Our Kids Are Not For Sale
Child sex-trafficking is happening right here in our own neighborhoods. In Florida and across the United States…something very dangerous, very wrong is happening, and it involves our children and youth. Child sex trafficking – the very phrase makes people tend to look the other way and believe their children could never be victimized by such crimes. Yet these crimes are happening in our own communities and to our own children. Our kids are not for sale – and the more we understand this world of child sex trafficking, the better we can prevent it. Here are the ...
Walk For Freedom 2015
Today was A21 Walk For Freedom day. Over 200+ people joined in on the walk and walked the heart of downtown Bellevue Washington. Men, women, youth and children. Families came together to stand up for the voiceless. Various organizations came together local and national to work together to help combat human trafficking right here in our own neighborhood. Churches came together as one. Every one of us came with one purpose which was to stand for those trapped in this horrible crime - human trafficking.: A21, National Educators to Stop Trafficking, REST, EMSEastside, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Sex Trafficking of Minors: What Schools Need to Know to Recognize and Respond to the Trafficking of Students
From National Center for Homeless Education at SERVE (Supporting the Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness).
Human sex trafficking is the most common form of modern-day slavery (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011). According to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, U.S. schools are emerging as a potentially promising environment for a variety of trafficking prevention and intervention activities for the young people in their care (2013, p. 297). (more…)
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...