Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Connor and I am your host.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: The only social media friends they should have are people they know in person.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Right?
[00:00:24] Speaker B: That's a big one.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And the gaming apps with chats, that's a big one for perpetrators to get to kids.
The red flag there that they need to know is if they're chatting with somebody and they seem all nice and friendly and they say, hey, let's move over to this other chat app and chat there.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: If you move, try and move out of the gaming chat into another chat, then that's a red flag.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: That's a red flag. Okay.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Because some of those other chat apps have location services on them.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: So you're chatting and they can find out where you are.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Okay. So, good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast and we are doing a special episode today for the Mitre foundation and we have in studio with us Mike and Sue Thompson. Welcome.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: So this is kind of a fun episode because not only are they ambassadors and regional coordinator for Shared Hope International, but Mike is also an employee here. So, Sue, I'm going to let you introduce yourself and talk briefly about the organization and then Mike will jump to you.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Hi. I'm very blessed to be on this podcast today. I am Sue Thompson and I am one of the Florida Regional coordinators for Shared Hope International.
Our work takes us all over Florida, so we have a big outreach. I'm hoping that for people listening today that they will learn more about who we are and what we do and how maybe they can help.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Excellent. I'm glad you could make time to be here. Mike, tell us about you.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: I'm originally from the uk, as you may tell by the accent.
Joined PGT in January of 2011, so just gone through 15 and a half years.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: And still here for a reason that has been revealed to me.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Okay. And you are equally involved with sue in Shared Hope International?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah, we work together on Shared Hope International. Anti trafficking work in quite a few fields.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Okay, so I'm not sure who wants to answer this question. I was just curious and I know you said this was a long answer. We'll try to do the abbreviated version how you got involved with Shared Hope International.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: As I suggested, it's a convoluted answer. Originally, America's Future, a lady called Mary Flynn o' Neill, started a branch in the project Defense and Protection of Children.
Through that we went to a six day, eight hour Minimum per day training with the association for the Recovery of Children. Baz, who runs that, is a former CIA top elite operative and was in Somalia before Black Hawk down doing CIA work. And interestingly, he's got a big book out and it talks about his life and his rescues, because that's what they do. And the title of the book is Something Bigger than Overthrowing Small Governments.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Oh, interesting title.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: An interesting title. It's a good book. So through that training, we were introduced to Shared Hope International and Shared Hope International do a lot of training materials that we can just go out into the community and use to educate and get people aware of how this business operates.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Right, the human trafficking business.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And having done that, we became Shared Hope ambassadors, started doing presentations with that, and we even started going to the ARC trainings to introduce Shared Hope to the trainees. The way we were introduced to it, we.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: And from that, we have an alumni group here in Sarasota working in the anti trafficking field. All highly trained. And that's how we got to Shared Hope.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Okay, and so can you tell us a little bit about Shared Hope, like where they're located or. And do you have any information off the top of your head on that?
[00:04:11] Speaker C: I'd like to jump in here because I think we need to go back to Linda Smith.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Who is the CEO and founder of Shared Hope International.
And she was a congresswoman back in the 90s, and she went on a trip to Mumbai in India with a delegation. And what she saw there changed her life to where she came back to America realizing that, hold on, there's problems all over the world. It's not just in India, but there's problems here in the USA as well.
And so she started building on that. She's worked a lot with legislation, which is a key part to what's going on. And we now have seen through the years the impact she has had and how important a part the ambassadors that come on board are to the organization.
We have been able to bring on about 15ambassadors just in our region.
So Venice, Sarasota, a little bit down to Cape coral. But that's 15 people that are out there doing the work that we do, trying to spread the word and do the education.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Wow. It's a horrible thing. But it's also an opportunity for people to rise and to share the light and share information and just to help others from becoming a victim. Right.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: So going back a little bit to our beginning, we were first moved when we were at an event and we actually got to hear and See, trafficked women. And it was at that point that Mike and I were like, okay, we need to do something about this. And we've always said people ask us all the time, why did you get involved?
