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 facts:

Here are a few important facts to keep in mind about child sex trafficking:

• Up to 300,000 American children are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.
• The average age a child is trafficked is just 11 years old.
• 90% of child sex traffic victims have a sexual abuse history.

With these alarming statistics, where do we begin in the battle to keep our children safe from trafficking?  Since 90% of child sex traffic victims have a sexual abuse history, doesn’t it make sense that we safeguard all children with education and knowledge at an early age so they never become abuse victims in the first place?

Prevention education is key. Children are educated about fire safety, and pool safety.  They learn to call 911 in emergencies. They are taught about stranger danger. But what are we teaching them about adults and possibly their own peers in their lives who may intend to harm them? Often, we teach them to trust and obey the very adults and peers who end up abusing or exploiting them.

Read full article from KidSafe Foundation: http://www.kidsafefoundation.org/our-kids-are-not-for-sale/

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, Defender Foundation, City Church, Champions Center, etc. Over 75 people volunteered their time for this cause.

We walked the streets of downtown Bellevue in silence with our posters stating to help end modern slavery. Our silent walk spoke volumes. It was louder than ever to be a voice for the voiceless. Some of us wondered what people driving or walking by us were thinking, but it didn’t matter. We knew why we where there – walking in silence. As we walked we silently prayed for those trapped in human trafficking and even for the perpetrators that they would know what they are doing is inhumane and wrong.

It was a great day. A day that all of us came together as one for one purpose. A voice for the voiceless.

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 some scary consequences. Cyberbullying is now a huge issue for many teens. According to a recent study, 43 percent of teens feel cyberbullying is a bigger problem for young people than drugs (Vodafone, 2015). Kids and youth base their self-worth off of how many likes or shares or thumbs up they get on their posts. Predators target young people online daily.

According to Educate Empower Kids a few of last year’s dangerous apps were Tinder, Whisper and Snapchat. This year, they compiled a list of Dangerous Apps 2015. Below are a few apps from their running list:

Burn Note  –  This is a messaging app where all messages self-destruct (delete) after reading. This app only uses text messaging. Users cannot send images or videos. Parents would have no evidence that a conversation took place. This can lead to bullying or sexting or any other dangerous practice, and parents would have no idea.

After School – The description for this app in the app store says it is an anonymous and private message board for your school. This app originally launched in late 2014. But after reports of threats of school shootings on the app, it was taken down. (Burns, 2014) It was rereleased a couple of months ago with new safety features in place. (Burns, 2015) However, we are still concerned about this app since users can still post anonymously, although there is now an option to post under your real name.

Best Secret Folder – This is an iOS app that allows users to store photos secretly. The app icon is called “My Utilities” so others don’t even realize the app is on the phone.

Periscope – Similar to Meerkat. Periscope was just released this year, but users are already reporting sexual assault and bullying. (Tempesta, 2015)

KYMS (Keep Your Media Safe) –  This iOS and Android app hides all media including photos, videos, texts, documents, and PDFs.  It is disguised as a calculator app.

Read Full Article: http://educateempowerkids.org/dangerous-apps/

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 consider as you plan to select and present exploitation prevention education to youth.

1. Use non-sensationalized content.

Sex trafficking might seem like an impossible topic to discuss with youth, but it doesn’t have to be. There are resources – including curricula like ours – that you can use to do this. There are also age-appropriate, empowering, and hopeful ways to broach this kind of conversation. Content that uses exploitative imagery – such as photographs of victims with duct tape over their mouths or with barcodes down bare backs – may only serve to reinforce cultural stereotypes while inadvertently titillating the viewer with sensational images. You can talk about issues of child exploitation – even sex trafficking – without exposing youth to even slightly sexually-charged imagery. 

2. Go for the roots.

If you want to eradicate the weed of exploitation entirely, go for the roots. Working preventatively with youth means that we have to go beyond teaching the academic side of human trafficking. This issue can’t just be taught as a series of definitions that students memorize. Instead, youth need to be empowered with practical, actionable strategies they can apply to their everyday lives. Helping youth to understand the everyday factors that can put them in a vulnerable position – often through no fault of their own – along with the strategies they can use to successfully navigate that vulnerability, is essential. When this issue is taught from a historical, legal, or sociological perspective alone, it is not prevention education. It is academic education.

To learn about our approach to “going for the roots,” check out this document.

Read the full article: http://iempathize.org/th_gallery/6-steps-to-prioritize-for-youth-trafficking-prevention/

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 brought in. —www.localmemphis.com

Traffickers may systematically target vulnerable children by frequenting locations where children congregate—malls, schools, bus and train stations, and group homes, among other locations. With the advent of social media, traffickers recruit through Facebook and other Internet sites. They also use peers or classmates, who befriend the target and slowly groom the child for the trafficker by bringing the child along to parties and other activities.

