Introducing: Breaking Heels

Survivors Connect

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Feb 6, 2012, 9:27:04 PM2/6/12

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I have been given the great privilege of introducing our new social venture, called Breaking Heels to LSF this month! Below is a summary of our work, as well as a link to our venture summary. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on our work! (For those of you who recognize this email address from a previous LSF post, I also run a non profit called Survivors Connect, and this is a new/separate venture).

Breaking Heels™ is a social enterprise, which transforms the collective power of consumers into a financial force against human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). We have a patent-pending height adjustable high-heel shoe which will team up with iconic fashion brands to produce Breaking Heels branded shoes. A portion of the profits from each Breaking Heels shoe goes towards launching various offender and youth based programs in effort to decrease the demand for commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking, as well as funds for rehabilitation/social service provision for victims and survivors. It will also work to raise awareness about the issue of slavery and exploitation among consumers and ultimately address the demand side of the equation, which has affected thousands of communities worldwide.

The value proposition we offer is twofold. We provide a height-adjustable shoe that will improve the lives of consumers (via two-in-one shoe, more comfort and convenience), but also a product with a mission to combat human trafficking and CSE. As a result of our product and programs, communities will see various benefits including reduction of CSE and offenses of solicitation. Doing so will improve community safety, lessen curb violence, and reduce social and financial burden on the public sector.

Why are we called Breaking Heels? In popular culture and music, the phrase "breaking heels" often refers to the specific experience of young girls who are forcefully prostituted on the streets by pimps and johns. You can see a bit of background about this phrase and issue here http://www.breakingheels.com/the-problem. We are working to re-appropriate the term as a positive statement against commercial sexual exploitation.

We have chosen a social enterprising model because our founders have a deep commitment to combating human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in both a socially sustainable way. We believe that by setting our company up as a social enterprise, we are able to use for-profit techniques to reach a wider audience, raise awareness about our cause, and provide people with an easy way to get involved. Additionally, being a social enterprise allows us to have greater financial sustainability (which is not usually the case in the non profit sector), which ensures that our demand-reduction work continues. It is also worth noting that while TOMS Shoes has a similar business model to ours, we are not promoting a one-for-one model, which in their case means that the charitable outputs are essentially handouts (in TOMS case, shoes which are sent to developing countries). For a critique on TOMS, please check out this link. Our resulting work will be very targeted and strategic demand-reduction programs, which are rarely available and funded.

To see a glimpse of our business plan and presentation, please check out our slideshare here:http://www.slideshare.net/BreakingHeels/breaking-heels-height-adjustable-heel-shoe or our website atwww.breakingheels.com

We will soon be launching a Kickstarter page to raise funds to create injection molds for our shoe so we can mass produce them. We welcome any feedback and questions about the venture. As we are in a very early stage, any and all advice will be invaluable!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Aashika

Andrew Goldstein

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Feb 6, 2012, 9:33:01 PM2/6/12

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Hi Aashika,

Thanks so much for your description. I'm curious if you saw this article in GOOD about another TOMS-like shoe producing organization. http://www.good.is/post/how-oliberte-the-anti-toms-makes-shoes-and-jobs-in-africa/

I'm curious if you, too, are similarly thinking of job creation as what would be your third value proposition.

Andrew

Sasha Fisher, Spark MicroGrants

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Feb 9, 2012, 2:04:41 AM2/9/12

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Aashika,

Many thanks for posting about Breaking Heels. There is a clear need to support efforts fighting human trafficking and exploitation. I was wondering what programs on the ground the funds are supporting?

Thanks,

Sasha

--

Sasha Fisher

Executive Director | Spark MicroGrants

USA: +1 917 816 6727 | Rwanda: +250 78 253 5597 | Uganda: +256 71 861 6714

@sparkmg | blog | website

Pendo Mbilinyi

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Feb 9, 2012, 5:51:38 AM2/9/12

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Congrats and thanks for the post Aashika

--

Pendo Mbilinyi

Director

Njombe Usawa Women Association (NUWA)

PO Box 919, Njombe

Mob: +255 718 755 975

www.nuwa.or.tz

"Never doubt a small group of thoughtful people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead

Aashika Damodar

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Feb 15, 2012, 12:23:39 AM2/15/12

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Dear All,

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback on Breaking Heels! It is very encouraging! Allow me to address some of the specific questions below:

To Andrew Goldstein - YES! What an amazing additional value proposition we could add! I think this is something we would definitely like to do at some point, but we have had difficulty identifying communities where we can do this type of manufacturing in developing countries not in East Asia. However, a number of our colleagues have proposed linking our project with job skills training programs, where we may be able to do it on a smaller scale to start, and then work out way up to a point where we can have formal employment centers for Breaking Heels. That would be a dream!

To Sasha Fisher - Are you asking what is currently funded in anti-trafficking at large, or what Breaking Heels will fund? I think you may be asking the latter but please correct me if I am wrong! We have not officially begun sales yet so we are not supporting any programs. As an experienced anti-traffickinga activist, I have designed a few specific demand-reduction programs, which I am piloting in partnership with existing non profits, for example a young boys mentorship/coaching program where youth are paired with older (early college age) men to learn about dating, safe sex, what is sexual violence, and essentially work with boys through struggling teenage years in adopting safer/better behaviors that do not violate the rights of women. I am also working on a variant of the "john school" which is an offender education program geared towards men who buy sex. This is done in partnership with law enforcement and social service providers. This particular program is further enterprising, in that men who are arrested for solicitation are charged a fee to attend a "john school" education program on risks/issues in commercial sex, in addition to (or in leu of) conviction. Money generated goes towards future john schools/sustaining the program overall. All of these programs are geared to focus more on men, since very few are tried, let alone funded by the anti-trafficking movement at large.

If anyone has any other questions, suggestions or knows of ways to help, please let me know. Many thanks again for all you do!

Best wishes,

Aashika

Aashika Damodar
Founder, CEO
Survivors Connect
----
8370 Sunset Ave | Fair Oaks, CA 95628

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