To see her today, one would not surmise that a decade ago Olivia was a bleak statistic. Then, she was one of an estimated 16,000 women and girls who, according to research by the Center for Impact Research, earn a living in prostitution on the streets of Chicago. Olivia, now known as a survivor of prostitution, was rescued from a life of sex, drugs and abuse by a social service outreach agency and today is the subject of a new book, “Listening to Olivia: Violence, Poverty and Prostitution,” (2004, Northeastern University Press). She is committed to bringing optimism to women who find themselves trapped in dangerous lives on the streets.

Olivia will tell her riveting story at a program sponsored by the DePaul College of Law’s Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center at 3:30 p.m. May 24 at the Egan Urban Center, 243 S. Wabash Ave., 9th Floor. Edwina Gateley, the founder of Genesis House, a haven for women on the streets, also will speak at the program. Gateley helped Olivia during her recovery and continues to advocate protecting women in prostitution from violence, drugs and the criminal justice system. Laura Washington, DePaul’s Ida B. Wells-Barnett professor and a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, will pose questions at the program. Jody Raphael, who authored “Listening to Olivia,” will sign copies of the book along with Olivia following the discussion. Raphael is a senior research fellow at the Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center.

When Olivia was just a sophomore in high school, she left her home in a public housing development on Chicago’s South Side. She was running from the violence and alcohol addiction that plagued her family in hopes of finding a better life. A month after leaving home, however, Olivia found herself working in a strip club as a dancer¯a job that eventually demanded that she “service” clients in a secreted back room. In order to stomach the job, Olivia turned to drugs and alcohol, which led her on a decade long, downhill spiral that ended when she was homeless, hopeless and near death.

“You learn to put up with a few things, and every time you do an act, it better prepares you to do a little bit more next time,” said Olivia in describing how she became ensnared in prostitution. “You kinda desensitize yourself to what is really happening and you are using more and more alcohol.”

Olivia’s life took a dramatic turn when she was plucked from the street by a caring outreach worker who helped put her on the road to recovery. Her life today is far from the one filled with abusive men and drugs that she once knew so well. She currently works as a director of addiction services at a community counseling program where she supports drug-dependent women. She hopes sharing her personal experiences will provide a beacon of hope for other women caught in the grips of prostitution, drugs and abuse.

“This is a story that had to be told,” said Raphael who picked Olivia’s story as the second in a series of books that explore the plight of women. Her first book examined women in the welfare system, and the last book in the trilogy will discuss incarcerated women. “Olivia’s story gives a human face to the overwhelmingly low-income, non-white and unempowered young women in prostitution today. This story is meant to challenge the academy, legal system and society to wake up and listen to women like Olivia.”

Raphael hopes that by bringing to the fore the devastation that prostitution can leave in its wake, many more “Olivias” will be rescued. This program, according to Raphael, will serve as a springboard to further the work that the family law center is doing with law enforcement and the City of Chicago to steer women in the prostitution trade toward treatment instead of jail; to increase treatment resources, and to see that “Johns” are arrested and fined and that the money collected is used to fund treatment options¯all measures to ensure that more women have a chance to not only escape prostitution but survive.

“I am one of the few women who have survived this lifestyle,” Olivia says in the book. “I am telling my story to give hope, so that other people understand the dynamics of prostitution and do not judge so much.”

The program, which is co-sponsored by the Prostitution Alternatives Roundtable, Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, and the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization of Women, is free and open to the public.

Note to editors: Reporters wishing to cover the program or who want a copy of the book “Listening to Olivia,” should call Valerie Phillips at 312/362-5039 or 312-330-3155 (o).