Let's Join Together in the Fight!
In San Bernardino County, the Law Enforcement Human Trafficking Task Force is working hard to reduce human trafficking. The Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) is a partnership of public and private entities who have joined together to develop resources in the county to educate, prevent, intervene and treat victims of sexual exploitation. You can find out more about this outstanding effort here: http://hs.sbcounty.gov/CN/Pages/CASE.aspx. Case offers many training opportunities for both professional organizations and for the public. They also have speakers who will come speak at your local organization or faith community for large groups. You can find their list of events here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/san-bernardino-county-coalition-against-sexual-exploitation-1423377381 While all these efforts are working to reduce human trafficking, we need more participation by the faith community to prevent this crime because in the U.S., 51% of people attend some type of faith community so clearly that is where the manpower is.
So how do we work as a faith community to prevent human trafficking? We come together as a coalition and empower our men to be leaders in raising awareness regarding the destructive nature of porn and how it creates demand for sex trafficking victims. We invite a representative from a local foster care organization to come speak at our services to recruit good foster parents, given that over 70% of victims are from the foster care system. We can work with the city to close down the illegal massage parlors. We can host a fair trade table at our church and school fairs to educate people that over 2/3 of all human trafficking in the world is labor trafficking and by being responsible for purchasing imported products that state "fair trade," we reduce demand. We can do a fundraiser for a local non-profit. These are just five examples of how we can prevent human trafficking. The book "How You Can Fight Human Trafficking, Over 100 Ways to Make a Difference" offers many more actions.
Social scientists tell us that once we reach a critical mass of awareness and people taking action, the social issue will be resolved. Until that critical mass of 10% is reached, it is like rolling a rock uphill and there isn't enough traction so groups often fall apart. Once critical mass is reached, there is velocity. If it took 10 years to reach 10%, it only takes 2 to 3 years to reach 20%. So Cal Faith Coalitions against human trafficking is currently meeting with local San Berdardino faith leaders to talk about how we can use the resources that already exist in San Bernardino to establish more local faith community collaboration so faith communities can learn from each other. Once these meetings are established, we will list them on this page. When people in the faith community can come to a meeting to find out how to act and only have to simply duplicate what others are doing they quickly move into action. At these coalition meetings, faith communities inspire and encourage each other and report on what they are doing. Then during the second half of the meeting people meet with those groups they are interested in collaborating with. This model will have us quickly reach the 10%. You can find actions for faith communities as well as presentations you can use and resources like flyers by "clicking" on the resource button.
Faith Coalition Meeting, 2nd Half 2020
San Bernardino/Inland Empire Faith Coalition Meeting Against Human Trafficking
Date and Location TBD
Anchor Churches
About Anchor Churches
The only real advantage the human traffickers have over the faith community is that they are organized and networked together to build their "business," while the faith community tends to have isolated efforts. The purpose of identifying churches who have stand alone ministries that meet on a regular basis, is so that people who want to start something at their church know who to contact locally. The anchor churches understand this issue and can guide new churches with regard to what works and doesn't work to build efforts to fight human trafficking. By networking churches together, we can powerfully build our efforts in the fight against human trafficking. Below are the churches with the most active ministries in the San Bernardino area.
San Bernardino County North
San Bernardino County South
Water of Life Church
Trainings
CASE - Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation
CASE offers extensive training opportunities to educate the public on anything from cyber exploitation, to how recruiters work on school campuses, etc. To find out about their trainings, please email Angel Magallenes to receive emails about upcoming trainings. angel.magallanes@hss.sbcounty.gov
Open Door
Open Door offers a 40 hour state certification as a human trafficking advocate for those who are looking to be a leader in the effort to fight human trafficking. You can contact Desiree Gomez at desiree@familyassist.org for training dates
Global Center for Women and Justice
Care 68 Network A website/resource for churches in Southern California who want to be connected with what is happening in the area of Human Trafficking locally and globally.
C- Connection and Collaboration opportunities and calendars
A- Awareness events, suggestions and assistance
R- Resources
E- Educational opportunities
Million Kids
Opal Singleton is a national leader in the fight against human trafficking. She is the President and CEO of Million Kids, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to keeping kids safe from predators. Million Kids serves as the Training and Outreach Coordinator for the Riverside County Anti Human Trafficking Task Force and works with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department through a Department of Justice Grant.
Opal has trained more than 250,000 government and individual leaders about labor trafficking, child sex trafficking, sextortion, child pornography and social media exploitation. She is the author of Seduced: The Grooming of America’s Teenagers (2015) and Societal Shift: A World Without Borders... A Home Without Walls (2019). She often appears on television and radio talk shows across the United States.
Most trainings happen in Riverside county, but Million Kids will come to San Bernardino upon request. https://www.millionkids.org/calendar.htm
Nola Brantley Speaks
Nola Brantley is a survivor of human trafficking who has trained thousands in law enforcement , service care providers. and the general public. Her trainings are geared towards those who want to be leaders in the fight like speakers, church staff etc. She offers 17 different trainings. You can find her trainings at http://www.nolabrantleyspeaks.org/