February 9, 2018 by Susanna Bean

Sneak Peek at Faith Summit Speakers

We’ve had over 100 applications to speak at the Faith Summit this year! While we’re still finalizing our agenda, we are excited to give you a sneak peak of a few of our speakers! Early bird registration closes in 28 days, so don’t wait to register! You won’t want to miss our inspiring list of speakers this year!

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John Pulley, Co-Founder of ManAlive Expedition

Jerry Redman, CEO of Second Life Tennessee

Judith Reisman, PhD, Liberty University School of Law and Founder & Director of Child Protection Institute

Caleb Kaltenbach, DMin, Author, Speaker, Pastor and Teacher

These four speakers are just the beginning of our exciting line-up of workshops! The Faith Summit is loaded with inspiring speakers and educational workshops, all designed to prepare attendees with practical knowledge and effective action steps to address trafficking in their own community. Remember early bird registration closed February 28. Register today!

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February 8, 2018 by Susanna Bean

Be Equipped at the Faith Summit

The present danger of sex trafficking is in every community across the nation, and it may be in your town. But we believe in a mighty God and in His promises of hope for us!

All we have to do is watch the evening news to see the increasing darkness in our world. It can feel overwhelming. We ask: “How can I be a beacon of light in this darkness? How can I protect my children, and the children in my community?”

“What can I do?”

Shared Hope has the tools to equip YOU to be a part of the answer. Learn how to shine your light at the JuST Faith Summit in St. Paul, MN, in June 20-22, 2018. You will be inspired, informed, educated and equipped to take action.

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JuST Faith Summit will empower and equip you to change the world with a free Faith in Action Kit.

The first 600 people to register will receive a Faith in Action toolkit to make a difference.

Education is key and we are here to put the practical tools into your hands. If you can’t attend, send a ministry leader or key volunteer from your church. They will be equipped to hold a mini-conference to educate your entire leadership team.

A pastor in Northwest MN gave this glowing report on her Church’s use of the Faith in Action Kit:

This church has now formed a volunteer team to support the Faith Summit and we are so grateful for their help!

The Faith in Action kit for the first 600 registered includes:

The updated Chosen film and support videos, PowerPoint presentations and speaker notes on a USB
Three complete presentations with videos, scriptures, and talking points that make it easy for busy leaders to effectively introduce the topic to your congregation
Discussion guides with leader notes for Men, Women and Youth Groups
Printable handouts and flyers
Action items at the end of each lesson to galvanize your audience to just do “something”
A prayer guide to help you effectively pray over every aspect of the issue

The first 600 receive a kit valued at $129, so register today!

Earlybird registration ends February 28, and we have affordable dorm lodging as well as hotel blocks available. No matter the size of your community of faith, we want to mobilize and equip you to shine a light!

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December 21, 2017 by Susanna Bean

JuST Faith Keynote Speaker Announced!

We are excited to announce that the Keynote Address at the JuST Faith Summit 2018 will be Eric Metaxas #1 New York Times bestselling author!

Eric is the author of numerous books including of Bonhoeffer and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. His most recently published work is Martin Luther. His biographies, children’s books, and works of popular apologetics have been translated into more than 20 languages.

He is the host of the Eric Metaxas Show, a nationally syndicated radio program heard in more than 120 cities around the U.S., featuring in-depth interviews with a wide variety of guests.

Eric speaks to thousands around the U.S. and internationally each year. He was the keynote speaker at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, an event attended by the President and First Lady, the Vice President, members of Congress, and other U.S. and world leaders.

ABC News has called Metaxas a “photogenic, witty ambassador for faith in public life.”

Eric lives in Manhattan, New York, with his wife and daughter.

Don’t miss this chance to hear Eric speak live! Register for the Faith Summit!

November 10, 2017 by Susanna Bean

Honoring Representative Chris Smith: A Lifetime Pathbreaker

It would be difficult to name anyone more qualified to receive Shared Hope’s Lifetime Pathbreaker Award than U.S. Representative Chris Smith (NJ), a man with a long and consistent history of advocating for the vulnerable around the world.

Serving since 1980, Congressman Smith was a lone voice breaking the silence on the topic of human trafficking at a time when most people had no idea the atrocity was occurring. He was the author and primary sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which first clearly defined domestic trafficking, and has been steadfast in promoting its reauthorization over multiple years since that original landmark legislation, working across the aisle to ensure protections for victims of human trafficking. In leading the reauthorization efforts this year, Congressman Smith worked diligently to not just pass the law, but improve it. Through his dedication to understanding all facets of trafficking, he is ensuring the TVPA remains responsive to the changing dynamics of trafficking.

Congressman Smith also championed the International Megan’s Law to further protect children from registered sex offenders traveling internationally. Since his election to Congress, he has cofounded and chaired a number of bipartisan congressional caucuses, including the Human Trafficking Caucus.

Congressman Smith joins Congressman Frank Wolf who was the first to be honored in 2014 as a Lifetime Pathbreaker for his long record as champion of human rights. In total, 20 people have received Shared Hope’s Pathbreaker Award, including Congressman Judge Ted Poe of Texas.