Child trafficking is not solely a school issue; it is a community issue that impacts schools. Therefore, it is recommended that all members of the community play a role in protecting students. To prevent the trafficking of children, community members first need to admit the problem exists and then commit to educating other community members and increasing awareness of the impact of the problem. Standing up to child trafficking also means equipping leaders with the resources to have an authentic dialog about the issue—including demand—in their neighborhoods, jurisdictions, constituencies, or school districts and giving these leaders the tools to work toward solutions.

Schools should partner with their school boards, service providers, governmental agencies, and local law enforcement partners to identify the nature, scope, and prevalence of child trafficking in their communities. By getting other partners involved, schools will create safer campuses and increase the chances for academic, social, and psychological student success. These same partners should work collaboratively to develop a comprehensive prevention awareness program targeted at students and parents, alerting them to the nature and danger of child trafficking, as well as to develop protocols for dealing with the crime and providing services to victims.

Read full article Human Trafficking in America’s Schools

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).

This article talks about various facts related to human trafficking targeting our youth:

• Understanding Sex Trafficking
• Warning Signs of Involvement in Sex Trafficking
• Homelessness as a Risk Factor
• Reporting Signs of Trafficking Among Students
• Responding to Signs of Trafficking Among Students
• The Vulnerability of Unaccompanied Homeless Youth (as defined by McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act)

This is a must read for all educators that work with children. – http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/trafficking.pdf 

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 thinking “what if we educated all of the young men in this country under the age of 25 about the harms of human trafficking – to themselves, the women they are purchasing, and to their communities and the world? If we did, and none of them ever chose to purchase sex (or consume pornography) again, we could probably end the demand for sex trafficking in our lifetime. Wow!”

So she went to the next stage of research to find the organizations that were educating young men about trafficking. Tuininga invited two other philanthropic foundations (Imago Dei Fund and Equitas Group) who care about reducing the demand for commercial sex in the United States to join with her. The three foundations invited numerous NGOs to attend an important roundtable discussion to share best-practices on creating and implementing a domestic human trafficking prevention curriculum for youth.

On September 11th and 12th eight NGOs met with the three organizers and spent 24 hours together to learn from one another, dream together, and consider the best next steps for implementing curriculum specifically focusing on demand reduction around the United States. The meeting was incredible. NGOs who attended the roundtable were: Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), Frederick Douglas Family Initiatives (FDFI), AWARE, Love 146, Trafficking in America Task Force (now Network for Cultural Change), Traffick911, Fair Girls, and Richmond Justice Initiative.

After about 24 hours of learning and discussion together, we decided there was already a great group of existing curriculum available (for educating both boys and girls) and the best thing to do was to get the word out to educators across the country, so that more youth could get this valuable information and human trafficking would decline. NEST was born.

We then began the collaborative process to create the purpose/mission statements, the preliminary version of what we wanted to accomplish, vetted website creation/structure/content, establish the benefits of joining as a curriculum provider, discuss parameters of NEST (resources, conference, webinars, warehouse of supplemental curriculum materials, etc.), discern the roles/responsibilities of a permanent Advisory Council, and decide the time commitment required for the coordinator.

We’ve come a long way! Since then we’ve scoured the country for additional curriculum and other youth-focused resources and created the website for educators to be able to quickly find an age-appropriate, demographically suitable curriculum for their youth.

It seems like just last week that we all met to dream about a future free of sexual exploitation and gender violence. That dream is one step closer to becoming a reality. THANK YOU to all of the many curriculum providers and resources for all of the work you’ve put into developing your programs, and the many resources and community forums. NEST is YOUR website! We hope that educators across the nation will soon be incorporating your curriculum in their schools.

Clockwise from the top, the NEST Team that got the ball rolling: Heather Tuininga (Luke 12:48 Foundation – founder), Caleb Probst (Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation – on advisory committee since inception), Jessica Willis (Richmond Justice Initiatives – current advisory committee member), Yvonne Williams (Network for Cultural Change – on advisory committee since inception and current NEST coordinator), Sarah Pomeroy (Richmond Justice Initiatives – Initial advisory committee member), Justin Wassel (Human Trafficking Advocate – current advisory committee member), Tony Talbott (University of Dayton – current advisory committee member), Jim Grenfell (Aware, initial advisory committee member), Cindy Bankston (Northwest Family Services – current advisory committee member), Tammy Honeycutt (1st NEST Coordinator).

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 children are trafficked for sex and labor in the United States.2 In fact, many child victims of human trafficking are students in the American school system. School administrators and staff need to be aware that cases of child trafficking are being reported in communities throughout the nation. No community—urban, rural, or suburban—school, socioeconomic group, or student demographic is immune.

“Our fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time, and the United States will continue to lead it—in partnership with you. The change we seek will not come easy, but we can draw strength from the movements of the past. For we know that every life saved—in the words of that great Proclamation—is ‘an act of justice,’ worthy of ‘the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.’” –President Barack Obama, September 25, 2012

Few crimes are more abhorrent than child trafficking, and few crimes are more challenging for communities to recognize and address. For many people, the reality of trafficking in their community is difficult to comprehend, let alone confront. For educators and school personnel, the reality of these crimes and the severity of their impact are cause for a call to action.

