Educate youth to prevent child trafficking & Abuse

Wow what a start to the year!!!

January started off jumping right into training with the Boys and Girls Clubs, Christian Service Center and many Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month activities like the Red Sand Events and Human Trafficking Awareness Days throughout the month!  We have expanded our reach out to Hillsborough County (Tampa) as member of the HCPS School Human Trafficking Task Force as we geared up the roll out of Student Online Safety roll out in Febuary!

Our Presidnet traveled to DC as she was invited to a very high level round table with leaders from around the nation to collaborate on solutions to keep our kids safe. She also had the opportunity to advocate for our children with members of the Congress on two important pieces of Legislation to keep our kids safe online - the EARN It ACt and Kids Online Saftey Act. Both very bi-partisan and important to hold big tech accountable in protecting our kids.

As a lead advocate and educator in the country, out President was invited out to Night of Hope, the Friday prior to the Super Bowl in Phoenix to continue the work we did out there in 2021 and recieved an Award for our educational work.

Being a part of a the 1st roll out of an Online Safety and exploitation awareness program in the 7th largest School District in nation has been extraordinary! Middle Schooler participating in PE and High Schoolers in Social Studies are being educated by trained teachers to ensure our kids have access to important, life saving knowledge.

Speaking at the Circuit 10 Syposium opened more doors and schools for us to speak at in April. We educated 1500 students in Hardee County and will be educating dozens of Guardian Ad Litem's in Polk County in July.

Being selected for the Victory Cup Initative was such an honor and there was quite a bit of time spent on preping for the Big Breakfast March 2nd. Out of 85 applications, we were selected along with 9 other local organizations to be coached on how to craft a 2 minute and 30 second 'story' that tells other what we do out in the world.

There we many events we had the opportunity to attend around the commuinty and at Valencia College of Public Safety and University of Central Florida. Working closely with the Community Resource Center out of the Orange County Sheriff's Office and other community leaders, we have the opportunity to raise awareness in and around Central Florida.

From Stop the violence event to Impacting Homelessness to educating UCF Students to Parents at middle schools at health events, we've been busy out in the community!

Probably the most exciting thing to happen to us the past 4 months is winning the Victory Cup Iniative. As they say, the right message, at the right time to the right audience. We won $78,000 of unrestricted funds!

With our Orange County Grant, we've educated over 1000 young people, adults and parents. 700 middle school students in Seminole County and 300 students in Brevard County. We had the opportunity to use Grant funds from Care America both the Brevard and Orange County Sheriff's office to educate and empower those students, along with many of the events we attended and for that we are grateful.

The 2nd most exciting this for us is the ablity to expand our team and to hire community partners to train, participate in outreach, and marketing.

3rd most exciting thing - for the 1st time in 8 years, we have enough revenue along with the funds from the Victory Cup for our President to take a salary. That is a huge victory for this organization and all involved.

Thank you for your continued support in the fight againsat online exploitation and inperson child trafficking. It truly does take a village and we are grateful for you to be a part of that village.

Forever grateful!

Jan Edwards

President and Chief Change Maker

Links:

• Victory Cup Winning Pitch
• News Coverage from the Victory Cup

WOW!

What a 4th Quarter we had with youth and adults around the nation!

Our October started out with us being at the Black Hills Pow Wow. We hosted a table with one of our partners out in South Dakota Pathfinder, a safe house for Native women. We spoke and educated hundreds of native brothers and sisters about child exploitation, online abuse and trafficking.

We continued our educational programs with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida throughout the quarter. They are one of our favorite partners as they fully understand the importance of educting youth about what's happening online and offline. Overall we've educated almost 500 youth with them from the summer through the fall. We look forward to continuing the partnership into 2023.

There were several tabling events we participated in to engage with and educate the community. Events at Community Centers for National Night Out, Halloween Haunted Houses, along with Health and Safety events at Colleges, Elementary and Middle Schools. We impacted close to a thousand lives out in the community with our informational Jenga game so we could talk with parents about ways to keep their kids safe. We were invited to speak at Rollins College to a Social Justice class and ganined two new Interns for our program and have been invited back again in the Spring!

Working with Title One and Alternative High School students is so rewarding and we've been invited back to multiple Alternative school this year to educate and empower older youth.

Impacting legislation at the Federal Level that keeps kids safe, especially online, is an important part of our Advocacy work. We traveled to DC to meeting with Congressional Representatives and Sentors to have them hear from the voices of our kids. This past year, we educated close to 7,000 students and hundres of adults. The teens voices must be heard at the Federal level and that's what we bring; Real stories about real people who are being exploited.

We were recognized this summer by the Orange County Sheriff's Office as a community Parnter for the work we do with the CRC and educating kids ing the Sheriff's Summer Program.

Our CEO was invited to be part of a panel on Effective Advocacy with NCOSE in November. This conference is attended by thousands of people across the world as it's is done via zoom. Was an honor to be selected and invited to share our perspective. Our CEO was on the panel with NCOSE, RAINN and National Childrens Alliance.

We closed out Novemember with our Lights on For Children event leading up to Giving Tuesday. We raised over $10,000 via individual donors and the GlobalGiving Platform. We are so grateful for our donors and partners. We also won another grant, Cares Amercia and invited to participate with the Victory Cup Intiative, where we compete for prize money by sharing our story. Last years winner recieved $82,000 of unrestricted funds! We look forward to being that inspiring as well. 

We were also invited to educate the Lakota Tribal Educators at a conference in December, however, that's when the big snow happened all accross the mid-west. When a Governor shuts down a state, you know it's serious. We'll be back there next year!

Being invited back to talk to students is always an honor. It means we did a good job the first time and the faculty understand the importance of this conversation. I'm going to leave with one story about a young girl you helped impact.

We went back to a High School in Brevard County (Space Coast) to educate the Freshmen. Our CEO was 5 classes in with two more to go when a student approached her. She said " Miss Jan, do you remember me?"

Jan said, "Yes, of course"

Then the student said one of the most profound things ever. She said, " I had to come say thank you for saving my life.' Jan blinked a coupld times to get the tears out of her eyes and the student continued. "You see, if I hadn't taken your class back in April and learned I and my friend were being groomed to be trafficked, I don't think I'd be here right now." Jan acknoweledged her for her courage and taking the tools and applying them. She said,"I just had to come say thank you." They hugged and Jan went on to teach two more classes before sobbing in her car at the end of the day.

That is one life. One story of hundreds that we may never know about. And we don't need to. This is why you continue to support this imporant mission and we are forever grateful.

An old Proverb says, "Blessed Are Those Who Plant Trees Under Whose Shade They Will Never Sit"

That is who you are for the world and the kids we educate.

Thank you!