Latest / Tomorrow's American Catholic Podcast / Vigilance and Public Witness with Lynn Anamasi

Transcript

Vigilance and Public Witness with Lynn Anamasi · Tomorrow's American Catholic Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Tomorrow's American Catholic.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is the official podcast of Tomorrow's American Catholic,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: a journal and publishing platform animated by a central question.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Who is Tomorrow's American Catholic,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: and how is their understanding of themselves,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: their faith, and their church evolving in time?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: In each episode,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: we speak with a spiritual practitioner who helps us envision new forms
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: of Catholic culture and ways of being Church.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Our guests come from a range of backgrounds and traditions,
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: and we seek to proceed in a spirit of contemplative hospitality and synodal dialogue
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: where we can learn from one another.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you for taking some time to listen with us today.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: If you're interested in exploring further,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: You can find additional podcasts as well as our written work at our website,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: tomorrowsamericancatholic.org.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now on to today's conversation.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Lynn Anamasi is a faith-led advocate and community builder
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: whose work bridges spirituality, justice, and service.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: She is a board member and the Charlotte Chapter President of the SOAP Project,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: a national anti-trafficking organization that equips volunteers and hotel staff
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: to recognize the signs of human trafficking and identify missing children
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: through label bars of soap and targeted outreach.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Lynn's commitment to mercy and justice is also shaped by her relationship with
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: the Sisters of Mercy, with whom she's an associate.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Their charism of compassion,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: courage,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: and service to the most vulnerable continues to guide her advocacy
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: and her leadership within SOAP.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Lynn Anamasi, thank you so much for joining us today on Tomorrow's American Catholic.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, of course.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: As our listeners are probably familiar at this point,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: we generally like to begin with a brief overview of our guest's spiritual journey.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you could give us,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: a thumbnail sketch of your early religious life,
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: a relationship to the church or teachers and mentors who might have influenced you
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: over the way.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Just anything you'd like to share.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you again, Michael.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's interesting that you all asked me to talk about that because I feel...
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really have much of an upbringing as a Catholic.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was baptized a Catholic, but we didn't practice that at home.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: We never talked about God.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't go to church.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: When we moved to Stratford, Connecticut, I did start going to CCD.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we just didn't talk about it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: My early experience and understanding or lack of understanding was
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: from my father's perspective where He was one of seven from a large Italian family.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they had a small home and it was the two parents and the grandmother living together.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they went to church, you know, it's what they did.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: But tithing was a big deal.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that was what I heard from my father, where they went to church.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was with his grandmother and the basket in front of him being asked for money
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: and they weren't able to give.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So at one point he took money out of the basket to make a point, like, I can't give anything.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he's a teenager.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that experience of just thinking that church isn't there for you.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not that place where you're getting something and you have to give.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that just permeated not having it in our home,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: but just something that I remember about him,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: you know, and how he spoke about his experience.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that other people in our family went to church somewhat.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just, again, wasn't something we really spoke about.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But who really influenced me was my grandmother.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was one of the grandchildren that she would call on to stay over at her house.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure she took me to church when I was very small.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when I was a young teen, she would call me when she lived in our town.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: She would call me and say, I'm going to mass.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to mass on Saturday night.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You want to come?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And she'd either pick me up or I'd walk to church and meet her.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved doing that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I loved her.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I always wanted to be with her.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was like my experience with church was from her.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I eulogized her,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: sharing a story about going to Good Friday Mass with her,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: because I didn't really have a sense of what this was or my faith.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just because she did it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember walking up to the cross on Good Friday and kneeling.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And before I kissed the cross, I looked up at her like, Are we doing this?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like she already did it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was just like this comfort, like this nod, like, yes, this is what we do.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did it because I loved her and I respected her.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really understand my faith though.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So early on, that's just, you know, my lack of understanding of who we were.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I made all my sacraments, but it wasn't until my early thirties where I was just lost.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was really lost.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't a terrible person, but I wasn't doing all the right things necessarily.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I could feel that call within me.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I needed something.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And one day I finally just said, like, this is it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to church.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I had two colleagues that I worked with that went to St. James.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they spoke so highly of it.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided, okay, I still lived in town.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go there.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to try this out.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just The feeling of warmth and love and that greeting at the door to be welcomed.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was really important to get me in there.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I made a decision when I was going to do this, I'm going to be full in and do this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to figure out how to connect.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what that meant.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what it meant for my faith or anything, but I just knew I needed this.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't say then it was a calling, but it was definitely, I knew that I needed God.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's always interesting to
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: because I would say my childhood was very much like yours,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: except that,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: well, in the sense that nobody talked about their faith, but it was understood.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think my father would have cared, but my mother, it was like, we go to church.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: We go.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was just what we did,
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: but there didn't seem to be any, that was in a separate box, you know, over here.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, for whatever reason, I was always...
