Ambassador Posts Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Shared Hope International

July 1, 2020 by Guest

It Begins With Me

I learned about the sex trafficking of minors in the United States while serving as an active duty military officer. I was heartbroken to learn that while I was serving my county, supporting peacetime and wartime operations overseas, another war was raging at home. The casualties – countless American children. Every day, American children are manipulated, groomed, and exploited, often while they are in the confines of where they feel the safest. Like so many others I have since encountered, I was aware of human trafficking overseas but completely naive to what was happening right in front of me within the borders of my own country. Anger, sadness, hopelessness, and even fear were some of the emotions that attacked my mind. So, what do I do now? What do I do with these profound emotions? How can I take all this raw emotion and put it somewhere that can make a difference? Who am I to think I can do anything anyway; this feels like it will crush me?

It starts with me and my sphere of influence. As I wrestled with my emotions, I realized that pretending the sex trafficking of American children was not happening was not an option. I had fought for so many other things in my life, if I was not willing to fight for our children, what was the point? I also quickly learned that I was certainly not alone in my hunger for education, restoration, and justice. Organizations, like Shared Hope International, are attacking this atrocity with a holistic approach that includes providing the support volunteers need to make a difference in their communities. As an Ambassador of Hope you are not alone. You are part of a bigger team and the tools and support are there to empower you to bring the fight to your own community.

For more information on becoming an Ambassador of Hope, visit: https://sharedhope.org/aoh/

Now you have the tools, but what do you do with them? Start small! For me, my fight began with carrying flyers in my bag. If I had the opportunity to talk to someone about sex trafficking, I had a flyer for them with more information. The lady in the grocery line, the girl working the register in my favorite clothing store, and even my doctor. A flyer for all of them. As I learned more, and became more confident, my timid beginning handing out flyers evolved into opportunities to provide training to military members, churches, and middle/high schools. I have had the opportunity to mentor high school students and set up educational tables. While stationed in Hawaii, I was able to volunteer with a phenomenal organization, Ho`ōla Nā Pua, a nonprofit located on Oahu committed to the prevention of child sex trafficking and providing care for children who have been exploited. It was through this organization that I discovered Shared Hope International. These two organizations changed my life in a profound way, and I will never stop fighting for our children.

My life has evolved and so has my sphere of influence. It is smaller, at least for now. I am no longer an active duty military officer but a stay at home mom with two young boys! Turns out being a parent really is the hardest job! I find myself having to start small again and slowly the doors are beginning to crack open. That’s okay. Life changes and the way we are able to fight, as individuals, changes too. Instead of providing training for a room packed full of active duty military members, now I might be having an intimate conversation with fellow members of a mom’s club. It can be difficult for me to lead training and participate in education events, but I can build presentations and send emails. That’s my sphere for now and I am learning to be okay with that. While my sphere has changed, perhaps the biggest change is the why I am committed to fighting sex trafficking. Having children of my own has brought the reality of what we are fighting against home in an even more powerful way. When I look at my sweet babies’ faces, I know there are people out there who would exploit and abuse them, and frankly, it brings me to my knees. But in that fear, I find the strength to keep supporting Shared Hope International and their commitment to “Invade the Darkness.” In the end, the fight starts with me and my commitment to fight within whatever sphere of influence I find myself.

Together we save lives!

February 8, 2020 by Guest

You Don’t Always Get to See the Seed Sprout

By Butch and Jean Fitzpatrick

As Ambassadors of Hope, we spend time proactively communicating, giving out resources, sharing about DMST and the work of Shared Hope International, and make ourselves available for prevention and awareness but we don’t always get to see the seeds we plant sprout into action.

In September 2018 we spent time in Upper MI, responding to the urgent needs of an 18 year old survivor and seeking police rescue, health care, and legal support. That day we visited different government and health service organizations as well as law enforcement. Sharing what we do, explaining the situation and the need, and giving SHI resources. As part of that day we visited with the MI State Police post in Wakefield, MI. As we talked to the duty officer, giving him a number of resources (which we always have with us), we explained how we use the “Chosen” film in our prevention/awareness presentations. The officer was very interested and said MI had a Human Trafficking Liaison officer and he would make sure to give him the information. We hoped he would.

With Shared Hope’s support, we had communicated with the State and sent them info on what tools were available to possibly meet their certification requirements for dentists. It required multiple follow up phone calls to different State Offices giving them information on the i:Care materials that had just been released.

In a circuitous way, during an annual check-up at the dentist, our hygienist told us that she had attended a “packed” community prevention/awareness event in Wakefield hosted by the MI State Police and they used “Chosen” as part of their presentation. Our hygienist said that attending this presentation met the requirement for her, where dental staff need HT awareness training for license or re-license in the state of MI.

It was so rewarding to hear that the State Police had picked up on what SHI had given them and are now using it to help educate citizens as well as professionals.

Just had to share this good news.

Butch

Learn more about our Ambassador of Hope program today, including how you can become our newest Ambassador!

