By Janet Edwards | President
We had an incredibly busy 4th quarter raising awareness, fund and educating the community.
October started out Preparing for our Micro-project Lights on For Children which was held November 20th and the launch of our first of many Parent Tech Talk.
We've educated over 150 parents during the 4th quarter about the current online enviroment and how to powerfull speak to kids about online prediators, using our Parent Tool Kit that was developed in Q3 as a foundation, we empowered parents to have the tough conversations with their kids to keep them safe. We have rav reviews including from DCF supporter Foster Families. Dept of Children and Family services continues to ask to be informed of our programs to share with families in their service. The State Attorney's office has also asked to be in the loop when we present so they can share with their parents that may have children in truancy. Our CEO spoke at an event in Longwood Florida, educating the community at an outdoor event and rounded out the month at the food drive/education event in Bithlo, Fl with Orange County Sheriff Mina raising awareness and feeding people to reduce situational exploitation.
As Novemeber approached we prepared for Lights on For Children by partnering with another organization in the Bahamas, expanding our reach outside the US! Our Sanctuary was our partner for this event and we had lots of press in the Bahamas and did a Parent Tech Talk via zoom with 60 parents, pastors and educators. We also were mentioned in a college text book, International Human Trafficking of Women and Children, used at St. Leo University as the inspiration for Professor Karin May's work in the anti-trafficking space. Our President was on several podcast and other interviews to raise awareness about children trafficking including I am Perspective, Ms. Texas and A servers Journey. Our month closed out with Lights on For Children at downtown Orlando, with the Fountain at Lake Eola turning blue in honor of Universal Childrens Day and Paving the Way Raising Awareness about human trafficking. We had blues lights on from Ghana, Africa all the way to Idaho, from Miami to Vancover, Canada. We had 24 warriors present to watch the fountain turn blue, including local law enforcement, local task force members and mission ambassadors and raised over $1,200. Rounding out November was a photo shoot for our President to be featured in i4 Business Magazine for the work she does in disruputing child trafficking. That piece was launched in Decemeber.
We kicked December off on Giving Tuesday, raising over $800 during Giving Tuesday. We learned alot so we can plan for this coming year's Giving Tuesday. Preparation is key and we did some prep, however, we need to start earilier this year. Our favorite part of this month was we got to go in and educate kids in a foster home. Being with the youth is the most rewarding thing we do. They totally got it and the film made an impact. It was our first time this year to be with youth, live, in person and masked up. Two Mission Ambassadors joined our President getting back in the training saddle again. Our last event of the year was with two young people who have lost both their parents. Orange County Sheriff and other organizations, including Paving the Way Foundation, joined together to have them feel like Princesses. The year cluminated with the press generated from our CEO being in the i4 Business Magazine and Parents Magazine we saw as spike in contributions from Universal Studios and NBC. It was a great holiday time gearing up for 2021.
Our Mission Ambassadors are an extraoridnary group of people committed to educating and empowering the community and our children to disrupt the cycle of child trafficking. We did Mission Ambassador Mondays to raise awareness and promote our Parent Tech Talks. We have now 4 trained and ready to deliver the Parent Tech Talk both in english and spanish, pluse we are launching our Youth Mission Ambassador Program in Q1 as we have 8 middle and high school students that want to train their peers and younger siblings.
It was an extraoridinary year and great way to close out a most tumultuous time in history. We raised $9,580 on the GlobalGiving platform, between indivdiual donations, matcing funds and prizes. It was our best year yet thanks to you!
Thank you for your support and contributions to keep the conversation going - educating and empowering youth and their parents to prevent them from being exploited. It's partners and friends like you that keep us going!
Grateful for you!
Links:
By Jan Edwards | President
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