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September 15, 2013 by SHI Staff

Take Action: The Power of Social Media

Social Media has grown substantially in the past few years. Facebook now has over 1 billion users. Many people have over 1,000 connections on Facebook. Twitter is rapidly increasing its user base; celebrities, politicians, and even the pope himself are using Twitter to get their message out. All around the globe, Social Media is being used to connect with childhood friends, reunite adoptive children with parents, and more importantly, get your message out.

Through social media, we now have the ability to make a global impact. You have the ability to raise awareness and communicate with fellow advocates. The ultimate question, then, is how do you use social media? Have you been to the Shared Hope International Facebook page or twitter feed? Have you ever engaged with the things that we post?

This is not a guilt-trip on my part, forcing you to engage on social media. I truly believe that social media networks have the power to connect and inform. Let me share a story to illustrate that. Some time ago, the Oregon House of Representatives nearly passed a very tough bill, which would have taken a huge step backwards when it comes to fighting human trafficking. If this bill were passed, minors who are trafficked wouldn’t have been as protected as they should be. Through social media, however, a change was made. In a little over a week, we had thousands of people from all over the world fighting for this dangerous bill to be changed before it got passed. Social media got the word out. Through social media, we made a local issue a global issue.

And to my surprise at the time, all of the fighting paid off. Because so many activists took action over social media and other media outlets, I watched the miraculous happen as Senator Floyd Prozanski stood up and made a movement to take the bill back to committee so it could be re-amended, making it a felony on the first offense to purchase sex from minors. Now, this bill has been passed, and as soon as it was signed, it was a felony to purchase sex from a minor in Oregon. Through social media, activists from all over the globe made a difference. More importantly, every one of us were connected to the cause. A miraculous act was performed because of social media activism and communication.

So I want to challenge you. Take action and learn the power of engaging on social media. We, at Shared Hope, strongly believe in communication, and social media is one of our many ways of doing that on a daily basis. So, I encourage you to go engage. Comment on our posts. Reply to our tweets. Share our posts. Join the conversation. Get the word out, and make a difference in the world. Together, we can change our culture.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/sharedhopeinternational

Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/sharedhope

Defenders Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defendersusa

Defenders Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedefendersusa

September 4, 2013 by SHI Staff

Eradicating the Commercial Sex Elephant in the Room

Guest Blog Post by Dale Rylander (Defenders Captain)

When I try to get my head around the scope and complexity of the commercial sex issue I feel like a blind man encountering an elephant (the leg is a tree, the tail is a rope, the trunk is a snake, the ear is a fan and the side is a large rock). Each time I approach the commercial sex elephant from a different direction I feel like I am dealing with a different problem. Then, when I step back I realize its huge size and multiple complex issues. It is also the elephant in the middle of the room that is hard to talk about.

But we need to! The destructive impact of commercial sex in our communities, our nation and our world is huge. Each year 100,000 preteen and teenage girls are victimized as prostituted children in the US. (In 2011 there were 83,425 forcible rapes reported in the US.) If each prostituted child experiences physical sexual contact more than once a month that equals 1,300,000 rapes each year. (In 2011 there were 1,203,564 violent crimes reported in the US.) Commercial sex also has a huge impact in other countries often exacerbated by conflict, culture and poverty.

If we are going to successfully eradicate this huge commercial sex elephant we need to address all of its multiple different complex issues. There are prostituted girls that need to be rescued, potential victims that need to be educated, behaviors that need to be eliminated and laws that need to be enacted and enforced. All of these are important and all of these must be addressed.

Just as an elephant looks different when viewed from a different angle; so does a presentation about commercial sex look different when I talk to a different audience. The information is always based on the same facts but the presentation is customized to challenge a specific audience to take age and gender appropriate actions. By focusing on the needs and interest of a specific audience I can reduce the duration of the presentation and emphasize relevant content that maintains the audience’s attention.

I look for opportunities to make presentations about the commercial sex elephant to the following different audiences:
• Preteen and teen girls using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on awareness of their personal safety and the safety of their friends.
• Preteen and teen boys using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on awareness and personal commitment to respect girls and women.
• Parents using the Chosen DVD and Training package with emphasis on the challenges associated with parenting teenagers.
• Political Action using Protected Innocence Challenge to encourage individuals and groups to become informed and express opinions to their elected officials.
• Adult men using personal testimonial followed by open discussion to challenge adult men to take Defenders Pledge.

Is one of these actions more important than the others? No.
Do I always have an opportunity to do all of these? No.

My goal is to make the most of each opportunity and although my contributions may be small I hope my focus on the needs and interests of specific audiences enable each presentation help eradicate a small part of the commercial sex elephant.

Dale Rylander is a professional technology consultant. He is married with three adult children. His wife challenged him to take the Defenders’ Pledge. Motivated by the enormous scope of this issue, he is working as the first Defenders Captain in Dallas to educate and challenge men in Dallas, in Texas, in the United States and around the world to change their attitudes and actions about commercial sex.

August 29, 2013 by SHI Staff

School’s In Session (Part 2 of Keeping Watch Over Schools)

Kids are heading back to school and jumping into another year of learning. Let’s make sure that they are learning about how to stay safe within the school system as well.

This second post of a two part blog presents ideas for how you can prepare yourself, students, and their schools to fight sex trafficking.

Yellow buses are populating the streets again as children and teens are starting a new school year. Let’s make sure that they, their schools, and you are all armed and ready to defend against sex trafficking. Below are three action steps that lead to a lesson plan for prevention, rescue, and restoration.