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Once I got over being a teenager and just not wanting to go
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: because my mother made me go, I was always drawn to it as well.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I always find that interesting.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Why me?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: went to church their whole childhood and then it's like, that's it, I'm done.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the end of it.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of fascinating.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, yeah,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: you do need to be away for a little bit to get that perspective,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: as Lynn was saying,
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: you know, to come back when you really need it and are ready for it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to hear a little bit about Lynn's experience with the Sisters of Mercy
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: or just how your vocation evolved in the church,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: because I know that's formative with the SOAP project and all the work you're doing.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: So how did it expand from when you returned to St.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: James and then finding that extra piece of it?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So like I said, I really decided I was going to commit to this.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: initially it was like I got involved in the picnic,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: you know, helping out with the parish kind of thing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then I became a catechist.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I did that for eight years.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I loved doing that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that really helped.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I did spiritual direction and anything that came up, I did it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I went on pilgrimages with the church.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the biggest things that really changed me and my faith
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: and really looking at what it meant to really read scripture
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: and understand it was Curcio.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Taking my Curcio weekend.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that group that I had formed with afterward, which Barb was a part of, was huge.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Those group of women that I prayed with every week and prayed
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: for was just instrumental in guiding me through so much of my early 30s and beyond.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: But what happened was, I was probably at St. James for about 10 years and work changed.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to move.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I have this amazing community.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I have this deep spiritual life.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be good.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to move away.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm moving to Florida.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't the same.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like I could just pick up and find that community anywhere.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But what I had was Curcio and I tried to connect with others.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Through that group, just finding another small group to work with, to pray with.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on the monthly meetings that we have,
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: the Altreas,
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: a woman got up and witnessed about being an associate of the Sisters of Mercy.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those callings again,
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: where she finished talking and everybody went off to share in a meal.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I beelined for her and said, I need to know you.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was in her face saying, I need to know you.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was just such a strong feeling that I had, like this was it.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And she followed up and we talked and I took two years to discern before I wanted
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: to be an associate.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to understand this and know what does this mean?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how am I a part of this?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I took my time and just,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: read about Catherine and went to their local meetings and tried to understand.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I just decided it was the right thing to do.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And once I did become an associate and make my covenant,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: because I really loved,
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: and I still do,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: the charisms of the Sisters of Mercy and how they,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: embrace justice and love,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: women and children, anti- Racism, nonviolence, the earth, and immigration, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Those are key core values.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I jumped in, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I went to every workshop, everything that they offered.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was coming to North Carolina to, I was part of the Southern group.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was coming up here quite often and eventually moved up here
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: because I had friends here, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I became friends with the director of Mercy and I had an experience
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: where I actually,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: through my high school reunion,
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I reconnected with a friend and I found She was writing stuff on Facebook.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: We were doing this high school reunion through Facebook initially to get connected.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was watching what she was writing and I was kind of taken aback.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I Googled her and I found a Ted talk that she did.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned that she was a survivor of trafficking.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how I found that talk.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I sent her a note because I immediately remembered something that happened
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: when we were in high school.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I just knew at that time somebody was doing something to her,
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: but this was after her experience with trafficking.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I sent that TED Talk to my director and I said, we need to have a workshop with her.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept asking her, I'm like, this is really important.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: We need to do this.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And she finally said, that's a great idea.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: You should do that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not the person I am today because of a lot of these things that I've done.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: That experience where she asked me to do that, I put the workshop together.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: People came down to Jacksonville, Florida, where I lived.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't believe I did that.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I forced myself to read my friend's book before she came.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I understood her experience.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I hadn't seen her in 30 years.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And just to know that this had happened to her, it was a lot.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So in that time, we labeled a case of soap during that experience.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so the sisters supported me in all that.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big deal.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: That was the support that I got from that community and I still do get from
