What's Happening in Our Community?

We are thrilled to announce that we have opened a new office in Ft. Myers, FL. We were given a one year lease on space which we can now use to host meetings of the SW Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and to meet with community leaders and organizers who want to learn more about our programs. We also hope to conduct small trainings for our volunteers and for those who want to conduct ARTREACH programs.

We see this as a real opportunity to expand our services and extend our reach, thanks to the generosity of our donor.

Here's a Recap of our January/February Events:

Three January events held at Edison State College were a great success. They were joint efforts by the college, student clubs, Zonta Clubs, HTAP and the SWFL Coalition Against Human Trafficking. Held over three weeks and starting with a movie about  labor exploitation in Immokalee, followed by a wonderful presentation by Theresa Flores (see above). Theresa spoke at 5 events in SW FLorida while she was here. The third event was  a panel discussion on the current status of anti-human trafficking efforts in SW Florida with representatives from the US Attorney's Office, Lee County Sheriff's Office, the Co-Chairs of the SWFL Coalition Against Human Trafficking and a representative from the FL Department of Children and Family. Local organizations and advocates displayed their work and talked to possible volunteers. These events covered all the bases: labor and sex trafficking and community action and advocacy. What especially made us feel good about the work being done in SW Florida is that the audiences increased in size for each event.

The SWFL Coalition is planning another event on April 24. More information to follow.

February and March have been filled with many other SW Florida events and we now look forward to events in the Tampa area (see below) and Marathon, FL; Hamilton, Ontario; and Troy, Alabama through May.

And Look What's Happening Next!

http://www.wgcu.org/Gulf-Coast-Live/rachel-lloyds-memoir-girls-like-us-and-the-underworld-of-child-sex-trafficking

And here's a training I'm really

excited about!

After listening to Theresa and Rachel discuss domestic minor sex trafficking at events or on the many television shows or in their books, you may be wondering how we can prevent more girls from getting entrapped. We believe our ARTREACH program can help reach girls early and encourage them to tell their peers about the dangers.

One goal of our ARTREACH program is to train other community leaders and human trafficking advocates on how to conduct the program. While I have done short trainings on ARTREACH before, this will be the first full Train the Trainer and Simulation of the variations of ARTREACH programs. June Wallace has organized this event and we look forward to an exciting time on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 27 and 28, 2012 in Sun City Center, FL. There is no charge for this training and you can preregister by clicking below.  

  Click here for more information.

If you would like to hold a Train the Trainer ARTREACH event, please send an email to nola@humantraffickingawareness.org.  

We have just finished another ARTREACH project with a youth soccer team in Bonita Springs, FL. Next month we will be highlighting their work.  

Upcoming Events to Support HTAP

This event is sponsored by the GEO club of Florida Gulf Coast University. GEO has supported HTAP for 3 years.

 Other FGCU students have been volunteering in the ARTREACH program and also organized a great awareness event on campus on March 14. Thank you!