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Defenders Super Bowl Campaign

getinthegameHow many of you have heard of the Super Bowl? Alright, who I am I kidding? Everyone has! Great food, the most creative ad campaigns of the year, and great football­—it’s pretty hard to miss. Millions of people participate in this day. According to a 2013 Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey, approximately 75% of American consumers planned to watch the Super Bowl in 2013.

According to this survey, about $68 was spent per person on merchandise related to the Super Bowl.

This same survey predicted that in 2013 over $12.7 billion was spent on Super Bowl related purchases.

For me, this raised a question. What if, instead of spending hours of our time and billions of dollars on this event, we spent some time sharing the fact that New Jersey, home of the MetLife Stadium, still has a C grade on the Protected Innocence Challenge? What if we spent some of our time and money sharing the fact that an estimated 100,000 children every year are sexually exploited through prostitution?

At Shared Hope, we want to get 2014 started off right, and I’d like you to participate. 2014 is our year to make a difference in the world. On January 20, we are launching our Second Annual Defenders Super Bowl Campaign, and I’d like to invite you to participate. It’s time that we get men to step up and be true Defenders. It’s time that we end demand. It’s time to get in the game.

There are several ways that you can do this.

  1. If you haven’t already, take the Defenders Pledge. Make a free, public declaration that you are going to let your lifestyle protect the women and children around you.
  2. Share the Defenders Pledge with others. As an added incentive, if you recruit 15 men to take the pledge and they say that you inspired them to do so, we will give you a free Defenders V-neck shirt, while supplies last. We’ll sweeten the pot, if you get 30 men to take the pledge, we will throw in a Defenders polo shirt for FREE!
  3. Spread the word about human trafficking. Gear up with Defenders apparel from our store!
  4. Raise awareness about your state grade on the Protected Innocence Challenge. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Share the link sharedhope.org/stategrades so your friends can see their state score and write their legislator about it!
  5. Engage with us! On the day of the Super Bowl (February 2nd), we will be tweeting, posting on Facebook, and posting a few blog entries. Your job is to spread the word to your community. Like, share, and retweet our messages! It’s time to get in the game. Use #knowthescore to add your voice to the Defenders conversation on Twitter.

Will you join us? It’s time to get in the game.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DefendersUSA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedefendersusa

Website: www.thedefendersusa.org

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Shared Hope Director, Nancy Winston, Receives Maryland Governor’s Service Award

By Melanie Mah

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Nancy Winston (right)

Twenty-seven Maryland residents were selected as recipients of the 30th Annual Governor’s Service Award, honored on November 4, 2013.

Nancy Winston, Senior Director at Share Hope International, was honored with the Governor’s Service Award as a Special Honoree.  This prestigious award is given to individuals who display an outstanding record of volunteerism and service.

Nancy has served as an integral part of Shared Hope since its inception. In the early days of Shared Hope, Nancy hosted President and Founder Linda Smith during her travel to Washington, D.C. and served as a local volunteer. As Shared Hope grew, so did Nancy’s position within Shared Hope and she was elected to sit on the Shared Hope International Board of Directors, a position she held for six years. During this time, Nancy assisted in organizing the War Against Trafficking Alliance in 2002. She participated in the Path Breaking Strategies Conference in Washington, DC in 2003 and in the Next Steps Conference in Mumbai in 2004, as well as the Justice Department Domestic Trafficking and Prostitution conference in Tampa in 2004 and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Mid Term Review in D.C. in 2006. She represented Shared Hope at the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, she left her career in healthcare information technology at Cerner Corporation to begin a second career with Shared Hope International.

Today, Nancy is a Senior Director whose diverse responsibilities include speaking, writing, training, donor relations, restorative shelter initiatives, and partner relationships.

Since 2008, she has served on the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force where she currently chairs the Legislative Committee is an active member the Victim Services committee. As a task force member and a Shared Hope employee, she provides expert testimony at committee hearings in the Maryland legislature in support of legislation that would toughen the state’s anti-trafficking laws.

Congratulations Nancy!

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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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