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August 5, 2021 by Gunnar Simonsen

What if EVERY SCHOOL had an Ambassador of Hope?

As children across the country begin their transition back to school, Shared Hope offers many resources to help educate and equip schools to bring awareness to DMST (domestic minor sex trafficking).

When the pandemic hit, closing most schools and driving students online, we upped our focus to help further protect our kids online with our internet safety series. In this, regardless if students are attending their schools online or in person, Shared Hope is ready to meet them and their teachers where they are.

But, to do this, we need your help.

Connecting Resources To Needs: One Example

Recently, we received a report from one of Shared Hope’s Ambassadors of Hope on what they are doing to plant a seed with their school district in bringing our curriculum to their schools. If you ever wondered about what you can do to help make a difference in protecting our kids at school, here’s a glimpse of Ambassador’s Butch and Jean meeting with their local school board as well as a great example of what Shared Hope has to offer in resources for schools.

“My wife and I met with the School Board at our local school district this week. We had requested a month ago to be added to the agenda to talk about DMST and Shared Hope’s education tools we can offer to the district this coming school year.

The meeting went well with fifteen people in attendance. We only had a short time, so we made envelopes of Shared Hope International info for each of the 6 board members, the District Admin. and the new JR/HS Principal. This seemed to work well and they appreciated the ability to look over examples of what SHI has for resources. We also had our display poster board as an example titled “It is happening here” to help dispel the myth that we are isolated from DMST. The meeting went well and we were able to engage the school board to consider working HT into this coming year’s curriculum. We were quickly able to reference our flexibility to meet the need for awareness and prevention for students, staff, as well as parents.

I want to highlight that the letter to parents explaining what “Chosen” is and the talking points tip sheet with bullet points is a great resource to include in the info pkgs. I was able to reference that sometimes when parents hear that the school is considering having a presentation in their curriculum about Human and Sex Trafficking there may be anxiety and questions. We highlighted that the school could use this letter as a template to help parents understand what is being presented. We also included the bullets of what Chosen is and other helpful materials, such as the “How to Keep Kids Safe Online” booklet.

The new principal transferred from another school district where we have not yet been able to present. In being able to support him here, we feel it may have opened a door of opportunity to reach that northern district as well.

Overall a good evening and having the info packages was a really good way to give them more information when we only had a short time to speak on the agenda. Looking forward to the upcoming school year and the ability to be in the classroom with students again.”

What If?

Did you know that there are approximately 13,800 public school districts in the United States? These districts collectively educate approximately 55.2 million students. What if we could reach each one with the message of Shared Hope and the awareness that DMST is real and is happening there?

What Are Ambassadors Of Hope?

Ambassadors are trained volunteers, active in their communities preventing trafficking through education. Whether it is hosting a table at a local event, speaking to students, advocating online for a state bill, or leading a session for parents, Shared Hope equips you with all the training and tools you’ll need to educate your community and prevent sex trafficking.

Are you passionate about preventing sex trafficking in your community? We invite you to apply to become an Ambassador of Hope and make a difference in your hometown!

Like Butch and Jean, you too, can help make a difference. You can apply to become an Ambassador of Hope here.

What if every school in America had an Ambassador of Hope to help connect resources to needs and to further protect our children from DMST? What if that Ambassador of Hope was you?

August 2, 2021 by Gunnar Simonsen

Where Shared Hope Began: A Podcast with Linda Smith

“Here I was on what was supposed to be a five-minute call in my congressional office and I listened for 45 minutes. Just not able to put the phone down, hearing about children being sold for horrible acts and labeled prostitutes.” – Linda Smith, Founder & President of Shared Hope International.

If you haven’t heard, Shared Hope has joined the world of podcasts.

Invading the Darkness: stories from the fight against child sex trafficking podcast, features Linda Smith, the founder of Shared Hope International. We invite you to join Linda as she shares stories from her 23 years of fighting the battle of domestic minor sex trafficking.

Invading the Darkness is available now to stream on the most popular podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify.

In episode 2 of our inaugural season, Linda Smith shares how she first encountered the sexual exploitation of children. Listen as she recounts the pain of that moment and the resolve that came upon her to pierce the darkness with the light of hope.

Here’s an excerpt where Linda take us to where Shared Hope began:

“I think it would be easier for me to start from the beginning of Shared Hope, that’s where I realized how dark it was. Here I was on what was supposed to be a five minute call in my congressional office and I listened for 45 minutes. Just not able to put the phone down, hearing about children being sold for horrible acts and labeled prostitutes. I couldn’t sleep, I got a ticket to India and that very first night I asked to be taken to that place I’d been told about. I couldn’t believe what I saw and what I felt. I was on the streets of Bombay, India. I was still a member of the US Congress. I’d been told about the women and children who were being prostituted, but I just couldn’t believe it. They said that there were hundreds of thousands of women and children, I just couldn’t believe it.

