Let's Join Together in the Fight!

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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.