May 22, 2019 by Guest

Now I Have a Way to Help

By: Ambassador Bridget Crawford

You ever had a little person, maybe your own child pulling on your clothing in an attempt to get your attention? Or maybe they put their small innocent hand inside of yours, prompting you to follow? That familiar tug is what I felt when I began to hear about the reality of sex trafficking. My heart was being tugged. I was captivated by the gruesome reality that young adults and vulnerable children were being forced to have sex, at the expense of someone else’s greed and lust. I was angry. I was appalled. I was devastated. I knew we lived in an evil world, but this hit me differently. I listened to stories of survivors, and it broke my heart. To hear their pain, to listen to what they were subjected to, was not okay, at all. No one should be subjected to that kind of life. That’s abuse.

My sister once said to me “for someone to traffic someone, they have to view them as less valuable than themselves.” Those words never left my heart. One of the quickest ways to anger me is to see someone devalued, treated as less than.

Sex is a precious gift given by God, to be shared between husband and wife. No one should have that gift taken from them, or used for someone else’s selfish pleasure. The victims are precious to me. The survivors are precious to me, and I thank my friend, Sara Jones for telling me about Shared Hope. It is an amazing organization, and now, I have a way to help. Now, I have a way to help combat this issue. Now, I have a way to fight!

If you have been wanting to do something about this issue, but just haven’t figured out where to get started and how to get started, Shared Hope is an awesome place to start. You won’t be alone in the fight.

Become an Ambassador of Hope.

Contact your legislators.

Donate to Shared Hope.

Download Shared Hope’s Internet Safety Toolkit.

February 19, 2019 by Guest

Ambassador of Hope’s Ripple Effect

She had an idea, and followed it!

You start with your first invitation, and someone in the audience asks you to come to their group, and someone there asks you to their school, and the ripples multiply until you have to build a local team of Ambassadors to keep up!

As a new member of her small town Rotary Club, Pennsylvania Regional Coordinator, Megan Inghram simply had an idea to write a letter to the editor of the Rotary International magazine. She was hoping they would consider a feature article on sex trafficking and Shared Hope. She wasn’t even aware her letter had been published in the international publication until one of the local Rotarians called to tell her. She then asked her club to invest in Renting Lacy books for the local library and they agreed.

And that was the first ripple.

Megan delivered the display of Renting Lacy books to her librarian who responded, “It seems there should be a program with this. Do you have a presentation?” Incredulously, Megan thought, “Is this how it works? Can it really be this easy?”

At the next city council meeting, that librarian shared about the books and the upcoming Chosen showing. A local news reporter asked, “Do you really think this is a problem here?” She urged him to hear Megan’s presentation.

That was Megan’s first Chosen showing with a room full of thirty people. She was a bit nervous, and driving home realized she had never introduced herself! So she wrote a note to self – always introduce yourself first!

Later, while setting up a display in a library, a local news reporter was there to take pictures of the Rotarians presenting the books to the library. He asked Megan all about trafficking for an article he intended to write with the photo which he later published. Click here to read the news article that began the next ripple.

Megan has done great work to educate her community on sex trafficking and prepares them to combat this issue themselves!

February 8, 2019 by Guest

Ohio Ambassador in Action

There is a lot of work and time required of Ambassadors as they support the work of Shared Hope in communities across the nation. Regional Coordinator, Amy Ryan Rued, and her husband, Jack, work closely with the Ohio Ambassadors, and specifically Greg Pace: “Here in central Ohio we do everything we can to create speaking opportunities.

With each presentation comes a commitment of time to show up and deliver our message to those we speak with. Greg is passionate about educating and helping to prevent child sex trafficking and it is a pleasure to have him on our team.”

Greg shares how he began working with the Ohio group in 2014, which was made up of concerned friends. His decision to become involved was based on a desire to help change our society in meaningful ways. “Working to move our society to become a safer place for women, and especially children, is extremely important. I see domestic minor sex trafficking as the lowest common-denominator of our dark side, and now that we have social science data behind us, we can work and demand that it ends.”

[easy-tweet tweet=”I see domestic minor sex trafficking as the lowest common-denominator of our dark side, and now that we have social science data behind us, we can work and demand that it ends.” user=”SharedHope”]

We asked Greg what it means as a man to be involved in fighting sex trafficking. “As a man, I have watched and lived the ‘boys will be boys’ attitude that so many of us use to excuse ourselves. It’s culturally acceptable to treat women as if they were carved out and laying in the grocery butcher’s case.” He points out that he emphasizes the dark side that this kind of treatment of women feeds into. “Personally, had I known, I would not have behaved at times towards women as I did as a young man. Being an Ambassador of Hope has an aspect of penance for me; giving back to this younger generation so they won’t hold the same attitudes I used to hold. At this stage in my own life it is a no-brainer … men MUST stop sexually degrading women, and must defend their safety and well-being from predators.”

Greg puts his Ambassador time and energy into speaking to high school students, and when there is time, he highlights the men’s Defenders program. He adds passionately, “ The ‘boys will be boys’ attitude begins when guys are young, so it is never too early to instill in them the harmful effects that too often result from seemingly harmless sexual banter and behavior toward girls. Once given this information, just being one of the boys entails an element of knowledge that can no longer be completely ignored.”

[easy-tweet tweet=”The ‘boys will be boys’ attitude begins when guys are young, it’s never too early to instill in them the harmful effects that too often result from seemingly harmless sexual banter & behavior.” user=”SharedHope”]

And that’s why it’s important for men to be Ambassadors and change the culture by mentoring young men to change their attitudes.