Organization: SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL
Mission: SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL EXISTS TO RESCUE AND RESTORE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN CRISIS. WE ARE LEADERS IN A WORLDWIDE EFFORT TO PREVENT AND ERADICATE SEX TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY THROUGH EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AWARENESS.
Activities: DOMESTIC PUBLIC EDUCATIONEvery victimized and vulnerable person deserves to be surrounded by an alert community, trained professionals, strong laws and policies, and shelter and service options. SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL (SHI) strives to inspire a nation of informed activists to combat societal norms, misconceptions, and ignorance through awareness initiatives, training conferences, research, advocacy and collaborations and to equip stakeholders to restore and bring justice for survivors through the following programs:AMBASSADORS OF HOPE -- SHI's Ambassadors of Hope are passionate, trained volunteers who impact their community and the movement to end sex trafficking. Their vision statement: The more people who know the signs of trafficking, the smaller the world for those who would buy and sell our children. Ambassadors help expand the organization's impact around the nation through prevention education, legislative advocacy and grass roots awareness. There are currently 1,296 trained Ambassadors across the nation. In spite of the pandemic restrictions, 107 new Ambassadors of Hope joined our ranks in FY 2020.The DEFENDERS, USA -- The Defenders Take the Pledge Campaign launched in 2002 as a national mens awareness and action campaign. The campaign mobilizes an army of 5,360 Defenders to date to protect and defend exploited victims of trafficking. Defenders are men of all ages who take a pledge and take action to fight against the commercial sex industry. Their goal is to prevent and stop sex trafficking by banding together to make others aware of the danger and harm of prostitution, pornography, and exploitation in all its forms. Sixty-three new Defenders joined our ranks in FY2020.INTERNET SAFETY AWARENESS PROGRAM - SHIs Internet Safety Series offers free online resources to parents and youth to help protect children and youth from online predators. Internet Safety Basics provided back-to-school webinars with panelists discussing predator tactics, youth vulnerabilities, screen-time psychology, warning signs and more. Materials targeting Gen Z were released to empower youth to make safe choices online. A free downloadable booklet, Your Kids and Technology: A Parents Safety Guide, addresses device monitoring and sexting, and provides guidance for talking to your children. CHOSEN -- This film series is designed to teach teens the warning signs and indicators of trafficking through the true stories of teenage girls who were tricked by traffickers. Brianna, Lacy and Maria discuss how modern American pimps and gangs are luring youth into the commercial sex industry and how teens can protect themselves and others from being chosen. The resource packages include additional educational tools to further discussion, learning and action!JuST (JUVINILE SEX TRAFFICKING) CONFERENCE SHIs annual conference draws more than 1,000 attendees from across the nation and abroad each year to learn more about child and youth sex trafficking, cutting edge developments and approaches to combating and responding to the crime, and to network for more effective and efficient responses. The 2019 conference took place in Cincinnati, Ohio bringing together over 1,100 attendees from 46 states, DC, Guam, Ecuador and Canada. There were 71 workshops presented by and for stakeholders from diverse disciplines and experiences. Notably, both Senator Brown and Senator Portman provided opening remarks and Assistant Attorney General Beth A. Williams from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy presented DOJs efforts to combat DEMAND.STATE LAWS -- The Protected Innocence Challenge is a comprehensive study of existing state laws designed to inspire and equip advocates. Under the Challenge, every state receives a Report Card that grades the state on 41 key legislative components that must be addressed in a states laws in order to effectively respond to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking. In addition, each state receives a complete analysis of this 41-component review and practical recommendations for improvement. In November 2019, SHI released the final Protected Innocence Challenge report cards ending a decade of evaluating under the basic framework. SHI has designed an advanced legislative framework to hold states to a higher standard as nearly all states had progressed to a passing grade. The first state report cards will issue in November 2021 and will begin the project titled Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking: State Action, National Change. SHI provides assistance with legislative drafting and advocacy to bring stronger laws to the states and improve their individual grades.JUST RESPONSE -- JuST Response brings together Shared Hopes research on services for domestic minor sex trafficking victims with its analysis of state statutory protective responses. By merging research on implementation and policy analysis, JuST Response seeks to broaden the research in this emerging area to inform legislative efforts and the implementation of existing responses. To ground the research in practice and thought leadership, the JuST Response Council was formed. Consisting of 40 anti-trafficking stakeholders ranging from child welfare to law enforcement to service delivery from across the nation, these individuals give their time and experience to SHI to convene, train, publish industry leading position papers and provide thought leadership for the coming challenges in fighting child and youth sex trafficking.ENDING ONLINE EXPLOITATION -- Child sex trafficking in the U.S. is increasingly moving onto the internet. Online classifieds and review boards, online gaming sites and social media sites are now primary venues for traffickers to recruit, exploit and sell sex with minors and for buyers to purchase sex with these children. Shared Hope International has joined policy, law enforcement, faith and NGO leaders in national advocacy efforts to hold websites liable for their role in facilitating sex trafficking.STOP THE INJUSTICE CAMPAIGN -- Contrary to common belief, child sex trafficking is not an issue