Educate yourself: You are already on the right track here. You are reading this blog. Chances are you have explored Shared Hope’s website to learn more about sex trafficking in the United States and around the world. If you have not, then we encourage you to do so. There are plenty of resources to answer your questions on sex trafficking. Shared Hope also has a YouTube channel and a Vimeo channel that feature news clips, our DEMAND. Documentary, and much more. Shared Hope would also like to invite you to attend Sharing the Hope. This event will feature three riveting days of education and celebration. There you will learn from the nation’s top leaders on how you can take action to fight sex trafficking and save one life at a time.

Educate students: The previous blog urged you to talk to children and teens. You can find tips on how to talk to them about sexual abuse here. And, as was suggested before, you can use Chosen to open the door to discussions on sex trafficking. Young people will be impacted by the stories told in the documentary by two teenage girls who escaped the snares of commercial sexual exploitation. When you order Chosen, guides, discussion questions, and action ideas are included in your purchase. You can use these tools to organize a viewing in your church, community center, or even at your local middle school or high school. For those kids that are not yet pre-teens, be sure to broach the subject in an age appropriate manner. And do not forget to talk about solutions! If all we talk about is the darkness, then it can leave young people afraid and overwhelmed. Give them hope.

Educate teachers: The first line of defense against trafficking and sexual abuse is so often the educators, school staff, and volunteers that interact with children on nearly a daily basis. If your local district does not have a program in place that teaches these individuals how to spot and respond to signs of sex trafficking, then push for one. The Department of Education has recognized the need for school employees to be aware of this issue. They created this fact sheet to provide an overview of what trafficking is, how to identify potential victims, and what to do.

It takes an entire community to tackle this issue, to protect our children and teens from traffickers. We all need to work together to continue to save these precious lives.

August 29, 2013 by SHI Staff

“Concert for the Innocent” – Vancouver, WA

Announcing the “Concert for the Innocent” a benefit/awareness concert supporting victims of child trafficking

The Defenders USA and Shared Hope will be hosting a free concert with local Vancouver and Portland bands to raise awareness about the issue of ending demand for domestic minor sex trafficking. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that over 100,000 children are trafficked every year in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the average age is 12-14 years old.

The concert will feature local bands and special guest speaker Mike Macintosh from Horizon Christian Fellowship in California. There will also be fun for the whole family, including dunk tanks, inflatable bounce houses, face-painting, and more.

Date/Time: August 31, 2013 from noon to 6:00 PM

Location: Marshall Park, 1009 E McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98663

Guest Speaker: Mike Macintosh of Horizon Christian Fellowship

Bands: Evan Wickham, Chuck Girard, Alex Ferraro, James Younger, The Fargher Lake Boys, and more!

Cost: Free!

This awareness concert is sponsored by Shared Hope, the Defenders USA, and Harvest Fest Events, and is open to the general public.

Contact

To learn more about this event, please contact

Ed Ouellette, Program Manager

PO Box 65337 Vancouver, WA 98665

Office: (360) 693-8100

Fax: (360) 695-9489

Edwin@sharedhope.org

August 27, 2013 by SHI Staff

Keeping Watch Over Schools

Kids are heading back to school and jumping into another year of learning. Let’s make sure that they are learning about how to stay safe within the school system as well. This first of a two part blog discusses the connection between sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

It is difficult to imagine someone with whom children are trusted everyday could possibly abuse that trust. Unfortunately, it does happen. In our school systems there are those that use their position to get close to children in order to sexually abuse them. In some cases, this goes beyond sexual abuse and into trafficking.

We see more cases of a school employee sexually abusing a child than we see of a school employee trafficking one. However, a childhood history of sexual abuse leaves a minor more vulnerable to sex trafficking, which multiple studies have confirmed. “For example, a study of 106 adult women in Boston who were incarcerated for prostitution-related offenses or had ever been arrested for prostitution-related offenses found that 68 percent of the women reported having been sexually abused before the age of 10 and almost half reported being raped before the age of 10 (Norton-Hawk, 2002)” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Human Trafficking Into and Within the United States: A Review of the Literature, 2009).

Some school employees have also had a hand in trafficking minors. For example, in June of this year a New York trafficking survivor came forward and shared her story. Brianna was nine years old when her school janitor kidnapped her, raped her, and then sold her to a pimp. Eventually she escaped, only to fall into the hands of another pimp. She was arrested at 13 for prostitution and made to testify against her pimp. ““This man who owned me as a slave, who sold me to child rapists, who profited off of my body deserves to be punished more harshly,” Brianna said. There was also a California case this year in which a Moreno Valley school board member attempted to recruit two underage girls to become a part of the prostitution ring he ran out of his home. During the course of his trial it was revealed that in addition to the three women he was already prostituting, he attempted to draw in two minors.

So what can you do in this situation? Talk to children and teens! You can use Chosen as a tool to open the door to conversation and to make them aware of the dangers of sex trafficking. Shared Hope created this documentary, which tells the story of two teenage girls who were tricked into trafficking.

Teach students about appropriate and inappropriate interaction with school employees. Show them that you are open to listening to them if they feel unsafe around or have been abused by someone in the school system. People generally believe that school employees are often falsely accused of sexual abuse. “In a 1991 review of false or mistaken accusations of sexual abuse, Yates concludes that the majority of false accusations occur in custody cases and that in other circumstances, the incidence of false accusations appears rare” (U.S. Department of Education, Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature, 2004). Victims of sexual abuse need to know that they will be heard because so often an abuser will tell them that no one would believe them if they say anything. We have to remain vigilant to ensure that they understand that they will be protected and defended.

In the next blog, you will learn more about the steps you can take to protect children and teens in schools.