Expanding Hope

I was encouraged at the JuST Conference by Shared Hope in early October. All 1,140 attendees, from all walks of life, are dedicated to stopping the trafficking of juveniles. Their first conference started with 10 people 10 years ago!

Shared Hope is humbly survivor-informed, with about 70 trafficking survivors attending/presenting. Survivors becoming mentors is critical to the success of prevention and rehabilitation/redemption efforts.

Shared Hope also advocates trauma-informed services for victims and survivors, which includes listening, empathy, safety, building trust, and empowerment (encouraging their control/decision-making rather than controlling them as they have been by their traffickers).

Reducing the demand for youth to be trafficked requires new attitudes, methods, and laws. The PBS Frontline video “Sex Trafficking in America,” produced by Jezza Nuemann, showed us the successful approaches being employed by the Phoenix AZ police department. Now girls are being treated as victims, not arrested; buyers are being arrested and booked; traffickers are being arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

Beth Williams (Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Legal Policy) reported human trafficking convictions were up in 2018; also, up were arrests and prosecutions of buyers, child porn dealers, and internet predatory criminals. 2019-2020 goals are for stronger laws and regulations, including laws to disrupt the online marketplace for human traffickers.

An online “virtual neighborhood watch” program (EPIK) has been successful in interrupting buyers’ calls in response to online ads. Buyers’ calls to girls in ads are intercepted by men who inform the callers of the harm they are causing juveniles who are being sold against their will. The interceptors use the descriptions by victims/survivors to communicate the trauma suffered. The program director reports that many men have broken down crying, asking for help after hearing “truth delivered with grace.”

Want to make a difference too? Go to Shared Hope (.org) online to see the many ways you can get involved-- ways that fit your talents and circumstances! Also, my books are designed to be tools for effective prevention!