TRAFFICKING EVENTS IN THE DIOCESE

St. Anne's and St. John the Evangelist, Stockton  

ST. NICHOLAS, ATWATER TRAFFICKING AWARENESS EVENT

July 8, 2015 saw approximately 50 people gathered at Merced City Hall to learn about human trafficking in Merced County and how local individuals and agencies are responding. The evening began with a screening of the film A Trafficked Life by Bakersfield filmmaker Michael Fagans.

An important goal of our event was to ensure that we connected the reality of human trafficking shown in the film back to our own community, back to where we are called to be the church. Doing this so ably, and with so much courage was Courtney Baldwin from the Merced County Human Services Agency. She shared her own story as a victim of human trafficking, how she was able to be free of it and what she does now here in Merced County to help others to freedom and awareness.

Following Courtney's presentation, representatives from the Merced Police Department that work directly with human trafficking crimes, a Merced County Deputy District Attorney, Michael Fagans, Chee Yang, Interim Program Director of Valley Crisis Center, and Kari Mansager of the UC Merced Violence Prevention Program joined with Courtney in a lively question and answer panel presentation. People stayed and talked long after the event was brought to a close. Connections were made between individuals, churches, law enforcement, and service agencies in Merced and surrounding communities. I for one have never been as proud of my community as I was that night.

In his welcome Bishop David joked about St. Nicholas having about "1.2 people". Well, there are a few more of us than that most of the time, but regardless of our size we are called to the community of which we are a part. The call to go out and join God in the neighborhood has been given to us. I did not think our event would be all that it turned out to be. Many Sundays we conclude Morning Prayer with these words: "Glory to God whose power working in us can do more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever." These words came to life for me in this event. I know what transpired was the Holy Spirit taking our combined efforts and making them more than I could have asked or imagined.

Marilee Muncey

St. Nicholas, Atwater

Human Trafficking Action Summit, St. John the Baptist

The Episcopal Church of the St. John the Baptist in Lodi held its Human Trafficking Action Summit on Wednesday, July 15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

As we planned the event, our design team decided to focus on education. I researched the names of facilitators offered by the Diocese and decided that Debbie Johnson, of Without Permission (Modesto), would be the best choice for our speaker. We opted not to have a panel. We engaged her for July 15th since she was already in Stockton that day meeting with the St. Anne's and St. John's team. In retrospect, we should have chosen a different date for our event as the Lodi City Council meets on Wednesday evenings. More representatives from the city might have come had we done that research first.

I would guess almost one-half of the people who attended the event were not members of St. John's. Interestingly, many of the people who attended were not the people to whom we had extended personal invitations. And yet we had a good cross section of people from the community. Representatives from the following organizations attended: The Women's Center-Youth and Family Services,Child Abuse Prevention Council, Senator Cathleen Galgiani's office, the police department, the fire department, the Salvation Army, a local women's shelter, the press. We also had neighbors from the local Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, as well as a pastor of a Baptist church and an Episcopal deacon from the neighboring diocese in Rio Vista. One person, a concerned citizen, attended from Sacramento and articulated her appreciation that an Episcopal Church was sponsoring such an event. (Yes!) We also had many people who came from the community because they were simply interested in the topic, not because they represented local agencies. Some were there because trafficking had touched their own families. Others were there because they wanted to know how to better protect their own family members. Several came specifically to hear Debbie Johnson.

I credit the good community turnout to our local news coverage in the Lodi Sentinel. I wrote a press release which was published twice, once in the Saturday edition the prior weekend and then on the front page of the paper on the day of the event. We created a simple poster to advertise the event and paid to have it placed on the religion page in the Saturday edition. I called the religion editor and invited her to cover the story. She attended. On the day after the event, her article appeared in the paper with a picture and comments from people who attended. We are blessed because one of our church members is a retired columnist for the newspaper. When she submits requests of the paper, it usually happens.

At the beginning of the event, I engaged the audience to find out how people heard about the event. At least twenty-five people raised their hands because they had seen it in the paper. After I welcomed everyone and had people identify themselves in the audience, we showed the new twenty minute version of Michael Fagans' film. Debbie Johnson then engaged the audience about the film and then began her lecture which included a power point presentation with statistical information about trafficking in San Joaquin County. She also told the audience about her work which includes working with and training local police departments, education in the community, and her work of restoration with survivors. She told firsthand accounts of survivors and their suffering. She also did an excellent cultural piece examining how advertisements, toys and other means promote and support society's culture of trafficking, prostitution and the abuse of women and children. The audience was very engaged.

There were many questions and comments that followed her presentation. I think people would have stayed later; however, since we had rented the public space, I was obliged to end the question and answer period at 8:15.

Refreshments followed and many people stayed not to eat so much as to mingle and converse with one another. Of course people were lined up to engage Debbie Johnson. Ms. Johnson had an excellent booth with lots of materials which she eagerly gave away. By spending time at the beginning of the evening inviting people to say who they were and why they were present, was a good ice breaker but it also created a better context for people to engage one another during the social time.

We have donated Michael Fagans' edited film on the DVD to the Diocese if others want to borrow it for their event.

From St. John the Evangelist, Stockton  

The City of Stockton Mayor's quarterly Clergy Brunch was held at St. John the Evangelist on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. The event which was attended by seventy five faith based leaders was co-hosted by the Downtown Stockton Alliance. An educational walk around downtown Stockton narrated by a Stockton Alliance Ambassador began the event. The tour highlighted bits and pieces of Stockton's history including the fact that Captain Weber paid a mere $60.00 in the 1800's for the land he granted to St. Johns for the purpose of building our church.

Following the tour, Mayor Anthony Silva addressed the group on the many revitalization projects taking place around Stockton. While he agreed that more needs to be done for the homeless, he stressed the positive momentum gained within this past year. Cindi Fargo, CEO of the Stockton Alliance then took the podium to educate the clergy gathered on the numerous programs they have initiated and to explain how the Alliance contributes to Stockton.

It's wonderful to have the community use the facilities at St. Johns!