In politics, people stretch the truth a little bit and I thought, “Oh, they’re not telling the truth,” but I couldn’t sleep. So they took me down to the brothel area called Falkland Road and there before my eyes was a crowded street and two storey places that there were little hands sticking out of the bars on the second storey and women and young girls standing in front of doors. I was shocked. The smell of incense, and urine, and diesel, body odor and we in America have a way of kind of not managing that real well. We don’t like things that smell bad, but I was more overwhelmed by the crowded streets of man after man, shoulder to shoulder shopping along both sides, two storeys with women and children who they would buy for a brief sex act or maybe longer for a few rupees and then walk on.”

You can listen to the entire episode here, or by subscribing to the podcast and listening on Apple or Spotify. Over the course of the next few months, you can expect a brand new episode each Tuesday.

Our desire is that each episode of Invading the Darkness will help you understand the importance of fighting child sex trafficking as well as equip you to join in that fight. Thank you for joining us. Together, we are invading the darkness and sharing hope with the many.

July 23, 2021 by Camryn Peterson

Advanced Legislative Framework: Issue Area #1 — Criminal Provisions

In November 2020, Shared Hope released an advanced legislative framework that will take our annual state report cards to the next level, urging states to focus more deeply and more effectively on victim protections and services.

This fall we will release the inaugural Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking, grading all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the six issue areas that make up the advanced framework.

The first issue area, Criminal Provisions, focuses on creating clear criminal laws to hold sex trafficking offenders accountable, especially those who purchase sex with minors. Of particular importance is ensuring that any buyer of sex with a minor can be held accountable as a sex trafficker, as this directly impacts victim identification and ensures those who exploit children by purchasing them for sex are held accountable for the fundamental role they play in the crime of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, many states do not recognize exploiters who purchase children for sex as sex trafficking offenders.

Why must states continue to improve their criminal laws?

As Shared Hope has seen over the years through its Protected Innocence Challenge Project which analyzed states’ laws from 2011 to 2019 with a particular focus on state criminal laws, states have made considerable progress in improving their criminal laws.

And yet, the demand for commercial sex with child victims remains high. Indeed, it is the main motivator behind child and youth sex trafficking, and without properly acknowledging these exploiters’ role in the crime of child sex trafficking and penalizing them accordingly, demand will continue to exist. Without legislation focused on criminal provisions for exploiters who purchase children for sex, they won’t be afraid to take the risk of engaging in commercial sex with minors.

In many states, sex trafficking offenders can also assert a “mistake of age” defense if law enforcement went undercover as a minor to investigate and arrest them for soliciting or recruiting a child into sex trafficking. It is imperative that trafficking exploiters are held responsible for their roles in child sex trafficking and not given this opportunity to lessen their penalties and shift the weight of their mistake to the child victims they exploit.

Lastly, financial penalties imposed on convicted perpetrators can be directed to support victim services that will help survivors overcome their trauma. In this way, programs such as cognitive therapy, case management, and job skills development can be paid in part by the exploiters who caused the harm in the first place.

What do to next

Sign up to receive the Report Cards for Child & Youth Sex Trafficking to be the first to know when your state’s grade is released!
Sign up to become a Grassroots Hero and receive monthly newsletters focused on policy initiatives, legislative wins, and urgent calls-to-action to help victims.
Contact your state and federal legislators about important bills or issues related to sex trafficking on our Advocacy Action Center.
Share this blog on social media so they can learn more about the importance of criminal provisions against sex traffickers.

July 20, 2021 by Gunnar Simonsen

Shared Hope Launches New Podcast: Invading the Darkness

Sex trafficking happens to children in your community every day. At Shared Hope, we are committed to not only telling the world about it, but to also provide resources and tools that will empower you to do something about it.

Recently, Shared Hope entered the world of podcasts by launching a podcast of our own called Invading the Darkness. Named after our founder and president Linda Smith’s book with the same title, the podcast was created to equip you with the knowledge and the tools to keep the kids in your community safe from traffickers.

Invading the Darkness is available now to stream on the most popular podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify.

In our first episode, Linda Smith and Samantha Vardaman talk about the importance of language and how we use it in the fight against child sex trafficking.

Here’s an excerpt from the episode where Linda Smith talks about language:

“Child sex trafficking is just really a horrible word, but prostitute is worse. And I know as we struggled with this research, we went to places all over the United States, again under a Justice Grant. And we went in to find out the perception of seven different areas of their population, judges and prosecutors and child protective services and teachers, it went on. And to find out what they were doing. And we realized as we were doing this research on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking for the Justice Department, that the reality was, is they’d say, “Oh, you mean the prostitutes?”

Our language in the state culture in our neighborhoods, in our communities, had still so label these children by what was happening to them, that they didn’t really know. Law enforcement, you can say, “It’s really the fault of law enforcement.” No. They’re following the law and part of the culture that would allow that.

