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News & Media Coverage – 2013 Protected Innocence Challenge


News Coverage featuring 2013 Protected Innocence Challenge. See how your state scored.

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Take Action: The Power of Accountability

Love. Care. Tenderness. Support. These are all character qualities that are essential to the Defenders. These qualities in my mind all describe one important value of the Defenders: accountability. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, accountability means “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”

I always grew up with the term “brother’s keeper.” Brother’s Keeper is a simple term that means you love someone enough to hold them accountable to their actions. In my experience, accountability is only successfully done when both parties hold each other accountable out of common love for the wellbeing of the other person. Part two of The Defenders Pledge says “I will hold my friends accountable for their actions towards women and children.”

Women and Children deserve respect. They deserve to be honored, and we should treat them with that in mind. Human Trafficking and commercial sex takes advantage of women, makes them our objects, and that in no way is right. Out of love for our friends and the women and children who are involved in the industry, should we not hold each other accountable and stay away from that? Out of love and care for the wellbeing of our fellow men, should we not hold each other accountable to our actions? Should we not challenge each other? That’s why part two of the Defenders pledge exists. Out of love and respect for women and children, indulging in the commercial sex industry is clearly not an option.

But as I’ve said in previous blog posts, commercial sex can be an addictive indulgence. It can consume our lives, and pretty soon, quitting this terrible indulgence is harder than we thought. That is also where accountability comes in. Accountability can work as a powerful sword. Holding our fellow men accountable to their actions can fight those desires to indulge, and for some, completely eliminate them. For many, accountability also becomes a shield, which defends our hearts and restores our minds. I’ve experienced this effect personally through a Men’s group which I’ve called Men Mentoring Men.

This group consists of 5-8 men who are committed to meeting once each week to talk about life. We talk about the highs, lows, and struggles of the past week–both sexually and relationally. This group helps men grow in relationship with each other, and restore a healthy view of relationships and sexuality. We laugh, we cry, and we celebrate. This group creates a sword and shield for men who are struggling with commercial sex. It allows men to be vulnerable, and to acknowledge the pain in their life. Ultimately, this group effectively restores our desire to honor and respect women and children.

So today I’d encourage you to take action by starting an accountability group with 2 or more of your friends. It can be as simple as meeting up for coffee every Wednesday morning and talking about life, purity, and relationships. For more ideas, check out this Defenders resource: http://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/How-to-Start-a-Defenders-Mens-Accountability-Group.pdf.

Together, we can end demand.

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Take Action: The Power of Renting Lacy

In September of 2012, I found myself reading Renting Lacy. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. Despite the warning at the beginning of the book telling me that it has very tough content, I thought I could handle it. I thought to myself, I can do this. This will be a one-sitting book for me. I was confident because my mind is pretty tolerant of tough content. I’m a guy that can watch violent things; rated R movies with violent content are a piece of cake for me, because I have the ability to think and process through what I am seeing. Renting Lacy, however, turned out to be totally different.

After only one chapter of reading, my jaw had dropped, and I was nearly crying. One chapter after that, I found myself in tears, having to put the book down for a while. I couldn’t handle it. I found myself overwhelmed by the fact that Linda was sharing true stories. Unlike graphic rated R films, for the first time my mind could not separate the fake from reality. It was all reality. These brutal situations actually happened to women and children on a daily basis. Several days later, I found myself still reading Renting Lacy. The content was educational, but so shocking to the point that I had to put the book down and process what I read. This sounds like a negative thing, but it isn’t. It is important, especially when reading Renting Lacy, to sit down and process what you’ve read.

Renting Lacy changed my life. What I thought would be a one-sitting read turned into a one week read. Not because of the length of the book, but because of the shock that I had to process through.

Though this book was extremely hard to read through, it was absolutely necessary. I am so happy that I have read the book Renting Lacy, because it was the catalyst for me becoming a Defender and an activist against human trafficking.

Whether you are a current activist, or someone who is just now learning about human trafficking, you need to read this book. It will shock you. Perhaps it will make you cry. It will educate you. But more importantly, it will motivate you. Everyone needs to have a copy of this book, because it changes lives. Go get Renting Lacy NOW.

Renting Lacy is now available in audiobook form. You can get a digital or physical copy of the audiobook here.

