2017 Annual Report

The more people who know, the smaller the world becomes for those who buy and sell our children.” – Linda Smith

Released new presentation to help hotel management fight sex trafficking in the hospitality industry.

Shared Hope launched our JuST Web Series with 545 attendees. This new e-learning series spanned six weeks following our JuST Conference, providing 12 trainings focusing on a variety of critically important topics.

Through generous donations we have been able to provide funding for the construction phase of the Sparsh Village of Hope on the land purchased last year. Twenty-seven children who have escaped life in the brothel will have a forever home.  Dedication is planned for summer 2018.

We financially supported 13 survivors to participate in a weekly survivor-lead virtual mentoring program.  This is a program that allows them to interact with other survivors and continue healing in ways they otherwise might not have been able to/have access to due to their rural locations or inabilities (financial, physical, emotional) to seek continued services locally.

Violence is a tragically normal part of what buyers pay for in the world of commercial sex. Brutalized children end up in emergency rooms with broken bones, horrible wounds, internal injuries, and life-threatening diseases. But the suffering doesn’t stop there. Children trying to survive in dangerous, violent situations are labeled as bad kids by our justice system for things they must do, and they end up being arrested and even jailed. In 2017 Shared Hope launched our Stop the inJuSTice Campaign, fighting for justice and healing for children who are falsely labeled as prostitutes. Through the Shared Hope Center for Justice and Advocacy, we are working to eliminate prostitution-labeling state laws criminalizing minors, calling for them to be seen as victims of crimes, not criminals.

Ambassadors made appearances at every hearing throughout the year in support of the prosecution against Backpage in Sacramento, CA, wearing red shirts to stop selling our children.