19 results for author: Kyong Yim

Dangerous Apps 2015

Today’s youth are known for what apps they use. More apps are created and geared toward our youth and are used by them more than ever before. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Viber, Whisper are just a few from a massive running list of apps freely available on their iPhones and Android. Teens love fresh and new, so when a new app or social media site pops up, it can be tempting for tween and teen to hop on over and start sharing. And adults can often get left behind. Things change so quickly it’s hard to keep track of what each app or social media site does. Many of these apps have fun and positive uses. But used incorrectly, they can lead to ...

6 Steps to Prioritize For Youth Trafficking Prevention

There is an exciting movement to prioritize human trafficking prevention in our nation’s communities. Schools, youth service programs, juvenile corrections services, group homes,faith communities, and other youth-oriented spaces are recognizing their great potential to empower youth to stay safe from exploitation, including sex trafficking. At the start of this new school year, you may be thinking about how to work preventatively with the youth in your life, whether in your own home space, in a social space such as through a volunteer position at a local youth program, or in a work space such as a school. Here are six key steps to ...

Human Trafficking: In our Neighborhoods and In our Schools

Human Trafficking. It happens here in America, in our own neighborhoods. It doesn’t just happen in foreign countries, but it is very prevalent here where we live, specifically sex trafficking. Not all traffickers are adults: A suburban Minneapolis high school cheerleader was arrested for allegedly recruiting and pimping a younger student by creating an online ad and driving the victim to potential customers. —Star Tribune A man from Millington, Tennessee, was accused of trafficking girls as young as 15. He reportedly used a boy under the age of 18 to help recruit girls from local high schools. The boy was paid $20 for every $100 the girls ...

NEST Celebrates Three Year Anniversary

Celebrate With Us! September 12th will mark the third anniversary of NEST! NEST is a product of years of research, lots of meetings, phone calls and more research, and an incredibly committed Advisory Committee and Coordinator that have seen it through to what it is today. It all started when Heather Tuininga, Executive Director of the Luke 12:48 Foundation, was doing research on the demand side of human trafficking. After doing a full literature analysis, she discovered several statistics about men who purchase sex, one of which wouldn’t leave her mind: 74-86% of the men who purchased sex bought by the time they were 25 years old. She kept ...

Human Trafficking In America’s Schools

From the Safe Supportive Learning Department of the Department of Education: Human trafficking is modern slavery. It involves exploiting a person through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of forced labor, commercial sex, or both. Victims of human trafficking include men, women, boys, girls, and transgender individuals lured by the promise of a better life in the United States and adults and children who were born and raised in the United States. The International Labour Organization estimated, in 2012, that children represented 26 percent (or 5.5 million) of the 20.9 million victims worldwide.1 Both U.S. citizen and foreign national ...

Richmond Justice Initiative in the News

The Richmond Justice Initiative (RJI) is one of the curriculum providers on the NEST Curriculum Comparison Chart. As a non-profit, faith-based organization. the volunteers are modern day abolitionists who use their gifts and talents in the battle against human trafficking. Founded in 2009 by Sara Pomeroy, RJI has been mobilizing and educating communities on the issue of human trafficking in Virginia and most importantly, how they can take action and affect change. RJI has trained several other sister Justice Initiative teams who are thriving in and greatly impacting their respective cities. RJI has been the driving force of the Virginia Coalition ...

The Computer: Friend and Foe Alike

In today’s fast paced modern culture we find it hard to take 15 minutes to stop and enjoy the silence. We are caught in a never ending race to stay connected with the rest of the world. And, when we do have 15 minutes to spare we depend on our trusted friend – the computer to take us somewhere other than where we are. The world wide web is a marvelous journey in our day that can take us anywhere we want to go. Other electronics along with the computer have become our source for interaction with friends, family, and even our livelihoods. We tend to take for granted that the little machines we beam into daily will be forever obliged to perform at ...

Know the Indicators of a Potential Victim

Indicators that Your Student is Potentially Being Trafficked One of the most frequently asked questions advocates get is, how can I recognize a student that is potentially being trafficked? This can be difficult, especially since so many of the initial signs resemble other abuse scenarios such as bullying, physical or emotional abuse, sex abuse, etc. in the younger age groups. However, there are some signs to look out for, including: • Change is personality or demeanor – from happy to sad, from talkative to quiet • Change in appearance • Physical abuse signs such as bruising, cuts and scrapes, etc. • From active and vibrant to ...

The Educator’s Role in talking to/Teaching Children About Human Trafficking

In today’s tumultuous climate for America’s youth we have to wonder how educators are able to stay on track when it comes to actually doing what they went to college to learn to do, teach. Students are faced with unbelievable life challenges that not many educators are equipped to, or want to, deal with. But the hard facts are that students bring their personal lives and all that is happening outside of school into the classroom and teachers are forced to deal with it all, in addition to teaching their lesson plans. At NEST we hope to give educators tools to help them with some of the outside of school issues, so they don’t need to be educatio...

Is There Really a Prince Charming for Every Cinderella?

Since the film debut of Pretty Woman in 1990, audiences everywhere have been charmed by the “fairytale” romance that leaves audiences with a "Cinderella" feeling, that dreams can come true for the least of those in American culture. Whether impoverished or enslaved, someone will come along to rescue us from dire circumstances...right? On Monday, March 23rd, the cast was brought together for a reunion on NBC’s Today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the iconic movie. For those who are not aware of the very real tragedy of human trafficking, the story is light hearted and divinely romantic. Prince charming (Richard Gere, who portrays a wealthy ...