THE SET ME FREE PROJECT

Our strategies are as follows: to reach as many youth and families as possible. Ultimately to reach every student in Nebraska and Iowa. Begin to pursue new schools in each school district. <br/><br/>We will also increase our presence on social media through informational weekly blogs and video blogs to be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Instagram and YouTube.<br/><br/>Our goal is to increase our followers on all social media by increasing our presence, boosting our posts, and going live on social media during parent presentations and community events. We will update all social media pages at least once to twice daily. Increase our marketing plan and provide more effective marketing materials. <br/><br/>We will use our website to tell more stories. Implementing one sheets for each presentation category. Creating a visionary story on our website and in our marketing materials. For example: where The Set Me Free Project will be in 30 years from a current story perspective.<br/><br/>We will utilize our current resources to gain and maintain funding such as, community contacts to increase individual donors, working with our board of directors to increase their fundraising and networking skills and abilities, and working with schools to provide donations. We will increase our individual monthly donor base through our annual fundraiser.<br/><br/>We will expand the skills of our marketing team to reach a larger pool of funding opportunities, making it clear that without immediate support we will no longer be able to provide these desperately needed services.<br/><br/>Continue and expand relationships with schools and community partners by seeking the schools we serve to potentially be a resource and/or support. Finding potential opportunities that the teachers or administrators we serve could help us remain viable and grow as an organization.<br/><br/>We will continue to work with community partners to develop our curriculum, and seek potential resources.

When The Set Me Free Project was made aware of the lack of prevention education in the United States on the subject of sex trafficking, we decided to fill that need.<br/><br/>Although there are many wonderful organizations in our community dedicated to combating trafficking, The Set Me Free Project is unique in our approach and perspective - using interactive, age appropriate curriculum focused on not only defining human trafficking, but also on helping students identify why and how they could be at risk, as well as providing a foundation for all students, regardless of age, to recognize the intrinsic value in every human being. <br/><br/>Our curriculum has been used throughout Nebraska and Iowa, as well as many other school districts and communities. We can facilitate presentations in a classroom setting (preferred) or a group assembly style, and each presentation can be tailored to each school and student. <br/><br/>Our speakers are fully trained and qualified in the areas they speak. We continue to seek trainings so that we can honor our commitment to education. We continue to seek education on the current social media and human trafficking trends, including bullying and trauma. <br/><br/>We continue to send staff members to trainings such as trauma informed care trainings, human trafficking trainings, and social media safety trainings.

We collect data from surveys done before, after, and during each presentation. We are working to collect strong data with a baseline and the ability to see shifts in learning. What we have found is that we are then able to determine whether each population shows a shift in their knowledge of human trafficking, social media safety, and how they are at risk. We also measure the effect of Set Me Free Project by the increase of the school districts and schools in which we are presenting, and how many students, parents, educators, and community members we are presenting to and the hours spent with each. <br/> <br/>With all our presentations, it is our goal to end the lack of awareness, stop any fear, and provide empowerment. The critical need we seek to address is lack of knowledge; knowledge that will help prevent our youth and young adults from being victims of trafficking, as well as knowledge that could help rescue current victims. We desire to answer the effectiveness of prevention education in keeping our youth and young adults from seeing the dark of human trafficking. Clearly, prevention questions are tricky to answer because it relies on the fact that if one is prevented from risky behavior there is no data recorded. However, we do intend to look at the current data in Iowa and Nebraska to see if numbers of missing children and trafficked victims are decreasing. <br/><br/>Based upon self-reported surveys of students who have participated in Set Me Free Project's sex trafficking presentations: 93% of students report overall increased awareness and knowledge regarding sex trafficking, 67% of students report increased awareness regarding social media safety as it relates to sex trafficking, 29% of students report increased awareness of their own value and the value of others as it relates to sex trafficking.

We are in 29 schools currently (although we are in the process of adding more this year).<br/>This is schools only - not youth groups or other youth programs<br/><br/> In 2016 we had a 90% increase over 2015<br/> In 2017 we had a 47% increase over 2016<br/> We have already added 1 new school in 2018<br/> We have maintained 86% retention of all schools<br/> We continue to pursue those we haven't been in for awhile<br/> Total youth Hours - 511.25<br/> Total Youth Presented to - 12,676<br/> Total Parent/Community Hours - 143.75 with 36 venues<br/> Total Parent/Community Member presented to - 5,839<br/> Total Educators/Industry/Staff Hours - 71.50 with 51 venues<br/> Total Educators/Industry/Staff presented to - 1,854