Schools can and should be safe havens for students, and even more so for some students whose lives are otherwise characterized by instability and lack of safety or security. In these cases, school personnel are uniquely well positioned to identify and report suspected abuse and connect students to services—actions that can prevent trafficking and even save lives. Everyone who is part of the school community—administrators, teachers, bus drivers, maintenance personnel, food service staff, resource officers, and other school community members—has the potential to be an advocate for child victims of human trafficking, but, first, school community members must learn the indicators of the crime, its warning signs, and how to respond when a student is an apparent victim.

Though they play a crucial role, school personnel cannot, and should not, address these complex issues alone. Effectively responding to child trafficking demands increased awareness and a clearly defined course of action, supported by collaboration with child protective services, law enforcement, social services, and community-based service providers. This guide was developed to help school officials

• understand how human trafficking impacts schools
• recognize the indicators of possible child trafficking
• develop policies, protocols, and partnerships to address and prevent the exploitation of children

NEST hopes teachers and school social workers will take time to review this site, attend some of the many events, and become familiar with the work that the Department of Education (DOE) is doing to prevent human trafficking. We can work backwards by bringing restoration to current victims and then work forward by working to prevent the next generation from this egregious crime. In this, we can eradicate modern day slavery.

Join NEST on August 11th at 4:00 EST for the monthly educators meetup call where you will hear from Eve Birge about the many program DOE has to offer teachers in America’s schools.

In the Virginia Free Citizen, an on-line publication, RJI’s Prevention Project was highlighted in the May 7th edition in a story written by Kay Miller.

Local Anti-Human Trafficking Non-Profit Provides Teen Prevention Education Program Anti-human trafficking organization, Richmond Justice Initiative (RJI), is spreading a message of human trafficking prevention through its award-winning Prevention Project® program.

Its 6-lesson academic curriculum “focuses on educating teens on the issues of human trafficking locally and globally, developing healthy safe awareness and boundaries, strengthening character and fostering leadership amongst the students,” program materials state.
Jessica Willis, Director of Prevention Education for RJI, said prevention plays a key role in ending this crime. Since the inception of Prevention Project curriculum, the program has spread into schools in Virginia as well to other parts of the country, including North Carolina, Texas and Oregon.
“The Internet has really changed this crime,” Willis said, adding that social media has become one of the greatest recruitment tools used by traffickers to lure their victims. As the growing crime of human trafficking evolves with the changing times, RJI is working to keep teens aware of any potential trafficking threats. Read the full article here.

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 our beckoning. Whenever we need to contact someone we don’t give it a second thought; push the on switch to the computer, login to our social media, or pick up the cell phone that is attached to us like a third hand and we’re off and running. No long distance fees to worry about, no rushed conversations to stay within our monthly budgets, and the person we are typing with can’t even be heard by the person we are talking with (unless we’re in skype or google hangout).

This little screen that has become our life partner is the dream mate, the best friend, the perfect place to work, and the tireless source that makes our life flow like water running down a mountain stream and at times gushing over the side of a mountain. They don’t talk back, don’t interrupt us while we are talking (except for the occasional notification of incoming email or sports center update), and never, never judge us when we’re not up to par. But when things go wrong with our computer or smartphone all of the goodness they bring into our lives seems to walk right out the door and take everything with them.

When the NEST website crashed last month we lost all of our data back to August 2014. I learned a new level of frustration, experienced a type of panic (while minor, it showed me I had some inner work to do) and I found myself “out of sorts” at times when I would receive an email that let me know our site was down and someone wanted to access the curriculum charts or send the link to an interested person. We were down for several weeks. But when our “friend” decided to come back to us, it didn’t take too long to recreate what had been lost. Fortunately, I had saved a great deal of important information in email files and other desk top files, but there were things like blog posts that I did not save.

All in all, the experience was a good one. Life’s adversities show us what we’re really made of and if we are willing to do the work to correct our own inadequacies and short comings we will grow from them. Our computers really are that best friend. Even when they are down they still are affecting us in their absence.

The flip side of the amazing electronic world is it can also allow great harm in our lives and those who are vulnerable. That trusted friend can become our worst enemy in an instant. While great good comes from the internet it is also a playground for those that seek to do harm to others. We must all become more educated about firewalls and ways to protect ourselves and our children from harm on this magnificent tool that was created for good.

Education on internet safety for youth is a must. A new Pew Internet Project report reveals that 93% of teens ages 12‐17 go online. That means almost all of our youth are engaging on the internet and are most likely engaging with someone they do not know. In simple terms that is like sending them alone into the world without an adult to supervise and protect them. Almost all of the curriculum listed on the NEST website address media influence and internet safety. And several of the resources do as well. Check out these wonderful curriculum today and share them with educators in America’s school systems and youth leaders. Do it for your children, and mine.