THE SET ME FREE PROJECT

The mission of The Set Me Free Project is to bring prevention education to youth and families so traffickers lose their power. We do that by offering prevention education to help eradicate sex trafficking. We empower youth and young adults by teaching them to value themselves and give them tools to help protect them from the evils of trafficking.

Our vision is to see human trafficking eradicated by providing every child, parent, educator, mentor, professional and community member prevention education. To provide knowledge and tools required to protect and prevent youth from becoming a victim of trafficking.

The Set Me Free Project offers our services at no charge. Our speakers travel to schools, youth groups, and communities to implement interactive presentations designed to deliver critical information and empower our youth by teaching them to value themselves, give them tools to help protect them from the evils of trafficking, as well as make them aware of the potential dangers of social media. Further, we use separate and specific curriculum to educate parents, educators, mentors, service providers, and community members to help keep our youth safe.

Our current goal is to reach as many youth and families as possible. Ultimately to reach every student in Nebraska and Iowa. Our target audience is youth and families; however, this also includes students of all ages, parents (both biological, adoptive, and foster), educators, community members, and social services staff.

The desired objectives were formed based on the realization that every child and young adult in Nebraska and Iowa needs to know that being victimized by a trafficker is a legitimate risk. They also need to know how to keep themselves from becoming victims and avoiding such danger.

We have developed curricula for youth, parents, educators, mentors, and social service agencies. The curriculum for youth and parents emphasizes implementing smart strategies for safe use of social media, understanding the cycle that tricks young people into trafficking, and instilling confidence in youth so they understand their intrinsic dignity and value. The curriculum for educators, mentors, and social service agencies trains staff on what human trafficking is, what it looks like in their own community, and how to identify a victim.

And because it is our own curriculum, we can tailor it to the needs of each group. Our goal with the youth is to be a consistent presence. Since 2014, though educating youth, parents, educators, industries, community members, and media outreach we have touched over 150,000 lives.

Despite the tough nature of the subject matter, we provide the youth a very interactive and fun presentation in which the students walk away empowered and more knowledgeable.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We continue to send staff members to trainings such as trauma informed care trainings, human trafficking trainings, and social media safety trainings.

We are in 29 schools currently (although we are in the process of adding more this year).
This is schools only - not youth groups or other youth programs

In 2016 we had a 90% increase over 2015
In 2017 we had a 47% increase over 2016
We have already added 1 new school in 2018
We have maintained 86% retention of all schools
We continue to pursue those we haven't been in for awhile
Total youth Hours - 511.25
Total Youth Presented to - 12,676
Total Parent/Community Hours - 143.75 with 36 venues
Total Parent/Community Member presented to - 5,839
Total Educators/Industry/Staff Hours - 71.50 with 51 venues
Total Educators/Industry/Staff presented to - 1,854