News from Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships

November 2011 Vol 1, Number 3

Although we are based in Florida, we work with community and professional groups around the country. We have also spoken in five other countries.

Even when we travel for pleasure, as we did recently on a family trip to Poland, we manage to cement contacts we have made by email or at international conferences.

One example of this was our visit with La Strada in Warsaw. Please see the adjacent story to learn about human trafficking in Poland.

Nola Theiss

Executive Director

Thank You

to Xtric8, a socially conscious company which sells a"Silence" T-shirt to educate people about human trafficking. They are giving HTAP a percentage of the sale price of each T-shirt sold as a donation.

They choose their wholesale suppliers with the Sweatfree, Labor, Fair Trade, Buy Local, Environmental Movement and GOTs Certified in mind. Their shirts are made and manufactured inthe USA.

In addition to human trafficking, they support a number of other worthy causes. We are proud to partner with them. Go to www.extric8.org to order your t-shirts.

Update on Colorado event

In the last newsletter we highlighted the annual human trafficking event held in Colorado Springs in October. Featured speakers were Linda Smith of Shared Hope International as well as speakers from the FBI and local law enforcement, all focusing on domestic minor sex trafficking and the demand side. All warned about the importance of early sex education and the dangers to middle school kids in local shopping malls.

Colorado recently passed a Johns School law and they talked about the difficulty of working with it. Also Sarah Ray talked about her work in Uganda and the harm we do when we don't support fair trade items. It sounds like it was once again a fabulous event.

Viewing/Reading

Recommendations

On the OWN network, Lisa Ling has done a documentary called

"3 AM girls", featuring Tina Frundt, a sex trafficking survivor and hard working advocate against domestic minor sex trafficking.

In the documentary, Ling goes undercover with Tina and reveals the life of young sex trade workers. This story was on in October, but it is replayed on the OWN network and is worth looking for. The show is called "Our America."

If you haven't read "The Slave Across the Street" by Theresa Flores, you should. It tells of her experience as a domestic minor sex trafficking victim in the 1980's before we even had a term for it. Theresa has since become a social worker and a speaker and educator on trafficking. She and I have

co-presented and now she is coming to SW Florida to speak at a number of events. She is scheduled to be in SW Florida January 17-19, and if you are interested in attending one of the Ft. Myers or Sanibel events, please contact me.

More details in the next newsletter.

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What's Happening In Your Community?

La Strada

Spotlight on

La Strada Foundation in Warsaw, Poland

In 2006 soon after we established HTAP as a 501(c) organization, I met a young student from Moldova who was attending Florida Gulf Coast University on a State Department scholarship. She had volunteered with the La Strada International organization in Moldova and through her, HTAP volunteered to help them "Americanize" the Engish translations on their website. We were impressed with their effective outreach and victim services. So when my daughter, two cousins and I decided to visit Warsaw to trace our family's roots, we contacted the Zonta Club of Warsaw and the La Strada office in Warsaw and were invited to visit them.

Zonta members helped us arrange our trip, hosted us while in Warsaw and gave us an opportunity to speak to them about human trafficking in the U.S., especially as it affects Eastern European women. They gave us great insight about the special problems victims may have because of the history of many Eastern European countries. They have become a resource for victim service agencies working with victims here.

Joanna Garnier, the Executive Director of LaStrada Poland, met with us and we exchanged information about human trafficking in Poland and the United States and Canada. One thing we learned about is the prevalence of "veteran" trafficking vicitms: women of retirement age forced into prostitution because of a lack of old age pensions. We also learned about an effective program they instituted teaching sex trafficking victims life skills which they then passed on to others. We shared our work with medical professionals learning the indicators of trafficking. We shared information about outreach efforts, including their comic book project and our ARTREACH materials. We brought back the comic books which are now serve as an inspiration in our ARTREACH classes.

Once again, collaboration and cooperation taught us all something and we thank both La Strada and the Zonta Club of Warsaw.

November is the month that we ask our supporters to donate to HTAP through our annual fundraising campaign. Our Annual Report 2010-2011 and financial records are on www.guidestar.org and we invite you to see how much we do on a very small budget.

Government funding has declined dramatically and as a non-profit, we get more and more requests for our services. Both our local law enforcement agency and human service group have lost their funding for training and outreach and we are getting more requests than ever locally and we continue to receive requests for speaking engagements nationally. More groups are interested in our ARTREACH program. We would also like to be able to facilitate workshops for regional coalitions which we have helped start or which are offshoots of those we have started, but we need to raise money for travel and expenses.

You can help us by donating using the donate button below or by sending HTAP a check to PO Box 1113, Sanibel, FL 33957. If you like to specify which project you are supporting, just let us know. All donations are tax deductible.

Artreach Logo

New ARTREACH banner

The banner above shows the first 14 paintings done through our four 16-hour ARTREACH programs and in a gender studies class at a local university. The most recent group did the top center paintings: Among Us and Priceless.

All the art is reproduced in banners and postcard size cards for use in training and as outreach materials. The original paintings will next be on exhibit at a local church in November. We use this banner at community events and presentations to show our students' art. We recently took it to conference for human trafficking advocates in California.

We have recently tried a new format for ARTREACH: 90 minute programs and extended art sessions during existing afterschool programs. It has been an exciting challenge to adapt to the schedules of these students who are in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Because these afterschool classes often include boys and girls, we are focusing on information that will teach the kids how to protect themselves, but we also look at the demand side of the issue. We are in the middle of two programs right now and the students are interested in poetry and writing as well as graphic art and lettering. We are excited about the outcomes of these programs. We feel we are learning as much as the students are!

We have also created a new website for the ARTREACH program:

www.htapARTREACH.org which showcases the work and the participants in these programs.

If you are interested in conducting an ARTREACH program in your community, we would be glad to help you. Go to www.humantraffickingawareness.org to learn more.

Upcoming Event:

Don't miss this inaugural event which benefits HTAP and the GRACE project.

Save the Date!!

January 12 at 7:30 pm - Reception and performance of a Will Stutts' One Man Show "Walt Whitman" at the Fort Myers Alliance of the Arts". Tickets are $25.

239-395-2635 239-292-3834 877-395-1737

PO Box 1113 Sanibel, FL 33957

www.humantraffickingawareness.org

HTAP is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization which depends primarily on private donations.

If you would like to make a donation through Paypal to HTAP, please click on the button.

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF

CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.FEIN # 30-0370679. Complete financial information is available on www.guidestar.com