By Janet Edwards | President
Hello and happy New Year!
We had a very busy Fall and pray you had a joyous holiday season!
Our President was voted into to be the Chairperson of the Seminole County Human Trafficking Task Force. She’s honored to be leading this great organization, working with NGO’s, Law Enforcement and
We started our Fall with a conference at University Central Florida College of Criminal Justice to empower college students. Followed right up with Start Up Weekend Orlando, which is an event where ideas can come to life in 54 hours.
We proposed an idea for a mobile app that can make a difference for young people to interrupt online predatory behavior and our idea won! We are working with a local tech company to create a prototype to test and potentially get built. We will keep you posted on that exciting possibility.
Our President spoke at the American Case Management Assoc. to educate their case managers about the prevalence of human trafficking victims that have come through the either ER or medical settings and what actions to take to offer support for adults or recover children.
She also spoke at the Black Robe Regiment to over 200 people, Dr. Phillips High School, Bethel Church Youth Groups, Sheeler High School, Trinity Prep and attended the Mesa Film Festival to speak and show our film, Trapped in the Trade, and meeting with MMIP Fusion Center to help educate tribial children about human trafficking. Together we raise awareness around the country to save more lives.
We continued our online Parent Tech Talks through the Fall.
Oct Parent Tech Talk with Seminole County Principal, Jordan Rodriguez discussing the impact of the current environment on our teens.
Nov Parent Tech Talk with HSI Agent, Austin Berrier, discussing the increase of online exploitation and what parents can do to keep their kids safe.
We had a small but mighty group of interns over the fall and two of them carried over into the Spring Semester. We continued our educational and empowerment messages for all of our social media platforms and added a new blogger that had written new pieces. Our social media posts continue to make an impact and educate our community and the world.
We had our biggest fundraising goal ever and met it – thanks to you! We invited several of our donors to join in a matching fund for Giving Tuesday and Lights on For Children matching funds 100%. We raised over $15,000 between the two events! We are forever grateful for your partnership in fighting child exploitation. This was the 2nd year for Lights on For Children with a new website we upgraded our look and new community leaders join in to raise awareness. Once again, blue lights were on across the nation!
We also won two small business grants which we will be using to hire some administrative assistance!
That took us right into planning for our 14th Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day and 5th Annual Film Festival in January. It expanded into a two day event to educate and empower the community, Law Enforcement, legislators, mom, dads, educators and kids on ways to prevent child exploitation.
So thank you - thank you for believing in us, thank you for making a difference with students, parents, grandparents and educators around the country.
Thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to sharing all we've accomplished in fulfilling our mission with your partnership.
Sincerely,
Jan
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By Janet Edwards | President
By Janet Edwards | President - Chief Changemaker
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