Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, Inc.

Our mission is to prevent human trafficking by empowering individuals through education and collaborative action in Southwest Florida and to use what we have learned to help community leaders locally and otherwise to use our programs in their neighborhoods and communities.

Our vision is to be the community leader and trusted resource for human trafficking prevention programs.

As an example, recently we were asked by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Probation Department to teach them how to conduct our ARTREACH program so that they can use it with clients who are potential victims as shown by the screening tool they have developed to use with their young clients. We held a Train the Trainer program for some of their employees and we will be assisting them as they conduct the first programs.

Another goal is to help all young people to understand how society often sends them mixed messages about their behavior which may make them more susceptible to human trafficking. For example, when we say "Boys will be boys" we are almost giving boys permission to behave badly and to imply that they have no choice or control. We also want to reach the young LBGT community to help them cope with the additional pressures on them in regard to human trafficking. One way to achieve this goal is to reach out to schools where we can educate even more students.

We will continue to train the professionals who deal with victims to give them the best possible help when they are recovered.

Another goal is to reach the community through community presentations and community events, such as our "Prevention Power" event in January and our initiation of Proclamations for Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month every January.

Another goal is raise sufficient funding to run these programs with the help of our board of directors, volunteers and staff.

We help community leaders develop action plans to build local coalitions adapted to their own situation and serve as a link to other groups so that resources can be shared. We do this through our website, through community events, through speaking at regional and national conferences and providing assistance by email and phone. We also provide Train the Trainer programs for our programs in communities around the country. In October 2017, our Executive Director will be the keynote speaker at the Task Force in Colorado Springs on their 10th anniversary of their first symposium where our Executive Director led their efforts to organize.

We also provide trainings to law enforcement professionals, prosecutors, human service providers, child oriented groups, youth from middle school to university age, businesses as well as faith and service based community organizations.

Our strategy to bring the issue to the public goes beyond providing information and trainings. It also involves developing and sharing programs. We currently have 4 major programs, aimed at prevention of the crime, proactive and pinpointed training at places where victims are typically found and making self-education easy and directed toward carefully selected books and a strategy to make those books available to more people.

We have developed a number of programs which aim to prevent trafficking through education and empowerment, especially of youth, using art. Kids are educated while they are creating their art and the art is exhibited and used for awareness building events and trainings. These programs, ARTREACH and TIPS have been shared in organizations in Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin and Savannah through a written template and materials and Train the Trainer Programs.

We have also developed the “Point of Contact, Point of Rescue" Program which pinpoints certain organizations and business where victims or potential victims of trafficking may patronize, such as fast food restaurants, shopping malls, hospitals and health care facilities, libraries and shelters. Employees or managers are trained to recognize the signs of trafficking and to follow a protocol of reporting the crime to a local hotline and law enforcement and to gather information without endangering themselves or their customers.
Another program we have is called “Read, Recommend, Act" which provides a reading list of recommended books about human trafficking and suggestions of how to spread the word of trafficking through books in one's community.

We understand that different groups in our society need different levels of training about human trafficking, but they all need to learn what role they can play to eliminate this terrible crime. We continue to develop new programs to fit the needs of new groups which need this effort.

We have 10 years of experience in public speaking at events, reaching over 28,000 people at over 600 events in 20 states and 5 countries. Audiences range from middle school girls to a Parallel Event at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. We have assisted many coalitions begin and grow and continue to work as a resource to them.

We currently have 4 employees: Executive Director, Operating Coordinator, Program Coordinator and Art and Community Coordinator. We have training materials available in English and Spanish and staff which can speak English, Spanish, French and Creole.

Our Executive Director has served in a leadership position with the original task force in Lee County, Florida which has grown into the U.S. Attorney's Task Force which serves seven counties as an umbrella organization. We have worked with about 20 other communities to develop their own coalitions.

We have expanded our programs into Collier County by continuing community events and speeches to professional and citizen groups and by conducting our ARTREACH and other youth programs in Collier County. We currently have an office at another non-profit's location in Collier County.

We have also been working with Charlotte County first responders and its health department, giving trainings to nursing students, school nurses and other groups.

Some of our accomplishments have been listed above.
We would like to expand the ARTREACH and TIPS programs through more Train the Trainer Programs so that local communities can adapt them to their own needs. We would like to get some version of these programs in the public school system.
We would like our programs to contribute to a level of public awareness which is even greater than exists today and that exceeds the tremendous change in understanding that we have already witnessed.
We think that the “Point of Contact, Point of Rescue" program has great potential and would like to reach its potential in our local region and see it expand into other regions and states.
We would like to achieve a steady and growing base of revenue so that we can sufficiently staff our existing programs and continue to grow.