A ceremony to honor Representative Chris Smith will be held, Wednesday, November 15 at 11am. RSVP here to attend in person, or tune into our live stream here.

About the Award

In 2000, the U.S. Department of State enlisted Shared Hope International to host Pathbreaking Strategies conferences in six countries to energize the conversation about trafficking and share innovative approaches to combat the problem. During this process, we created the Pathbreaker Award to recognize the pioneering efforts of those who broke the trend of inaction and initiated proactive responses to prevent sex trafficking.

October 19, 2017 by Guest

The Smoke Screen That’s Obscuring the Voices of Survivors – Why We Must Amend the CDA

By: Alisa Bernard, Survivor Advocacy Coordinator, The Organization for Prostitution Survivors

I am of the technology generation. I was born the same year the cell phone was invented and Macintosh Apple made its debut. I never knew a time when a computer was not an accessible tool. We live in a time where computers the size of a credit cards can stream a giraffe giving birth across the country and can teach us how to do anything from play the violin to fix a leaky drain. The possibilities are limitless. But what happens when those possibilities are twisted into something darker? What happens when we use our innovations to trade in the flesh of young girls?

[easy-tweet tweet=”What happens when we use our innovations to trade in the flesh of young girls? – Alisa Bernard” user=”SharedHope”]

The online sex trade is not new. When I was prostituted over a decade ago, I was sold online. Online prostitution is not glamorous and it is not safer than street prostitution. The violence endemic to prostitution is not somehow mitigated by the internet. One study stated that violence is perpetrated predominantly by buyers regardless of venue of solicitation. The internet has normalized the buying of sex down to a negligible transaction. Women and girls are being reduced to mail order masturbation aids.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Online prostitution is not glamorous and it is not safer than street prostitution. – Alisa Bernard” user=”SharedHope”]

[easy-tweet tweet=”The violence endemic to prostitution is not somehow mitigated by the internet. – Alisa Bernard” user=”SharedHope”]

The Senate’s proposed reforms to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would allow for the prosecution of criminal activity on the part of internet service providers for facilitating the online sex trade. Essentially, businesses like Backpage.com could be held accountable for their contributions to the online sex trade. This is an essential step forward in the fight against trafficking in the US. Opposition activists express concern that the sex trade marketplace would make trafficking somehow more hidden or move underground if the online market is eliminated through this act. In reality, a result of the now internet facilitated sex trade is the intentional disappearing of both victims and traffickers. Backpage.com’s business model assists traffickers in obfuscating information in their ads, keeping them hidden behind bitcoins. Photos of children for sale across Backpage.com and similar sites have had their meta-data scrubbed away. Identification of victims and perpetrators has become practically impossible. How much more hidden could the market be?

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children most cases of trafficking occur online and the majority of those are happening through Backpage.com. At first, I thought Backpage.com was simply ignoring the experiences of women and girls like me by populating their site with these ads. Backpage.com isn’t ignorant that we are being bought and sold on their website, they want us to be bought and sold on their website. Every ad costs a price and with hundreds of ads posted daily they won’t say no to such a profit margin. Never mind if most of the product is young girls and women so long as the profits keep rolling in. And why not if they can hide behind a bastardization of free speech laws.

The thousands of women and girls whose faces have glared across a Backpage.com moderator/editor’s screens are not products. Editing an ad for a child doesn’t change the facts. She’s 14 with a pimp, or 23 and her pimp’s name is poverty, editing doesn’t make that 14-year-old 18, and it doesn’t change the 23-year-old’s circumstances. It does, however, add another few dollars into the Backpage.com bank account. So yeah, I care that there are more stringent requirements to post a car for sale than there are to post a young girls body.

Do the rapes of innocent women and girls mean so little? Have we accidently put the freedom to facilitate the rape of girls above girl’s freedom to be safe from rape? Reform is needed. The changes proposed to the CDA do not allow for the mass hysteria the tech industry would have you believe. The changes in the language do not allow for overzealous trial attorneys to go suing innocent internet service providers. If they are doing nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear. If they are using the CDA as a cover to hide their own perpetuation of the sex trade then, yes… they should have much to fear.

[easy-tweet tweet=”If (tech companies) are doing nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear (from amending the CDA). ” user=”SharedHope”]

I am firmly for the protection of the First Amendment and believe that it is one of the most integral core tenets of any free society. However, using the CDA as a smoke screen to conceal trafficking is just as much an attack on free speech as stripping the First Amendment bare. The modern era is rife with technological advancement, and we must update our laws to reflect this ever changing landscape.

I stand in solidarity with those who work to reform section 230 of the CDA, and I beg you, from someone who has seen what the online sex trade really looks like, to mobilize around this issue. Get your voice out, get your opinion out, because our voices cannot be the only ones to stand up.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Get your voice out, get your opinion out, because our voices cannot be the only ones to stand up.”]