Now, when I researched the Invading the Darkness book, which is a history book on trafficking, I was looking at the 1910 records and in book, a lot of what was going on. And I started realizing that they had prostitution laws, but they really didn’t affect the buyer. It only affected those that would actually sell somebody. And there was really nothing there for those that were sold.

But I think the big issue was this, the culture was so conflicted. Some would cry out for the boys and the girls. But the boy, they just didn’t want to go blind. They didn’t want him to go crazy. “This could hurt you too.”

So they were calling out for protecting their boys and the girls. And the girls are being put into those places. But the same culture had determinations in courts that fallen or immoral women, which were the girls put into prostitution, could not be credible in court to even testify about their own rapes. Conflicted societies, judicial systems, still not seeing the buyers driving the market as a problem. But a hundred years later, we still have that lack of application of justice because of the language. Prostitute girl, just John, a guy doing what guys do.

So commending you and the team at the Institute, because this has been a long climb to get to whereas much of the language has changed. And now we have a climb to change the culture.”

You can listen to the entire episode here, or by subscribing to the podcast and listening on Apple or Spotify. Over the course of the next few months, you can expect a brand new episode each Tuesday.

Will You Help Us Invade The Darkness By Reaching More People?

To help us reach more people with our new Invading the Darkness podcast, you can partner with us by taking action. Here are four things you can do today:

Listen to each podcast episode
Share the podcast with your network (On Spotify episode page, you can actually share directly to your IG or FB news feed and stories feed.)
Rate & review podcast on Apple
Post a comment on our Invading the Darkness podcast page

June 28, 2021 by Jo Lembo

The Choice

Written by Pastor Nick and Jo Lembo

A question asked by many Christians who care deeply about others, especially for the vulnerable and the oppressed is, “Why doesn’t God stop evil people who hurt children?”

It seems there is a conflict between what we believe about our loving God (who knows us personally and gave His only Son to die so that we could have eternal life) and one who appears to be a passive all-powerful God who doesn’t step in, as if he does not care about what is happening to humans on this earth. Why would Jesus need to be “interceding at the right hand of the Father” if it’s God’s job to stop all evil on the earth? (Romans 8:34)

God’s ultimate goal is to be our Father and Friend, and through this relationship allow us to partner with Him in overseeing our home, planet earth. That is the plan He began in Genesis, and it is what Christ restored at the cross. If God had wanted more creatures just to serve Him, He could’ve made a billion more angels. His first desire is for family, as He created us in His image and likeness, and breathed His very Spirit and nature into us.

“I’ve given you everything to enjoy, but I ask you this one thing: Please don’t eat of this tree.”
Genesis 2:16-17

The answer to the question lies in the Garden where the first man and women were breathed into life by the eternal, loving God who wanted to have a creation to know Him and love Him back. He gave them an entire Garden to love and enjoy, and gave them one choice to show their love and appreciation back to Him. “I’ve given you everything to enjoy, but I ask you this one thing: Please don’t eat of this tree.” You know the rest of the story. Humans chose to disregard God’s heartfelt request, and they chose their own way. Humans chose to eat of tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than eating of every other tree that was given to them out of God’s heart of love. So they had to leave the Garden, or they would have lived forever and continued to sin without ever having a way back to relationship with God.

But God immediately stepped in with hope for them when He said, “Because the serpent has bruised your heel, you will toil to bring fruit from the earth, you will have pain in childbirth, but the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head.” God then clothed them in animal skins to replace their own fig leaves because now they had shame where before they had never known they were naked. (A picture of how He would institute sheep and goat as sacrifices foreshadowing how His only Son would die for all of mankind) Now they knew good and evil whereas before they walked and talked with God every day in the Garden, and shared His heart and love, and fully trusted in Him alone. Remember, before the fall, this was done out of their own free will, choosing to be with Him, and thus fulfilling His heart desire in His creation, and reaping a life of pure peace.

The Passion Translation – Romans 1 explains what happened as a result:

21 “Throughout human history the fingerprints of God were upon them, yet they refused to honor him as God or even be thankful for his kindness. Instead, they entertained corrupt and foolish thoughts about what God was like. This left them with nothing but misguided hearts, steeped in moral darkness.
28 And because they thought it was worthless to embrace the true knowledge of God, God gave them over to a worthless mind-set, to break all rules of proper conduct.” Romans 1:21, 28

The Bible is full of promises that show us how to find our way back to Him: to choose Him again, by giving up our own selfish desires, and becoming like Jesus, who gave up His life so that we might live forever with Him. The beauty of it is, it is always our choice. If God takes away humankind’s choice by intervening when others choose evil, then He is also taking away our choice to choose Him. His promise is to always be with us even through our own bad choices, and to walk with us through the hardships of the choices of a fallen and cursed world, where human beings choose to do unspeakably hurtful things to others.

This gives us the chance to choose Him every day where He restores, heals, cleanses, gives new life and new mercy every day. In that, His miraculous nature is demonstrated through us. This causes others to see His love and goodness and choose Him too.