Help and Resources
"Provide Safety Information For Today's Youth"
If viewing on a computer, scan the QR CODE, if on mobile, click on the button to add “Human Trafficking Hotline” to your phone contacts.
“You’re very important to someone. No matter what he says, it’s not true. You’re worth something.”
— Tonya, Survivor
National Human Trafficking HOTLINE
The NHTRC hotline is operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, and is confidential, toll free and available in dozens of languages. Is is operated by Polaris Project, a non-profit, organization working exclusively on the issue of human trafficking. Polaris is not a government entity, law enforcement or an immigration authority. Use the human trafficking hotline to get help, report a tip, find services and request training and information.
RESOURCES FOR ADULTS DURING COVID-19
Dynamic Family Solutions
”Dynamic Family Solutions, LLC designs and develops specifically tailored educational curriculum and materials for organizations and agencies working with families and youth, who are enduring life-altering and critical issues” (Dynamic Family Solutions, 2020).
Human Trafficking Search
“Human Trafficking Search (HTS) seeks to raise awareness and help prevent and eliminate human trafficking worldwide” (Human Trafficking Search, 2020).
Human Trafficking | Wisconsin Department of Justice
”DOJ HT Initiative Mission: The mission of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Human Trafficking Initiative is to make Wisconsin inhospitable to human traffickers and to support victim-centered strategies and partnerships throughout the state” (WIDOJ, 2020).
THE EMPOWER YOUTH PROGRAM
iEmpathize is dedicated to exploitation prevention for youth. Our response is The Empower Youth Program, an exploitation prevention curriculum that equips adults to provide effective, positive, and empowering prevention education to youth aged 12 and up. With empathy as its most fundamental strategy to eradicate exploitation, this resource is in use all across the nation, impacting thousands of youth” (iEmphathize, 2020).
ICAC Internet Safety Internet Safety
“The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. This support encompasses forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, prevention and community education” (ICAC, 2020).
Social Media Dangers Exposed by Mom Posing as 11-Year-Old
Love 146
”Love146 is an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation through survivor care and prevention. The trafficking and exploitation of children is one of the darkest stories and most severe human rights abuses imaginable. But for us, the hope of ending it is a reality. Love146 is helping grow the movement to end child trafficking while providing effective, thoughtful solutions. We believe in the power of love and its ability to effect sustainable change. Love is the foundation of our motivation” (Love146, 2020).
Protecting Kids Online
”We see news stories about the impact of technology on our everyday lives all the time these days. Many of us started to think about how technology affects us personally. But how many of us have stopped to think about how it affects our children? (VPNMentor.com, 2020).
Protect Kids Online [PKO] Podcast | Wisconsin Department of Justice
“FREE Parent Technology Resource Available! Listen to the latest episodes of the Protect Kids Online (PKO) Podcast” (WIDOJ, 2020).
STARFISH
“STARFISH (Sex Trafficking Awareness For Individual Strength and Hope) School Prevention Project STARFISH is an educational tool developed by academics, researchers, social workers, and teachers, designed to raise awareness and provide education about the social injustice of sex trafficking in the United States. This is a free resource for school administrators and educators to utilize that provides a safe and age-appropriate way to educate middle school and high school students on the issue of sex trafficking. This resource also provides ideas for mobilizing students to action in educating their peers about risk factors and warning signs, and taking a stand against sex trafficking. All of the content on this website is free of charge and is available for printing and implementing in the classroom” (Project Starfish, 2020).
Thorn
”We build technology to defend children from sexual abuse.
Thorn was born in 2012. Our co-founders Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore had learned about the issue of child sex trafficking from a documentary highlighting what was happening to children in Cambodia. They describe it as this moment where you learn something about the world that you can’t un-know. As they started learning more, they realized that it is just as prolific of a problem here in the United States as it is overseas” (Thorn, 2020).
RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN
“Welcome to NetsmartzKids. Watch videos, play games, and have fun” (NetsmartzKids, 2020).
Sextortion Research and Insights | Thorn
“Sextortion takes on different forms, but at its core, it is the threat to expose sexual images in order to make a person do something. These threats come from both strangers met online and once intimate romantic partners attempting to harass, embarrass, and control victims” (Thorn, 2020).
Additional Resources
National Human Trafficking Directory
This online Referral Directory is made up of anti-trafficking organizations and programs that offer emergency, transitional, or long-term services to victims and survivors of human trafficking as well as those that provide resources and opportunities in the anti-trafficking field.
Project Polaris
Founded in 2002, Polaris is named for the North Star, which people held in slavery in the United States used as a guide to navigate their way to freedom. Today we are filling in the roadmap for that journey and lighting the path ahead.
Report Incidents of Exploitation
U.S. Department of Justice TIP and Worker Exploitation Complaint Line:
1 (888) 428-7581
To report suspected trafficking; live operator 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time.
Shared Hope International
“Shared Hope International is dedicated to bringing an end to sex trafficking through our three-pronged approach – prevent, restore, and bring justice.” Learn more here.
Wisconsin Office of Crime Victim Services
The Office of Crime Victim Services maintains a toll-free phone line to answer questions from victims of crime from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
1 (800) 446-6564
Wisconsin 211 For Human Trafficking Support
“211 connects you with thousands of nonprofit and government services in your area. If you want personal assistance call the three-digit number
211 or 877-947-2211
A friendly voice to talk with you 24/7/365.” Learn more at this link here.
Informational Videos
*Viewing Suggestions/Disclaimer: “Sharable?” is a copyrighted foreign film with English text that cannot be bleeped. It contains some offensive language against our 5-stones principles. However, the lessons and insights for internet safety to help young people far outweigh the offensive language..*
Shareable.
Children and young people use mobile phones and apps to take and share pictures and videos. Regrettably, many young people take sexual photos and videos of themselves and others which they subsequently share. They obviously tend to think that the internet provides more anonymity than is actually the case, something which blurs the lines between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. The police encounter many cases where young people send nude photos to somebody they trust, but later discover that the photo has been shared. Such sharing is illegal, and can have a major negative impact on the victim. This film was made by the Norwegian Police and it was referred in one of the later MEC webinars through NCJTC.