News from Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships

Summer 2012 Vol 1, Number 7

Nola headshot

This summer has been filled with travel, ARTREACH and local coalition work as we join in the planning of a 2- day conference in October in conjunction with government officials from the Dominican Republic and local and national experts.

In September, I will be going back to my high school in Northlake, Illinois to receive recognition on its Alumni "Wall of Fame". I'll have an opportunity to speak to students in the two high schools in the district over two days. I'm really excited about this chance to reach out to kids from neighborhoods I remember so well.

Nola Theiss, Executive Director

Train the Trainer ARTREACH Programs

Prevention is our goal when we conduct ARTREACH programs, but in order to make the program sustainable, we need to train others who can conduct the program in their own community. We are willing to conduct Train the Trainer programs in your community or to send you materials so you can do it yourself.

We are excited that Colorado Springs is organizing a Train the Trainer program now.

Thank you to the

Zonta Club of Bonita Springs, FL

The Wells Fargo Community Foundation

The GEO Club of Florida Gulf Coast University

Troy University

SWFL Community Foundation

for their generosity in helping us fulfill our mission.

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What's Happening in Your Community?

A box of labelled soap ready to be distributed to hotels

This weekend, we will be participating in and speaking at Traffickfree's SOAP project in Tampa where thousands of bars of soap will be labeled and placed in hotels in the area in anticipation of the influx of visitors in conjunction with the Republican National Conference. Its purpose is to give possible sex trafficking victims forced to work in hotels the national hotline number to get help. Three hundred volunteers are expected at this 2-day event. The same project will be conducted in Charlotte, NC during the Democratic National Conference. This project is held during major events such as the Super Bowl and other sporting and national events which attract large groups of people. For more information, go to www.traffickfree.com and see the complete list of past and upcoming events.

Change

It's been a long hot summer and HTAP is in the midst of lots of movement forward. Thanks to the generous donation of a one-year lease on an office in South Fort Myers, FL; a capacity grant for equipment from the SWFL Community Foundation; a grant from the Wells Fargo Community Foundation; in-kind donations from Zonta members, our new Ft. Myers. FL office is all equipped, furnished and ready for the future.

We are also in the midst of hiring a new administrative assistant/program coordinator. I am so pleased with the number of highly qualified people who have applied. The energy and skills the new person will bring will be amazing.

Our ARTREACH program continues with some awesome art and interaction from a foster group home for girls between the ages of 13-17. We spent time with them over 5 weeks in July and August. We couldn't do the program without volunteers or without the support we have received from a number of grants from Zonta clubs and churches. We are planning more work with foster kids this Fall and we will be presenting to 7 groups of Foster Grandparents throughout Southwest Florida.

Please note that our phone/fax number has changed to

239-415-2635.

The 877-239-395-1737 number remains the same.

U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2012

Read the complete 2012 report here:

State Dept Website and TIP report 2012

The Protection Project issues an insightful analysis of the TIP report every year in July. Here is a link to this report and others:

Protection Project Reports

Polaris Project has also issued its annual statistical report on the usage of the National Hotline. You can get it here:

National Hotline Statistics

In our last newsletter, we mistakenly identified Montana as the only state without state anti-trafficking legislation. We were wrong and geographically challenged. I promised Montana that I would apologize to the entire state in the next newsletter and in every presentation I do and I have, but
once again,
"Sorry, Montana!"

The only state without current legislation is Wyoming.

In 2004, when I first got involved in this work, there were only 4 states with legislation. We've come a long way, but I think we all agree that there's lots more work to do legislatively and in every other way.

If you want to see how the Polaris Project rates your state, go to:

State law ratings

As a follow up to the wonderful work being done in Canada by MP Joy Smith which we told you about in the last newsletter, here are highlights from Canada's national action plan, laws and other work.

Highlights of MP Joy Smith's Anti-Trafficking Work

HTAP Read/Recommend/Act Campaign

We believe that the more available information about human trafficking is, the more likely it is that people will learn and take action.

This campaign was inspired by one of our board members who was unable to find any books about human trafficking while traveling on business. She said, "Human Trafficking is the second largest criminal business internationally and booksellers don't carry the great books that have been written about it. We need to do something to make these books available".

Some of these are "classics" in the field, some are personal stories, some are strongly based on research. Together they give a well rounded view of trafficking today.

Read these books and learn more about human trafficking.
Recommend these books to your local library and bookstores and encourage others to read and buy these books.
Act on what you've learned.

HTAP's Recommended Reading List

The Big Picture:

*"A Crime So Monstrous" by E. Benjamin Skinner

*"Ending Slavery: How we Free Today's Slaves" by Kevin Bales

*"Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn

*"Not for Sale" by David Batsone

*"In Our Backyard; A Christian Perspective on Human Trafficking in the United States by Nita Belles

* "Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking" by Benjamin Perrin

* "One Child at a Time" by Julian Sher

Child Sex Trafficking:

*"Girls Like Us" by Rachel Lloyd

*"Renting Lacy; A Story of America's Prostituted Children by Linda Smith

*"Somebody's Daughter" by Julian Sher

*"Stolen Lives" by Jaycee Duggard

*"The Slave Across the Street" by Theresa Flores

*"The Slave Next Door" by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter

*"A Walk Across the Sun" by Corbin Addison (fiction)

*"Sold" by Patricia McCormick (fiction)

* "Runaway Girl" by Carissa Phelps

Demand and the Economic Issues:

*"The Johns" by Victor Malarek

*"The Natashas" by Victor Malarek

*"Nobodies" by John Bowe

*"Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery" by Siddharth Kara

Our Mother's Home Poster

Artreach Logo

ARTREACH banner

The banner above shows the art and some of the artists from
a SW FL foster home for young girls with babies during a program we held in July. These students chose to create art illustrating how a classmate could recruit a fellow classmate using the promise of love, but is in reality setting the girl up.

The second painting graphically illustrates the percentages of trafficking victims who are abducted, those who are trafficked by family or friends and the 67% who are "lured by love". As they say, "It's all about money".

You may see more of the artwork on our website for the ARTREACH program or if you are interested in learning about the possibility of an ARTREACH program in your community, go to www.htapARTREACH.org

SAVE THE DATES

"Creating Partnership Strategies in Combating Human Trafficking"

Forum will be held on

October 18 and 19, 2012

Ft. Myers, FL

Through a partnership of the SWFL Regional Human Trafficking Coalition, the Hispanic American Business Alliance and the SWFL International Partnerships for Human Rights, a new group whose mission is "to create international partnerships among individuals and organizations in order to strengthen their capacity to work towards the elimination of human trafficking and related abuses of human rights". There will be local, national and international speakers.

Complete registration information will be in the next newsletter.

239-415-2635 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.

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