Tysheena Rhames

Youth Outreach Worker

As a GEMS’ Youth Outreach Worker since May 2010, Tysheena Rhames has provided preventive education, early intervention, and peer counseling to girls and young women in detention centers, group homes, residential facilities, and schools throughout the city. She has also supported the Training and Technical Assistance Department through entering data and has facilitated the financial aid component of the agency’s Educational Initiatives program.

Tysheena has helped to coordinate GEMS Annual HIV Awareness Week, CSEC/Trafficking Awareness Week, and New York State End CSEC Day. She also helped to edit GEMS’ White-Paper Project, “From Victim to Survivor, From Survivor to Leader,” which documents the experiences of GEMS’ members at GEMS, how they viewed these experiences, what they felt they’d learned, and what they need to feel supported in their development.

A powerful advocate and speaker, Tysheena helped to pass the New York Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act and has been interviewed for Dateline. She has presented at numerous Very Young Girls screenings, was part of the GEMS team that met with NYPD Commissioner Kelly to discuss the need for better police training when interacting with CSEC victims, and has met with partner organizations in the fight against CSEC to improve services for commercially sexually exploited girls and young women.

Tysheena is a role model to the members the agency currently serves. She plans to pursue a degree in psychology at the College of New Rochelle.