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's one of my questions. Yeah.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: Actually, it was God.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: God spoke to us at almost the same time and he's led us down this path. I did not even realize that we would be doing what we're doing today because of somebody's story that I heard.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah, well, stories are impactful.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: They are. And when you say we've been led down a path, the training that I told you about, the six day training, that was in Akin, South Carolina.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: In June, three years ago.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: So in May that year, the training was booked and done. So we had to get to Aiken, South Carolina, a week, basically.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: So I'm in England visiting my parents and my mum's brother came to the states in the 50s. And I've got three American cousins. One of them is Karen. And so mom goes, let me give you Karen's new address because she moved from Pennsylvania. Where did she live? Aiken, South Carolina.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: No.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: So I called her up and she says, that's great. I've got an Airbnb apartment attached to my house. You can stay there.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Oh, nice. Wow. That's a God thing for sure.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah. So we went through that training. There's been a training in Sarasota and there's another one coming up in March. And from those trainings, a lot of people become Shared hope ambassadors because of the materials available, just like we did.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: So what does that mean to be an ambassador? That means that you're hosting training sessions.
What exactly is that?
[00:07:23] Speaker C: So there's various roles that we obviously play. Building our team of ambassadors has been huge because at first it was Mike and I and we were like we were having to do everything.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: We were both working full time. He still is.
So now this other group, Rescue Innocence usa, that he talked about, we meet once a month and we have people in that group that do different things to do with rescue.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:51] Speaker C: We also have. Most of us are now ambassadors.
So we can hold meetings, we can go to churches, we can get education.
One of the things we have done is go to the Vedice airport because you have to realize that airports are huge for trafficking. Maybe not Venice, the bigger ones, but it's still the same thing. Let's train people to see what they need to see. If they see something, what are they going to do with what they Saw.
Who do they reach out to?
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Exactly. Those are my questions. I have questions about all of them.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Yeah. So basically, ambassadors can do a multitude of things. We can fundraise because we are all volunteers.
We do not accept money directly. If any money comes through, it goes straight to Shared Hope International.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Okay, that's beautiful.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: And you may wonder why airports?
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, tell me that is because
[00:08:50] Speaker B: this is a business.
The girls that are trafficked are moved from city to city, state to state to work in different events.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: The World Cup, Formula one Grand Prix, the Super bowl, any big games, any big sporting event. Trafficking is there. Oh, and girls are moved in for the parties.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Okay, wow. So what does somebody look for if they're in an airport? Like, say I'm at my gate, I've got an hour before I'm boarding. What kind of behavior? What am I looking for? And then what would I do with
[00:09:24] Speaker B: that, what to look for? The most common one would be an older man mainly. Sometimes it could be a female with an obviously younger companion.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: And that companion will be eyes down, not looking at anybody. They will be controlled. If they have to go to the restroom, they won't be just off to the restroom. They'll be followed.
The person who's the trafficker will stick close by.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: And if you see that kind of thing going on, all you can do in that situation is alert airport security, say, hey, I've seen this. And a lot of airports have signs and so in the restrooms and everywhere. So be a number on there.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I've seen that.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: That's what you see out in the open with people you'll know or you associate with. You know, if you're a sports coach or youth group or anywhere where teens are or just your children's group of friends, if you see something change in one of the kids, they may start to dress differently, have nails and makeup and hairdos. They may start to have more expensive accessories than what the kids would normally have. And we're talking 13 to 17 year olds here, okay. Middle school, high school, and then they'll be become more overtly talking about sexuality.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Those are the things you can watch for and those are the flags. And all you can do is get somebody to talk to them, get the friends to talk to them, find out what's going on.
If they start missing school or being sleepy during the day when you wouldn't expect them, then that is a flag that something's going on.
And we were meeting with Scott just last week. He works in community services and we Talked about when you're talking to the kid, like we do here, when something goes wrong, use the five whys to dig down.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Right?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Use the five whys just like a little kid does. Why, Daddy? Why? Why? Why?
