to put time, energy, and effort into than Olive Crest because all they do, they give their lives to protecting these kids that need it so badly.”
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