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: the community is very instrumental in helping me do a lot of the work that I do.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's a quote I found from the founder,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Catherine McCauley of the Sisters of Mercy,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: centered in God for whom alone we go forward or stay back.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: That was really beautiful just as a framing mission statement.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so the person,
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: Lynn, that you invited to Jacksonville, she was the founder of the SOAP project.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody I went to high school with.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: So Lynn, could you tell us a little bit about the SOAP project and what is it you do?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do it?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you work with?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, give us the lay of the land.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the SOAP Project, we educate people about the signs of human trafficking.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we hold events and we ask the community to come to these events
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: and we educate people on the signs of trafficking.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we label bars of soap,
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: hotel bar size of soap with a label that we've put together with three questions
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: on it about are you being held against your will.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then it has the hotline number for the human trafficking hotline number
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: that goes to a location in Washington.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so it gets routed to the correct law enforcement facilities.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we have people come to the event, we educate them, we label the bars of soap.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then we ask them, okay, we've educated you.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now we ask you to go out to the hotels.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And educate the hotel staff, the front desk, and say, we have this information.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: We give them folders of information and say,
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: can bring this to the hotel and bring the bag of soap.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: But what we really give them is a missing children's poster.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, can you go to the front desk of the hotel and say, We're with a SOAP project.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: We'd like you to look at this missing children's poster.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: We believe that these children might be in the area and that they might be subjects
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: of human trafficking.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we do this by looking at who's on the missing children's site, the NCMEC site.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we look for missing and runaway children.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we typically do this before large sporting events because we know
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: that sporting events bring in a lot of activity and trafficking ticks up
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: during those events.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Most people don't realize that the Super Bowl is the biggest event
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: for human trafficking in the country.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of it is sex trafficking,
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: but a lot of it is also just labor trafficking,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: bringing workers in and then just not paying them.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: But most people don't realize that at all.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so thank you for what you're doing there.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know,
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: I know for me,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: when I started learning more and more about it, it was just horrifying to learn.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's something you hear,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: but until you meet people who have experienced it,
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: it's just a horrifying thing to happen to children, especially.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: I think the more we can raise up the voice of people like you who are doing this,
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: the better it's going to be.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that it was something that happened somewhere else
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: when I first started it, too.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I lived in Jacksonville, Florida at the time.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh, because it's a port city, this is where it could be happening.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not how it happens.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's anywhere and everywhere.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be vigilant about it and be educated on the signs.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: So Lynn, I'm just curious, you know, let's say, you know, any one of us, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're on a trip, we're on vacation, wherever we go, we're at our nail salon.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know those are also,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I remember- A salon I used to go to in Connecticut,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: having this van that would come in from, because I said something to the girl.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: I said, well, wouldn't it be easier if you were able to move closer?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because she was talking about having to take the van and having
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: to leave really early out of the Bronx or Queens or something.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so what is the average person to do?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that might also just to follow up on that,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: because I saw there are looks like coordinated outreach efforts with SOAP
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: that you can almost help people who are interested in maybe in their own city
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: or community putting one of these outreaches together.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe, yeah, that might be just another little follow up on that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think as when you see things like that,
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: signs of trafficking, that's where you need to report it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Either to the hotline number or to your local law enforcement.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not in an emergency,
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: but reporting,
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I see this and I'm just, you know, I'm not sure this might be something, right?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you saw somebody,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: so when we have events and we see somebody's on the poster and we've had this happen
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: where somebody's actually, a child is there in the hotel, we call 9-1-1.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: But if you,
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: you think we go to these outreaches and we ask people to investigate when you go to
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: the hotel,
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: look around the hotel,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: does the hotel, would you expect high end cars in this motel or hotel?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or do they look out of place?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see children with garbage bags for their luggage or in pajamas walking around
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: that shouldn't be there?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the middle of the day and they should be in school, you know, different signs.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you saw signs like this,
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: to call your local law enforcement and let them know you think this is signs
