chosen Archives - Shared Hope International

July 3, 2014 by SHI Staff

Thank You Walt Schulcz

We would like to take time this month to affirm and recognize a true Defender and an incredibly influential Ambassador of Hope. Through his actions, Walt Schulcz has shown that he is a true Defender that brings a message of hope to all. Over time, Walt has influenced thousands of people. From schools to churches, and individuals to small groups, Walt and his wife are committed to addressing the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking. Their work is incredible, and for that we are forever grateful. Let Walt be an example to us all.

Walt has shown us that any man can do something about human trafficking. Walt is the perfect example of a Defender who utilizes Shared Hope resources so that he can save the lives of those around him.

In just a small period of time, Walt and his wife have shown countless showings of the documentary Chosen (well over 20 presentations). In just one month alone, they showed the documentary to over 600 teens and adults. In this time, they also got Chosen into a school system for kids in 7^th-12^th grade. Walt is consistently thinking about how he can reach out and raise awareness about trafficking.

By showing so many screenings of Chosen, Walt has got into his “awareness groove” and he has created an effective presentation style that works for him. Walt is doing lots of effective communication as a result, and he is even working on getting Chosen into his local movie theater!

The list doesn’t end there, however. Walt has also helped identify potential victims of trafficking, he’s made relationships with school superintendents, he has presented to DHS workers—the list goes on and on.

Please, take the time to thank Walt today in the comments section of this blog. Walt, you are truly setting an example, and for that we are grateful. Together, with men like you, we can end the demand for domestic minor sex trafficking.

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 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.

August 20, 2013 by SHI Staff

“You just don’t get it!”: Understand the teenage brain and its vulnerability

The average age of entry into commercial sexual exploitation is 13 years old. At this age, the brain has started an important stage of development during which a teenager is gaining vital decision-making skills. A trafficker understands that the teenager is going through pivotal changes and manipulates them during this tender point. They capture them young and create bonds that solidify as this brain development continues.

A teenager can sometimes seem like an alien who has taken over the body of a previously delightful child. At this age, they seriously begin questioning why they shouldn’t jump off the proverbial bridge if everyone else is. Adults wonder, ‘What is wrong with them?’ Well…nothing is wrong. Teenage years are a key time in brain development. Unfortunately, this makes teenagers prime targets for traffickers. The average age that children are first exploited in sex trafficking is 13.

As soon as puberty hits, the brain begins a massive undertaking that lasts until about the age of 25. This amazing process is integral in developing humans with more sophisticated reasoning and decision-making. Here are the highlights:

1. The brain begins to prune away synapses, which help signals pass throughout the brain. Those that have never been used are removed, effectively “de-cluttering” the brain and allowing for faster thinking.

2. The connection between the frontal lobe and the hippocampus strengthens. The frontal lobe is responsible for decision-making. The hippocampus plays a role in processing experiences and storing them as memories. It is particularly stimulated by new experiences. When these two parts combine, the brain is able to better use experience to inform decisions. However, during adolescence the hippocampus highly craves new experiences. This leads teenagers to take more risks than they would have before.

3. The connection between the right and left sides of the brain strengthens. This allows for more complex thinking processes. A teen is learning to weigh several factors at once.

(David Dobbs, “Beautiful Brains,” http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text; Richard Know, “The Teenage Brain: It’s Just Not Grown Up Yet,” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468; Sarah Jayne Blackmore, “The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain,” http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jayne_blakemore_the_mysterious_workings_of_the_adolescent_brain.html)

With all of these changes, teens are vulnerable to traffickers who have mastered manipulation. The trafficker perceives that teenagers feel misunderstood and knows that a teenager will be drawn to someone who shows sympathy. In order to appeal to their increased attraction to novelty and risk, the trafficker provides an environment different from what they have experienced to date. The trafficker also understands that an adolescent craves acceptance from those outside of the home. This is the brain preparing the adolescent to leave the nest one day. Anna was 12 when a trafficker slowly and sweetly inserted himself into her trust. She felt misunderstood and was afraid that her adoptive Christian family would give her back like so many foster parents had in the past. He listened to her fears, becoming her best and only friend. After a fight with her mother, Anna ran away with her friend…who then trafficked her. Anna was only 13 years old and her pimp became her world.