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Seattle Chosen Premiere Summary – Sept. 26, 2013

chosenseattlepremiere (1 of 30)

Guest post by: Jo Lembo

With the Seattle Aquarium as the backdrop, guests of Shared Hope International heard, many for the first time, that sex trafficking is real and it’s here in our neighborhoods. The Seattle Premier showing of Chosen drew a registration of over 300, many of them sponsored youth from the Puget Sound area. The diverse crowd included Senators who sponsored new, stricter laws, law enforcement who enforce them, caregivers who support the victims, and providers of housing for survivors. Parents, teachers, media representatives, coaches, youth leaders and nearly 100 teens came to learn how to Defend Their Friends, the theme for the evening. Students from University of Washington Law School seemed to represent the United Nations in their small group of ten. One girl shared with a staffer, “I was trafficked twice in Africa. Then I became a prosecutor but it’s very hard to protect women in a country where they are considered property. So I came to the US to get my degree!” Her fire and passion resounded with the promise of greatness as she declared, “I will be the best prosecutor ever to return to my country!”

chosenseattlepremiere (4 of 30)Nine partners stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Shared Hope including Seattle Archdiocese Council of Catholic Women (ACCW), Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST), Connelly Law Firm, Federal Way Coalition Against Trafficking (FWCAT), The Genesis Project, Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), Union Gospel Mission, Washington Women’s Network (WWN) and Youthcare. We all recognize there is a war raging and none of us can win it alone. Shared Hope is grateful for others in the Puget Sound area who are fighting the same battle.

A hush fell over the crowd when survivor, Brianna, stood up to declare the vulnerabilities that were exploited in her, a then barely 18-year old college-bound girl. Her story breaks all stereo-types as she shared how she was an A-student, a cheerleader, an athlete, in a youth group, and the youngest of five children in a two-parent home. She thought she was making choices when a regular customer where she waitressed invited her to Seattle for the winter break. But she didn’t know he had chosen her to groom and sell her into the sex industry. Her friend, Evan, recognized the signs of trafficking because his dad had heard a presentation based on the book “Renting Lacy” at a Rotary Club and had talked to his son about defending his friends. Evan betrayed Brianna’s trust to save her life.

chosenseattlepremiere (26 of 30)Everyone was riveted as she spoke through tears, “Where were my parents, you might ask?” Brianna answered her own question, “I lied to them. I wasn’t where I said I would be. I kept things from them. They did an amazing job raising me, evidenced in the fact that I can stand before you after what happened to me. I want to thank my parents who are sitting on the front row tonight.” She then urged young people to be aware when a friend is hiding things, being isolated from support networks, has a significantly older boyfriend, suddenly has expensive gifts or is planning to go away without telling her parents. “Talk to them! Tell them it’s dangerous! If they won’t listen, go to a responsible adult and ask for help!”

The program faded into the evening as guests left armed with new knowledge, new tools and new hope shared that I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Click here to see more photos from Chosen Seattle. 

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Washington Delegate Donates Shutdown Salary to Shared Hope

Jaime_Herrera_Beutler,_official_portrait,_112th_CongressLess than 48 hours after the U.S. Government shutdown, Washington Representative Jamie Herrera Beutler announced her decision to donate 100 percent of her shutdown salary to Shared Hope International.

During a government shutdown, the 532 members of Congress continue to be paid, at a rate of $174,000 annually. While this costs American taxpayers approximately $10,000 an hour, 800,000 government employees have been furloughed without pay. The shutdown is expected to have major consequences on the already fragile U.S. economy. IHS Global Insight, a market research firm, expects the shutdown could cost $1.6 billion a week in lost economic output. The last federal government shutdown occurred in 1995 and lasted 21 days.

Rep. Herrera Beutler, a long-time ally in the fight against trafficking, is using this opportunity for good. Rep. Herrera Beutler serves as a member of the House of Representatives for Washington’s 3rd District, the same district former Congresswoman and President and Founder of Shared Hope, Linda Smith, served from 1995-99.

“Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, announced on Twitter that she will give 100 percent of her salary to Shared Hope International, a Vancouver-based nonprofit group that seeks to prevent sex trafficking, until Congress ‘gets the government back up and running,’ said her spokesman, Casey Bowman. – The Columbian

On July 8, 2013, Rep. Herrera Beutler, Co-chair of the Congressional Caucus of Women’s Issues joined with a host of Senators and Representatives to help sponsor the 2013 National Colloquium Report Release and Briefing in Washington, D.C. The report, produced by Shared Hope International, represented the responses from over 100 provider, survivor, government, advocacy and funding experts on emerging trends and barriers encountered in attempting to secure restorative shelter and services for juvenile sex trafficking victims and survivors.

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