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: of trafficking and don't get involved.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is very dangerous, right?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: You call for help, but you don't get involved.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try and stop something.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try and give anybody a ride.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Be smart because it is a very dangerous crime.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is the second leading crime in the U.S.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Would you advise people to take a picture if they see somebody that they think,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: you know,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: not get it in their face,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: but like if they can privately take a picture so that they can show the picture?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: Is that advisable?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably a good idea, but you do have to be discreet, yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And do you have any sense, Lynn,
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: generally are hotels very open to this or are they a little bit standoffish
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: because they don't want to be associated with crime going on?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we do this for every outreach.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't call ahead.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think that we should call ahead.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: We do not.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: We just show up that day of our outreach and we ask,
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: we basically break people up into teams and we give them sections of town and try
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: and be very organized about it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you take these four hotels or on this west side of town,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: somebody else does the west side, whatever, depending on the size of the area.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we just ask people to go and show up and people are very receptive.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: The very first time I went out and did this,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was so nervous,
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell somebody about this and I'm like,
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: oh, but they were so receptive and they knew it happened.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: They were so grateful for the information and the support.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: As I've been doing this for the last 10 years,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: more and more of the hotels are being trained themselves.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you can count on the big chains that they've already doing their own training,
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: but some of the other chains, they welcome it and they're open to it.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's very few times that we get turned away.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our outreach is kind of unique is that it actually gives people an opportunity
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: to actually do something.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So come and label soap and then go out to the hotels and be a person of action in this.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes we have groups that just want to label bars of soap.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually have a church here that literally labels soap every other week.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then they send it back to us and we send it out to whatever outreach that we have going on.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that would be a huge impact.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have speakers who can come out or just do things virtually.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Before the pandemic,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing quite a bit of that,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: just speaking at different groups,
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: just to share the story of SOAP and just talk about what are the signs
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: of trafficking.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it doesn't have to be a full outreach.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: We do other things too.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I may be hitting you up for that because I've just been recruited to work in
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: a women's group through my church.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that would be a Fine thing for women to be involved in,
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's labeling the soap,
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: like hearing a little bit about what you do first,
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: which then makes the work seem all that more important, you know.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then getting people,
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: another church to be another chapter or another group to take on,
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: you know, I'm not sure if we have anybody in Rhode Island, so.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're growing quite a bit recently, so we have a lot of chapters that have just started up.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm talking about an event,
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: we have a big conference coming up in October in the Finger Lakes to talk
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: about trafficking.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: So there's going to be a lot of opportunity to learn about the activity there.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just curious how the chapter structure works.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Is there independent meetings within chapter groups that kind of plan actions
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: or plan outreaches together?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that helpful?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, each chapter runs on its own.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot of the events,
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: the current events for the second half of the year are listed on our website under
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: the events tab, if you have that open.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: But as a national organization, I often participate in national events.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I always, for the last 10 years, have been going to the Super Bowl event.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just came back from a two-day event in New Jersey.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: We just soaked up New Jersey for the FIFA World Cup.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the coalition there, the New Jersey coalition there.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Was a partner with SOAP to do that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we had one event in Newark and then we went to Cherry Hill outside of Philly.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So for a two day event.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: How has it affected you?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's opened me up and this topic,
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: just understanding how somebody's suffering has changed my perspective
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: on what people, you know, experience and need and how we can support others.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I did think it was something that just happened somewhere else.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even a topic I thought of before.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And to know that happened to someone that I knew before I met her.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, she's from a very wealthy family.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: It could happen to anybody.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just to hear her experience and the more that I spent time with her
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: and other survivors,
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: to know that It doesn't matter your socioeconomic situation and to know the trauma
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: and understand their pain and just be a warrior and support.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: So Lynn,
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: one of the things that I wonder about is,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: it seems to me,
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: given that there's in a lot of human trafficking,
