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Happy New Year!  

January is off to a big start for our agency as January is both Stalking Awareness & Human Traffikcing Awareness Month!  Aspen and I thought we would share some very important information with your regarding these crimes and the victimizations that our Survivors endure.

What is stalking? A pattern of behavior  directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress.

STALKING VICTIMIZATION

• An estimated 7.5 million people are stalked in a one year period in the United States.
• Nearly 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men have experienced stalking victimization at some point in their lifetime.
• About half of all victims of stalking g indicated that they were stalked before the age of 25.
• Stalkers use many tactics including: Approaching the victim or showing up in places when the victim didn’t want them to be there; making unwanted telephone calls; leaving the victim unwanted messages (text or voice); watching or following the victim from a distance, or spying on the victim with a listening device, camera, or GPS.

For more information about Stalking and to read more statistics and access resources, go to the SPARC website linked in this report along with the short YouTube video.

Human Trafficking ranks as the fastest growing and second largest criminal enterprise in the world and henerates approximately $150.2 billion worldwide.  The Polaris Project, which houses the National Human Trafficking Hotline reports:

• More than 40,000 cases of human trafficking has been reported to the hotline in the last 10 years.
• In 2020, there were 51,667 contacts to the Human Trafficking Hotline.
• In 2020, 10,983 Human Trafficking Cases were reported: 8,447 were female and 1,257 were male, 6423 were adults and 2,488 were minors.  

For more information about Human Trafficking and to read more statistics and to learn more about the Myths/Facts surrounding this national issue go to the Polaris Project webstie linked in this report.

We hope that sharing this information will give you a clearer picture of the work we do here at Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center and the importance of Aspen's services.  Every dollar donated goes directly to support our project as Canine Advocacy is 100% community funded. 

Again, Happy New Year!  May this be the year that all your dreams take flight!  

Kelly Vates

Links:

• Stalking awareness video by SPARC
• Polaris Project Website
• SPARK website