reserved for faraway places and third world countries. Thousands of children are bought and sold for sex in the U.S. every day. SHI and others are concerned with ending trafficking and bringing justice to survivors. Stop the Injustice Campaign aims to stop the practice of holding juveniles criminally culpable for crimes committed while being trafficked, usually crimes of prostitution but too often extending to a range of crimes from small to large. The issue is complex, but Shared Hopes research has shown that change begins when we as citizens advocate for laws that effectively address child sex trafficking. Engaged citizens are essential as SHI supports legislators in drafting and passing laws that both protect victims of juvenile sex trafficking and hold offenders accountable.POLICY RESEARCH AND RESOURCES -- SHI proactively supports the legislative, law enforcement, and social services communities with timely and effective reports, studies, surveys and exemplary legislation aimed at eradicating human trafficking.COMBATING DEMAND -- The Demanding Justice Project is a research and advocacy initiative designed to promote demand deterrence through increased attention and advocacy on demand enforcement. The research report documents the outcomes of federal and state arrests, charges and prosecutions of buyers of sex acts with children. The findings of this research inform advocacy efforts to strengthen anti-demand legislation and enforcement.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSShared Hope International (SHI) has worked around the world since 1998 to rescue and restore victims of sexual slavery. Recognizing the intense trauma experienced by victims through the commercial sex industry, SHI has formed lasting partnerships with local organizations in three countries to fund five programs that offer holistic, long-term care to women and children. Each of these programs offers a survivor-informed model of care that focuses on counseling, empowerment, and healing. Villages of Hope, SHI 's restoration programs, are developed and operated by local partners, addressing both immediate and long-term needs of each victim of trauma, exploitation, or trafficking. Restoration services include a holistic approach with residential facilities, medical and mental health care, education, job training, and economic development programs. Villages of hope are safe communities that offer refuge and restoration to rescued victims of sexual slavery and their children. During FY2020, SHI funded partners in Nepal, India, and Jamaica.SHI partners with an organization in India to run both a stationary and mobile HIV/Aids clinic in the heart of Mumbai's red-light district. Both clinics provide contact to 3,600 women and children in the infamous district every month, offering compassion, counseling, and life-saving medications to those who need help or who wish to flee the sex industry. The stationary clinic provides a haven for those women infected with HIV to receive proper testing, medicine, and nutrition. It is the only area clinic offering free assistance for treatment. The mobile clinic brings supplies and food into remote parts of the city, reaching those who may not be bold enough to visit the stationary clinic.The Women's Investment Network (WIN) program focuses on developing small businesses around the world that provide training and employment for the women in SHI 's Villages of Hope. Studies show that providing victims with the skills and means of creating their own economic sustainability helps remove the risk of re-victimization found in areas of extreme poverty and exploitation. The residents receive leadership development and financial independence. This year, SHI 's successful win program was active in India, Jamaica and Nepal. Training programs include sewing, jewelry, leather-making, bag-weaving, painting, henna designing, and embroidery.
DOMESTIC PARTNERSShared Hope International partners with organizations providing services to domestic trafficking victims across the country. Guided by principles garnered through over a decade of research and partnerships with international and local partners, SHI provides small grants to support emerging trends in service delivery, building upon the goal of our National Restoration Initiative to build an array of service options to provide tailored, trauma-informed services to survivors. During FY2020, Shared Hope provided grants to six domestic nonprofit organizations. The following are four of those programs:CALIFORNIA Saving Innocence, Inc. provides emergency crisis response, case management, awareness of sex trafficking, workshops for high-risk youth, and other restorative services. Shared Hope partnered with Saving Innocence to add a bilingual case manager to their team and support Saving Innocences Partnership with LA County child welfare and police department in their groundbreaking First Responder Protocol, created by several members of Shared Hopes JuST Response Council and highlighted in our ongoing JuST Response work.FLORIDA USIAHT - The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking is working to end Human Trafficking in the United States through prevention, combating demand, rescuing victims, influencing government policy and providing safe refuge for the restoration of survivors. They run a Safe Home for Boys located in an undisclosed location in Central Florida, the Florida Safe Home is designed to serve any biologically born male under 18, no matter where they identify on the gender spectrum. Each child has their own bedroom and bathroom in the home, enabling this unique program focus. VIRTUAL -- Rebecca Bender Ministries (RBM) Virtual Mentoring Program is committed to changing the mindset of our culture. RBM assists victims of sex trafficking in finding true freedom. This is accomplished through restoring individuals through virtual mentoring services and informing front line advocates about major issues that affect our culture today.KANSAS Veronicas Voice - Mission: To empower women to exit from, to prevent the entry into, and to end all demand for prostitution-sex trafficking in the United States through survivor leadership. Creating a survivor-informed, realistic, and meaningful alternative to prostitution. Two years of free transitional housing, in a supportive, non-judgmental environment, empowering the women of Magdalene KC to become thriving and contributing members of their community. Located in Kansas City, KS
NTEE category: Crime & Legal-Related
Secondary category: Human Services