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: you know, a sexual component to it, is there a lot of victim blaming?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why would you get involved in something like this?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, why didn't you just get out?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of thing.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Can you speak a little bit about that?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: when I read my friend's book,
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: that was like a huge awareness of how quickly she,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: as a 15-year-old, was brainwashed into believing she had to do this.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And here she is,
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: and this is the 80s, right,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: when this happened,
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: but that she was to blame for it and that she had to control this.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And here she is a 15-year-old in a wealthy family,
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: but she needed to protect herself and her family
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: because she believed that's what they told her,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: where they were going to show,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: they took pictures of her and they were going to show it to her father's boss
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: and they were going to show the priest.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Her groomer was a high school student and she went with him because she liked him
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: and they went to church together.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's Yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: But so the victim blaming,
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I understood that and reading her words about how quickly she became brainwashed
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: over this.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when people ask about that, that's kind of the takeaway is like, how could she do this?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what the recruiter does is they groom somebody.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just happen.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: They groom someone before This actually takes place.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the person is broken down and think they need to rely on that person.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they need them,
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's they've found somebody who needs clothing or food or money,
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: they befriend that person.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then now you're indebted to them and they just think they have to do it.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: A young person like that as well, that there's a whole shame piece involved.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like now I'm in too deep and I can't let anybody know this.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like that story about that,
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go to your father's boss and to the priest and to the,
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: you could see how a young person would do almost anything to like stop that story.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think it's similar to women who were raped and are trying to talk about it
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: and almost blamed for it happening.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: So they don't want to come forward.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It just plays with your mind that you think that you can't get out of this.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're talking about a young person, they don't know any other way.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know how to get out of it.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes it's an adult that they trusted.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a family member that is doing the trafficking of them.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: So where are they going to go?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who are they going to talk to about this?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when you speak about spending time with survivors,
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: I also noted that the organization facilitates restorative experiences.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Could you talk a little about that?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: It sounded like there's really paths to healing for people,
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: that it's not just the immediate outreach and then you disappear.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: You seem like you walk with these folks through the healing process too.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the education part is the outreaches.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then we do restorative care as well, where we have retreats that we do.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly survivors reach out to our organization for support.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we often provide support to those in need who need a hotel room or somewhere
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: to stay or care or medical care or whatever is needed.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody's needing any kind of support.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: We often provide Try and find a way to connect them with some other organization
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: that needs help.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: I remember when I was at FAN and I got a copy of the documentary film,
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: The Dark Side of Chocolate.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: Most people,
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: when they think of human trafficking,
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: they think of it almost from a sexual standpoint.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: The Dark Side of Chocolate showed a whole different side of human trafficking.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we were promoting free trade at the time and trying to get people to understand.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: So another thing people can do is really understand what free trade means,
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: fair trade, not free trade, fair trade means.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know,
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: don't buy chocolate bars that aren't fair trade chocolate because good chance
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: that there's been children that have been trafficked that's picking the cocoa beans
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: to make the chocolate.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's so many other sides to this, right?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just the sex trafficking.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what our organization focuses on.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, the side of labor trafficking is deep as well.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And is the organization, does it have kind of a religious or spiritual tie?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: It seems like it's maybe just bringing all people of goodwill.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know if there was any connection to an institutional religion or anything like that.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't, but the founder is Catholic, so we do talk about it quite a bit.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know there's a big platform of Pope Francis,
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: and he talked a lot about what he called a plague in a form of modern slavery.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: He was very adamant about this as being a real
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: life issue.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say that we're not a faith-based organization, but we certainly welcome it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: You partner with faith groups, don't you?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: We do, because most of our events are at churches of all denominations.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: I had another question.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: It may be like a really dumb question, okay?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to ask anyway,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: because if I'm thinking of it,
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: somebody that's listening is thinking about it as well.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just thinking about many of the hotels I go to don't have bars of soap anymore.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: They have, you know, the little...
