Training and Awareness Programs Archives - Page 5 of 8

June 30, 2015 by SHI Staff

Thank you for making another year of freedom possible.

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Dear Supporters,

June 30 is a big day for us. It’s the day we close the books on the previous fiscal year and put the finishing touches on our financial commitments to restoration partners for the year ahead. It’s an exciting day at the Shared Hope offices.

And we start months in advance. Our program staff accepts partner applications, we thoroughly review and evaluate every shelter and service provider we partner with to ensure that our financial investment and technical assistance, combined with their experience and resources, ultimately make a lasting impact on those victimized and vulnerable to trafficking around the world. Every year, a few faithful supporters offer generous donations to help with this heavy financial outlay in June, they just ask that we meet or exceed their gift through our own fundraising efforts.

This year, as we geared up for our May Matching Challenge campaign, our longtime partner in Nepal was struck by two earthquakes. We helped build Asha Nepal 13 years ago and have been their primary source of support ever since. We immediately called in engineers to assess the damage and prepare a plan to rebuild and we offered immediate aid to supply the residents with emergency food and shelter.

A longtime supporter who visited Nepal to witness our programs and hosted our Nepalese guests during their month-long visit to the U.S. in 2014 immediately gave $100,000, asking that we raise a matching amount.

Honored by these great outpours of financial support, and facing one of the largest matching challenge campaigns in our history, we hit the ground running. For the first time ever, volunteers called our supporters asking for help. We extended the match by 10 days. We sent an extra letter explaining the new circumstances. We worked tirelessly to ensure we could keep the lights on at our partner homes.

Well…

We did it!

We ended the year in the black. Because of you we were able to confidently commit our financial support to 14 partner organizations in four countries.

Because of you…

Together, we will offer freedom from slavery and a loving family to women and children in Jamaica, Nepal, India and the U.S. Thank you for making another year of freedom possible.

Sincerely,

Linda Smith

March 28, 2014 by SHI Staff

Gang Sex Trafficking on the Rise

A nationwide trend shows an alarming increase of gang involvement in human trafficking. In August 2013, Portland State University released a much anticipated study on the scope of child sex trafficking in Portland, OR that revealed 49.1 percent of youth in the study had been exploited by gang members, are affiliated gang members or indicated that gang influence plays a large part in their lives.

The 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment prepared by the FBI’s National Gang Intelligence Center states “Over the past year, federal, state, and local law enforcement officials in at least 35 states and U.S territories have reported that gangs in their jurisdictions are involved in alien smuggling, human trafficking, or prostitution.”

On January 8, 2014, 24 alleged North Park gang members and associates were charged as members of a racketeering conspiracy that included cross-country sex trafficking of underage girls and women which occurred in 46 cities across 23 states.

The BMS gang was formed as a result of cooperation between these gangs, and the members took on different responsibilities within the criminal enterprise, according to the indictment. Some managed the prostitutes and transported them all over the country; some forcefully coerced these women into prostitution and maintained their obedience and loyalty through acts of violence; some handled the money; some placed advertisements to generate business or booked motel rooms in which acts of prostitution took place; and others distributed drugs.

Gangs operate sex trafficking rings as a relatively low-risk, high-profit criminal enterprise. Unlike drugs or weapons, people can be sold repeatedly. Gangs use promises of protection, status, easy money, loyalty and material possessions to lure girls into the gang. Once initiated into the gang, she is often sexual exploited within the gang by the gang members and is sold to others to increase revenue for the gang. In a majority of gang hierarchical structures, females are the lowest ranking members with no power or control. If a girl decides she wants out of the gang, members use force, violence, threats and intimidation to secure her loyalty and prevent her from escaping.

