Educate youth to prevent child trafficking & Abuse

Wow - what another incredible summer! 

Summary

This summer our efforts to educate youth and parents about online safety, awareness, and empowerment topics maintained our solid momentum. We continue to reach diverse communities with resources and training designed to equip families with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate today’s challenges of the online environment.

Over the summer we took our Peer Advocacy Program out to a new area with Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida!  We also trained dozens of youth Orlando After School All Stars again this summer! We so appreciate their partnerships! And of course, educating more parents. All of our efforts focus on topics such as digital safety, recognizing signs of exploitation, healthy communication, and fostering resilience.

Excited to share we’ve been recommended to expand our Peer Advocacy Program next year and were approved! We are so grateful for our partnership with the Children’s Citizen Commission on Children and their commitment to keeping our community safe and thriving!

One of the highlights of our year is when we are asked by the State Department and World Orlando to host international guests to share what we do and the impact we make with our kids. This summer we hosted 20 guests from all over the world, from Norway to Malaysia and sevearl countries in between! 

Advocacy

The efforts of walking the halls and inviting citizens to engage with our legislators to speak up for laws that protect our youth paid off! Our President, Jan Edwards, had the opportunity to be at the White House, in the Rose Garden, for the signing of the Take it Down Act, which holds predators accountable for distributing non-consensual intimate images and doing so will result in a fine and felony! That was a major win and we hope for more this fall! 

All of those in the fight against human trafficking let them know our kids matter! They learned our collective voice makes a difference!

Financial Overview

• We won two more grants totaling $28,000 – one from Orange County Sheriff’s and one from Parikh Giving Alliance, which is a multi-year grant.
• Our monthly donations on GlobalGiving continue to grow and for that we are grateful!
• We are expanding our training programs outside of Central Florida and we are thrilled about that opportunity and the funding to go along with that opportunity. 

Outreach & Engagement

• We attended 20 community events this quarter – back to school is always busy for us! Including the Florida PTA Conference..
• Our Outreach team was so busy, one weekend we attended 4 events! We love our Partners and they love the work we do – we have the best people!!
• As you know, we get feedback from the community and our kids. One of the most memorable statements was from a 7^th grader who said she’d recommend our training as it                               “made her want to make the world a better place!”
  This is why we do what we do—you gotta love our kids, they are an inspiration to us!

Impact Metrics

• We've trained 2,467 kids and parents so far this year, which includes 825 over the summer! We were busy!!!
• 75% of kids and 95% of adults surveyed said they would recommend our training.Our team is skilled at creating a safe space for conversation about challenging topics for our kids and their parents to save lives. 
• 49% of our kids surveyed have turned off their location settings and turned on their privacy settings. Those two moves right there will reduce the opportunity for predators to target our kids! 

Challenges & Lessons Learned

• Finding new ways to engage with Parents has our mission which is why we attended the Florida PTA Conference and are connecting with more local PTA’s. They are the ones to reach the others. We are making head way here and look forward to sharing our successes in our next report!
• We continue to get more requests for our trainings than funds allocated. That’s why we are so grateful for the monthly contributions we get from our friends on GlobalGiving and our local grants. God continues to make a way.

Looking Ahead

• Q3 is our favorite time of year, back to school, fall is in the air and kids are ready to learn.
• We will gear up with our partnership with OCPS and look to expanding into Osceola and Seminole Counties. Our goal is to train at 4 Middle schools and 2 Elementary schools this fall with several Parent Engagement opportunities. We'll be team up with the crew at Elevate Orlando, Dream Academy, Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA as well, along with several private schools that want their kids educated too! We are honored to be team up with some of the best in Central Florida.
• We will look for ways to team up with OCCPTA to find ways to train more parents and expand this important message. 

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a powerful rest of the year! We are grateful for your generosity in making an impact with our kids.

Links:

• Our Impact - thanks to you!