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Little bottle with the pumps, little pump bottles.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Have you guys thought a little bit about another way to kind of get that message across?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are very aware that that's happened.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Over the course of time that we've been doing this, things have changed.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we also label makeup wipes.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we go out with either bars of soap or makeup wipes.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the big high-end hotels get makeup wipes for sure because they won't take the soap.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we found that out,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: over time where a lot of these hotels have certain contracts with their bars
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: of soap.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we have, we've adjusted.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: this started,
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: the founder, Teresa Flores, started this when she went back to the Detroit area.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: She had gotten lost and she just started seeing roads and signs of
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: where she had been trafficked.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And she just basically cried out to God and said, what can I do to change this?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: How can I actually make a difference?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this came to her and she realized that,
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know, the only thing a hotel has to have is a bar of soap.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's all they're obligated to have.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how this kind of got started.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, this to her was a God calling where this came to her to even the name.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: So stands for Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she cried out to God asking for what can I do?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: I need to do something else.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it seems like such a,
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: kind of like a revelatory moment,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: because I don't know,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: it seems like such a big problem to just be able to address it with something
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: as simple as a bar of soap.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: On her worst night when she was left in a motel,
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: that's kind of where it came full circle, I think, for this idea.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: initially it was happening in these big high-end,
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: not high-end,
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: but just Homes,
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: like these big wealthy homes,
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: she would be brought into the basement and men would come in all night long.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then when she kind of aged out at 17 between,
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: started at 15 years of age and by 17,
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: she was aging out of this and they took her to this basically dirty motel
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: and auctioned her off one night.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she almost died that night.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she was able to get out where it had an all night diner next door.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this waitress is the only person that ever helped her and she called for help.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a story.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: I also noticed, Lynn,
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: on the board,
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: it looks like you have,
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: there's a life experience, people that bring their own life experience of this.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like you,
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: am I right,
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: that survivors actually are participating in the structure of the organization,
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: which I think is really synodal.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's almost a trivial word for it,
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: but it's really,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: a really spiritually inclined model to see that everybody has a voice at this table.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: You're not just giving a solution or it's coming from within people
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: who have maybe survived this awful trauma.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is true.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And different types of labor and sex trafficking in men and women.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we have different voices at the table.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: What can all of us do?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: What can all of our audience do to really help raise awareness?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: Because I still don't think most people understand what's going on.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think most people have any,
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_03: maybe a tiny bit of awareness of what's going on,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: but not much awareness at all as to how prevalent this is, how much it's happening.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: How do we all come together to just really raise awareness
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: so people do understand not just how prevalent it is, but how horrific it is?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I just know that educating yourself on coming to an event like this
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: and being educated on the topic,
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's much more out there because of the news.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even TV movies and shows that have come out in the recent years,
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: it's more of a topic that's made it more prevalent.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully that's created some awareness, but you're right.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's still out there where when I bring this up and I talk to somebody,
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: they're just blown away.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like they just don't know that this really happens and how could this possibly happen?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it does.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And just trying to explain it to someone,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still at times, can't believe that I'm still saying this, right?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like still telling the same story and how it's New news to someone,
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: but that's what we have to keep doing because it's not going to stop
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: until we're all aware of it.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what we really need to work on is stopping the need to even have it, the buyer's side of it.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Really educating people that people are not for sale.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Is there any particular legislation that organizations like yours want
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: to bring forward that might be helpful?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or are there laws already there that we just don't?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think I saw something about the founder, Teresa,
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: there was a law in Michigan about the statute of limitations on this was lifted
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: and it's in the laws in her name.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: So people can, yeah, which I thought was really a success story right there.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are some laws out there, of course, and they can always get stronger.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Teresa does a great job of advocating for that.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And early on in her Advocacy for this work.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: She was able to do that with Michigan where if somebody recognizes,