Because they only are beginning to use their brains’ connection between experience and decision making, teens are ripe for a trafficker’s twisted influence. Every teen is vulnerable. So, how do you protect these young people? Keep watch. If you see signs that a girl is at risk of being trafficked, ask questions. Teach them about the dangers they face by showing them Chosen, a resource Shared Hope created to make the conversation easier. This documentary tells the story of two teenage girls who were tricked into trafficking.

Don’t forget to also patiently show love, support, and guidance. And make an effort to foster a teen’s increased attraction to risk. Granting them new experiences in a productive, safe, and healthy environment is invaluable to their brain development and it ensures that they are protected during the process.

If you need help or guidance, or want to report a suspected case of human trafficking, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Tipline 1-800-THE-LOST.

July 31, 2013 by SHI Staff

Back to School

Every year back to school season begins with the same fresh fervor. Children are outfitted with a new backpack, lunch box, crayons, binders, pencils, clothes and shoes. They anxiously wait to learn the name of their new teacher and cross their little fingers that their best friend will be in their class. But as every parent begins to prepare their child for another school year, there is one thing they often don’t prepare their child for: identifying and standing up against traffickers.

If you know a child, this article is for you.

“It will never happen to my child.”

This same thought that lurks in the minds of those parents who believe their child is immune to trafficking because of good parenting, income, social status, the neighborhood they live in or their child’s maturity and good decision making abilities is the same phrase the parents of the trafficked child often laments to us.

The truth is pimps target our children at the place they spend over 1,200 hours a year: their school.

“San Diego Police Detective James Hunter said…pimps recruit online, at schools, malls and bus stands.” – KPBS

“Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused eight people of recruiting underage girls from Inland Empire schools for prostitution.” –Los Angeles Times

“The leader of a Fairfax County gang accused of running a prostitution ring has been indicted by a grand jury. A federal grand jury has indicted 26-year-old Justin Strom of Lorton, also known as “J-Dirt”, who is accused of running a sex trafficking operation. Strom recruited girls at school, in the mall or on the Metro, according to Ronald Hosko, the FBI agent who took the lead on the case. “They had one girl who has a 3.9 GPA,” Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said after the indictment. “Her parents are what most people would call very well-to-do in a good high school in Fairfax, recruited though a partner of the gang, in the school.” – WAMU, NPR

“It’s the most chilling of hunting grounds. Sex traffickers who coerce kids into prostitution are using the city’s schoolyards and playgrounds as recruiting offices. It’s such a troubling problem that Brooklyn prosecutors have started training educators on how to spot kids in peril on their turf. ‘It happens enough that I can say it happens a bunch,’ Assistant District Attorney Lauren Hersh told the Daily News. “Many girls are forced to go to middle school playgrounds and recruit other young girls.” Hersh, who runs a pioneering sex-trafficking unit for the DA’s office, has held several workshops and hopes to expand into as many schools as possible. Last fall, pimp Abking Wilcox admitted turning girls as young as 15 into being sex slaves and making them recruit others in Bushwick and Brownsville middle schools. Wilcox, who pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Criminal Court to three counts of sex trafficking, called it his ‘team.’ “ – New York Daily News

chosn2pkwebstore — Special Offer! 2 Chosen DVD & Training Packages

The best way to prepare your child is to teach them about the dangers they could face. Shared Hope has created a resource to make the conversation easy. In our new 20-minute documentary titled Chosen, two teen girls tell about their real experiences of being tricked into trafficking. The documentary contains mature subject matter but no graphic content, making it appropriate for teens 13 years and older. Additionally, the package includes presentation resources like discussion starters, ideas to take action, handouts and presentation ideas.

Help us reach America’s children with this important news by ordering a copy for your child or grandchild’s school, sports team, or youth club.