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Use that in an adult way to drill down to the bottom of the root of the problem.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:11:29] Speaker B: You might find something out, then you can get them help before it's too late.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Wow. So let's go back to and thank you for sharing, that I have seen, now that you've mentioned it, in the restroom stalls on the back of the doors, there are usually flyers about, are you being held against your will? Are you feeling unsafe? And then there's a phone number for them to call.
So I have seen those and I think those are obviously helpful. Right. But let's talk about some statistics because we talked a little bit before we started recording and you had a couple of numbers that were really hair raising.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: Okay? So only 1.7% of all children that go are actually kidnapped. So that has changed because some years back, most of the kids were being kidnapped white van. They were being picked up coming out of schools.
So that's a very low statistic, which is great.
But the problem is now it has shifted and it has shifted to where most of these kids have iPads, iPhones, they have access to the Internet and to all these apps and these game shows.
100% of the children 15 years old or below have been solicited for sex through one of those online methods.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: What?
[00:12:54] Speaker C: 100%?
Whether the parent is aware or not, that is a very recent statistic.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:05] Speaker C: The other scary thing is that 47% of the children, again, could be very young. Two three year olds, up to 18 have been approached by a family member, a pastor, a schoolteacher, a youth pastor, somebody that they know and they have trusted. And that's what's scary about this situation.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: So a known adult is approaching kids and getting them involved in trafficking?
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Yes.
So the thing is, it's good for the trafficker to keep the kid in the house these days, not get them out. So they're actually grooming them when they're out in school, youth groups, wherever. And then these kids go back home like nothing happened. And eventually one day they're gone.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: We are sharing our expertise around all topics, topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: So I can tell You a story on it. There was a girl who was a daughter of an executive of companies, so he kind of moved around the country. Every two years, he'd be moved to a new post, to whatever. So she's now in high school, and she gets moved to a new town. Obviously an awkward situation for her. So she's in the school, joins a cheerleading team or whatever, and football guy starts to take an interest, and she thinks that's cool. So one day he offers her a ride home. Oh, yeah, I just got to stop by my house to get something. So let's go in. Would you like a drink? Yeah, sure. Drugged upstairs.
Raped.
The guy's friend is in the closet videotaping.
She's then extorted. And for two years, she gets a text at midnight or so she has to leave the house, sneak out, go do whatever this guy wants her to do, and go back home.
Trafficked out of her own house out of, obviously, a good family. She only got out of it because, again, two years, father got a new job in a new town. She moved on.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. How horrible.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So everybody is vulnerable.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: There's no socioeconomic category that this happens to more than others. It's everywhere.
And as sue said, if you just ask any kid with a cell phone, what creepy messages have you had? Oh, yeah, all the time.
And you just got to be aware.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: So how can you protect your kids online?
[00:15:44] Speaker B: You have to teach them. Just like when they drive a car, you don't just throw them the keys and say, off you go. Have a good time.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: You have to teach them good practices. What is the clear of defensive driving techniques? And the biggest thing is, for kids in school, the only social media friends they should have are people they know in person.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: That's a big one.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: And the gaming apps with chats, that's a big one for perpetrators to get to kids, the red flag there that they need to know is if they're chatting with somebody and they seem all nice and friendly and they say, hey, let's move over to this other chat app and chat there.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: If you move trying to move out of the gaming chat into another chat, then that's a red flag.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: That's a red flag. Okay.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Because some of those other chat apps have location services on them.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: So you're chatting and they can find out where you are.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Good to know.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Sue, anything you would add to that?
[00:16:40] Speaker C: I guess just that there are apps available to parents. One comes to mind, bark where they can go in and they can set up various guidelines within the child's phone, even using words. So if a word came up, like sex, it would ping their phone.
So there are things that parents can do, and at the end of the day, it comes down to education.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: So that's another area for shared hope. They've got some new educational programs out for students, and we've had a look at them, and they're great.
