Educate youth to prevent child trafficking & Abuse

Wow what a start to the year!!!

January started off jumping right into training with the Boys and Girls Clubs, Christian Service Center and many Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month activities like the Red Sand Events and Human Trafficking Awareness Days throughout the month!  We have expanded our reach out to Hillsborough County (Tampa) as member of the HCPS School Human Trafficking Task Force as we geared up the roll out of Student Online Safety roll out in Febuary!

Our Presidnet traveled to DC as she was invited to a very high level round table with leaders from around the nation to collaborate on solutions to keep our kids safe. She also had the opportunity to advocate for our children with members of the Congress on two important pieces of Legislation to keep our kids safe online - the EARN It ACt and Kids Online Saftey Act. Both very bi-partisan and important to hold big tech accountable in protecting our kids.

As a lead advocate and educator in the country, out President was invited out to Night of Hope, the Friday prior to the Super Bowl in Phoenix to continue the work we did out there in 2021 and recieved an Award for our educational work.

Being a part of a the 1st roll out of an Online Safety and exploitation awareness program in the 7th largest School District in nation has been extraordinary! Middle Schooler participating in PE and High Schoolers in Social Studies are being educated by trained teachers to ensure our kids have access to important, life saving knowledge.

Speaking at the Circuit 10 Syposium opened more doors and schools for us to speak at in April. We educated 1500 students in Hardee County and will be educating dozens of Guardian Ad Litem's in Polk County in July.

Being selected for the Victory Cup Initative was such an honor and there was quite a bit of time spent on preping for the Big Breakfast March 2nd. Out of 85 applications, we were selected along with 9 other local organizations to be coached on how to craft a 2 minute and 30 second 'story' that tells other what we do out in the world.

There we many events we had the opportunity to attend around the commuinty and at Valencia College of Public Safety and University of Central Florida. Working closely with the Community Resource Center out of the Orange County Sheriff's Office and other community leaders, we have the opportunity to raise awareness in and around Central Florida.

From Stop the violence event to Impacting Homelessness to educating UCF Students to Parents at middle schools at health events, we've been busy out in the community!

Probably the most exciting thing to happen to us the past 4 months is winning the Victory Cup Iniative. As they say, the right message, at the right time to the right audience. We won $78,000 of unrestricted funds!

With our Orange County Grant, we've educated over 1000 young people, adults and parents. 700 middle school students in Seminole County and 300 students in Brevard County. We had the opportunity to use Grant funds from Care America both the Brevard and Orange County Sheriff's office to educate and empower those students, along with many of the events we attended and for that we are grateful.

The 2nd most exciting this for us is the ablity to expand our team and to hire community partners to train, participate in outreach, and marketing.

3rd most exciting thing - for the 1st time in 8 years, we have enough revenue along with the funds from the Victory Cup for our President to take a salary. That is a huge victory for this organization and all involved.

Thank you for your continued support in the fight againsat online exploitation and inperson child trafficking. It truly does take a village and we are grateful for you to be a part of that village.

Forever grateful!

Jan Edwards

President and Chief Change Maker

Links:

• Victory Cup Winning Pitch
• News Coverage from the Victory Cup