The gangs here in the United States are not allowing new female members. So, any time that females are hanging out with gangs, the reality is that they’re probably using them for something, there is some sort of exploitation, whether it’s sexual exploitation or they’re using them to carry drugs or guns or steal things, whatever it is that the gang may need them to do. But females are not typically allowed to make decisions for the gang, they’re not involved in the hierarchy of the gang. They may believe that they’re members, but they’re not viewed by the male members as equals.- Detective Bill Woolf, Fairfax Gang Enforcement Unit

In response to this emerging trend, Shared Hope International released a new training video on gang trafficking, Gang TRAP. The video uses interviews with law enforcement agents, service providers and victims to explain how gangs recruit victims, why gang trafficking is becoming increasingly common, and how law enforcement agents and service providers can identify and respond to this new threat. Additionally, Shared Hope released Chosen Gang Edition to teach teens the warnings signs and dangers of gang involvement.

March 12, 2014 by SHI Staff

Tacoma & Seattle Respond To Alarming Sex Trafficking Trend

Last week, Shared Hope International brought sex trafficking prevention, identification and response education and training to Tacoma public schools, community members, law enforcement, prosecutors and social service providers.

On March 5-6, Shared Hope joined the Tacoma Public School District to provide youth sex trafficking prevention education to students, counselors, educators, administrators and principals using the prevention film, Chosen. The film and resource package are based on the true stories of two Washington teenage girls who were targeted by traffickers. They explain how the traffickers used common techniques like flattery, affection, gifts, promises of fulfilled dreams and adventures, financial stability and isolation to recruit them into the horrifying world of commercial sex. Watch the trailer.

On March 5, we hosted a free community screening of Chosen in Tacoma. Kudos to all of the parents who brought their sons and daughters to the event! Thank you for educating and preparing your child to fight against trafficking to protect themselves and their friends!

The events culminated on March 7 with a gang sex trafficking training for professionals. Through a partnership with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, over 160 Washington law enforcement, prosecutors and social service providers attend a free training on gang sex trafficking. The training equipped attendees to advance cases against gang trafficking, dismantle criminal operations, and provide appropriate services to gang-involved trafficking victims in an effort to improve the identification and response to victims of juvenile sex trafficking.

It was an important week of training and education in Washington! While we can’t make it to every city, you can access the same training and education! Order your copy of Gang TRAP (professionals) or Chosen Plus (available Monday, March 17) to receive the same information on youth sex trafficking prevention and gang trafficking!

November 9, 2013 by SHI Staff

Thank you for making this our best Sharing the Hope yet! | State Report Cards released

This week, over 550 professionals and advocates from over 30 states joined us in Washington, D.C. for Sharing the Hope 2013. We hope you left feeling inspired, equipped and better connected as the united army of protection for our children. I’m excited to share some highlights from Sharing the Hope 2013.

Shared Hope announced the first three states to earn an “A” on the Protected Innocence Challenge. Congratulations to Washington, Tennessee and Louisiana for leading our nation with strong laws. Check out your states laws and watch the official release of the 2013 Report Cards.

Shared Hope teamed up with Brunner to host a live doll box installation exhibit to alarm the community to this issue in a real and tangible way.
We hosted the 2nd Annual National Colloquium. Over 700 people joined us at the National Colloquium in D.C. or online. The discussion accelerated the implementation of promising practices in shelter and service care around the nation. Watch it!

During the JuST Conference over 35 national experts led 38 unique sessions and workshops on topics including shelter and service provision,the American pimp, gang trafficking, demand, investigation techniques, advocacy and much, much more!

We honored Congressman Ted Poe, Cynthia Cordes and Vednita Carter as the 2013 Pathbreaker Award recipients. In a powerful display of support, over 40 survivors joined Vednita on stage as she received her award. We heard from two of Shared Hope’s restoration partners, K.K. Devaraj and Joyce Hirwale from India and Shared Hope program assistant Shamere McKenzie took the stage to express the heart of Shared Hope.

Thank you to those who attended and supported this event. We look forward to seeing you again!

October 8, 2013 by Guest

Seattle Chosen Premiere Summary – Sept. 26, 2013

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!”

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.

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.