So now we have to work out how can we get to these kids and the parents. And the parents.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: So is this something that schools are helping? Do you have opportunities to go in and talk to kids at the school level?
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Something we're working on.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Trying to get in there. Obviously got the school board and things like that. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is one avenue. We can try.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: We have been trying, but it's not. Not easy.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. And so that app was bark B
[00:17:45] Speaker C: A R K. A R K. Okay. There are a couple others.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Procedure, something like that. But basically they will monitor the chat on the kid's phone.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: So texting.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: And send a warning. Yeah, and send a warning to the parent when certain words or phrases are used. So you don't have to scroll through all the texts.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: And the other thing for parents to remember is it's not the kid's phone, it's their phone, which they're allowed to use.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Taking away the phone is not a good idea. You know, if it's a. You got to teach them how to use it properly.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Because teenagers, if she's looking with the phone, they're going to get another one somewhere.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: You know, they're sneaky.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Just like we were.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: No.
[00:18:26] Speaker C: So coming back to the phones, these kids are so smart.
So they go to school, they'll put apps back on their phone. When they come home, they delete them.
And it doesn't matter what kind of home the kid's from, they all do it.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: So then the parents got to get smarter than the kid and know how to look at the phone and analyze what's been on and off it.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. I know. There's some parental controls that you can put on different apps and different platforms, but, you know, still to take that another level and just say, this is my phone. You get to use it when I think it's good for you to use.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: And there are chat apps that are nefarious that will appear on the phone as, like a calculator.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Really?
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it looks innocent, but it's not.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Oh, Gosh.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And as sue indicated earlier, any teenager doesn't need to be in their room with an eye. Something that's connected to the Internet.
Just don't do it.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, gosh.
[00:19:29] Speaker C: The parent thinks they're safe because they're in their room. We've heard this so many times, especially in the homeschool groups. They think that their kids are all safe because they homeschool them and they go home and they're just in their room, right? Nope.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Vulnerable.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Oh, no, that's awful. Okay, Any other stories? I think, sue, you said you had a story.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got a story goes back about 32 years now and. And it's a Venice story.
I know this story is true because I met with the mother all these years later and she told me what had happened and she didn't realize that her daughter was being groomed. So what happened was the kid goes to school, she was being groomed by somebody. She'd come home late, she stopped talking to the parents. We've all done it. We were all like, don't be so nosy, you know, so the communication and this happened over months. This grooming was going on. He would actually be as bold as to come to the house and pick her up. Cause in the beginning she was saying she was going to her friends, but then the parents kind of got to the stage where just let her go because we don't want any more arguments.
And that's what they do. They're like, anything for a quiet life.
I think we've all guilty of that at some stage.
But eventually she went out one night and she didn't come home.
So obviously parents got local police involved.
Back then there wasn't cell phones and stuff, so it was completely different.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: The police interviewed the friends. The friends had one little something that they thought might be useful that they'd heard her say to somebody, I'm going to Texas. Well, Texas is a huge state.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: But anyway, through the anti trafficking groups that were out there, they did manage to speak to people in Texas. And they'd been watching two houses, not in the same area, completely unrelated. But anyway, some time went by and guess what? They raided and they got her and they got a lot of others.
But by that stage they were getting ready to sell her. So she'd already been. She'd been through the grooming, she'd probably been broken in at that stage, and she was just ready for that buyer to come along and take her into the life of trafficking. So that story ended Up. Well, but how? Well, yeah, because she never could go back to school.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: They could never put her with other children.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: But speaking to the mother, she did eventually overcome it, and she herself got married and has a young family, so. But that's Venice. Venice, Florida.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: 32 years ago.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Venice High School.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Oh, it's unbelievable. I mean, but I know it's there, and I heard a stat some time ago, I don't know if that's still true, that Florida was the third most populous state for trafficking because we are a vacation hub. We are. You know, there's sports teams everywhere, colleges, you know, lots of events and conferences and things like that all happen in Florida.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: So that is true. We are the third. There's also a lot of money around here, especially in Sarasota.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: And we always say, follow the money.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: Wow. You know, but even more frightening is that Sarasota and Manatee are the one and two for trafficking in the state of Florida.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: For calls to the hotline.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: There's various stats there, but they're up there. Maybe Miami and Tampa maybe above them at some stage, but Sarasota is right up there.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Oh, that's awful. So what is this hotline you speak of? How do people report an incident? Maybe they're not in the airport and they just didn't take note of the number. Is there a hotline number or a way of reporting suspicious activity? Because you wouldn't want to accost someone. You wouldn't want to approach them.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:34] Speaker C: Absolutely not.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Right. So you need to take it up with the proper authorities. Would you just call 911?
[00:23:39] Speaker B: You could do that if there's nothing else.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: There is the human trafficking hotline, and there is an app.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Which I'll try and find while we talk.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:50] Speaker C: So locally, because people know the work we do, we do not hesitate to say, call us.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: The problem is, if they call the police, they have to wait at least 24 hours. That's too much time to pass. We could be on it and bring that child home within 24 hours.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Oh, I see. If someone's gone missing.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. No, I guess I was referring to if I'm at a restaurant or if I'm downtown or if I'm out and about and I see something that is suspicious, what do I do with that? Like you said, 911 is okay.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. But as I say, there's an app called simply Report.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: You can keep on your phone and submit a tip through there if it's a local.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Like a kid's gone missing from our area.
People reach out to our team sometimes because they know the work we do. Right. And just recently, in the last three months.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, about three months ago, one of our colleagues got a call from somebody that knew who she was and her 17, 18 year old daughter had gone missing.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: And this was kind of classic. A new guy had come into town four or five months before and they'd hooked up together, kind of girlfriend, boyfriend, and then she disappears with the guy.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: So on Friday night we got busy and through techniques we learned at the big training earlier, we had her back home within 24 hours.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Wow. Good job, you guys.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: That's not exactly Shared Hope, but it's what we do.
[00:25:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I found this online. So you can text info. And here's the text number is 233-733. And then there's a phone number. 888-373-7888. And so those are hotlines. National Human Trafficking hotline. I know there's a lot of different organizations that are working on this issue and thrilled that you guys are part of that and are educating people and providing.
Find out about Shared Hope. And I don't think you want to give your phone numbers out to the podcast, but how do people find and support Shared Hope?
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Two things.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: As part of that collaborative effort, on the August 14th, we have an event in Sarasota.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Which is a collaboration. Shared Hope are the main organizers of it. But we're going to have Dr. Brook from water Living and other people that are involved in this fight in the area to get collaboration. As you say, there's lots of organizations out there and collaboration is what's needed.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Shared Hope.org quite simple. Will get you to the website and if nothing else, if you can donate
[00:26:35] Speaker C: to them, they'll have a donate button on there.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: So as I say, we do not collect money for them.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: We send people straight to the website.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Or we'll take a check.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Yeah. We've been invited to go and speak about Shared Hope and the organizations that call us, give us a check to basically mail them.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Sir.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: And we will be at the foundation gala in Washington.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: In Washington in October. Okay. Awesome. Is there anything else that we need to touch on that we might have missed?
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Two weeks after that at the same hotel.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Shared Hope International are having their annual juvenile sex trafficking conference.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Which is a three day event.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: And there'll be nearly 100 survivors there and they have classes and seminars and education and other organizations like with tabletops and great networking opportunity.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Well, I'm thankful that you guys got involved in this without having a personal story of like your child or a niece or nephew that has been trafficked. But how powerful for you to be able to share this today and to give our audience some information about that. I had no idea that those numbers were what they are, that that many 15 and under are susceptible to random messages. That's just awful.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Wow.
Well, Sue, Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Appreciate your work in trying to put an end to, you know, human trafficking and yeah, thanks for coming in. Thanks for sharing our pleasure.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Thank you for having us.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Yes, thank you very much for having us.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Okay, take good.
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