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: it doesn't matter at what point they realize that they were trafficked,
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: they can still bring a case forward and that is in her name.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something to note about her story.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: her traffickers were never prosecuted and she didn't realize till much later
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: in life even what happened to her.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when I have an outreach and I tell her story,
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's really about early on,
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: she went to a rape counseling kind of event,
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: and she realized when these women were telling their story,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: she's like, this isn't what happened to me.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is something else.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so it took a while before it even had a name for her.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: So having that law in the books where somebody can recognize that
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: when they do recognize what happened to them,
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: they can come forward and want to prosecute that they can.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I would think especially as children, right?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as a child,
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: you don't know anything really about what's normal, what's the norm, what is this?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I would guess that it would make sense that you don't recognize it till much later.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: What is some of the information in the, when,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: if a bar of soap,
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: if say a victim is in possession of one, is it a phone number to some help?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: Is there, what type of information is included?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: Just so our listeners know, you know, how the outreach part works.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: So on the bar of soap, we have three questions on there.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: One of them being, are you being held against your will?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And just asking someone if they need help.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then for them to call this hotline number,
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: which will go to a central location in Washington and Basically,
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: the person will take their information and it will route it to
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: the correct law enforcement agency.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So this bars of soap show up just anywhere.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: We might have an outreach in Charlotte,
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina,
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: and the bar of soap can turn up in Chicago if somebody takes it with them.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's small enough and the label will come off.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody just takes the bar of soap or puts in their pocket or even just takes
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: the label, they can take it with them.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they're ready, they can call.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't just happen like one and done if somebody sees it.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to take several outreaches.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody hangs on to that for a while until they decide to really call.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: So no matter where that person is and they call that hotline number,
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: that agency will route it to the correct law enforcement so they can come
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: and help them,
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's that person that needs the help or they're calling about something else
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: that they saw somewhere else.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: They will get it to the right law enforcement agency.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: And does the agency contact your organization or...
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So people often ask, like, so does this work?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are the numbers?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't say that.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Even after an outreach,
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: after we do a Super Bowl event, we've done the Super Bowl event for like 15 years.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And after the last one in Santa Clara,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: all we can say is by the missing children poster that we go out with.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: How many children are no longer on that missing children's site?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we can measure it.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: So nobody calls us and tells us this.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: We just know that based on these events,
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: we go out with the missing children's poster,
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: and then we check to see if they're off the list or not.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we are just planting seeds.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing that with the community.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're just educating people on the signs of trafficking,
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: making them aware,
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: hoping they educate their children and talk to each other about what this is
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: and Let's prevent this in the future.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then putting those bars of soap out there so that somebody can be found.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: My very first event that I had in Jacksonville,
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I was doing or what was going to come of it,
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: but that I had one call from somebody.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: I put a notice in my parish bulletin about this event and one woman called and said,
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think my granddaughter is being trafficked.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought if nothing else happens, I don't know what that was, right?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: But somebody reached out.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody wanted information and they needed help.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried to connect them with the right agency that they needed at the time.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: That probably happens more than you would realize as you're doing your presentations.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: There's somebody there that says, oh, that sounds familiar.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds like.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not just the people that are in the hotel there that it's affecting.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's maybe somebody in your own audience right there to know somebody.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Teresa wrote a book about her story and I brought it to a client recently just
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: because we were talking about reading and I shared what I did.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there happened to be two people at the client that I brought it to
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: and not realizing that when I handed it to the other person that she shared a story
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: about her own granddaughter being trafficked.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just, I had no idea that that was what was going to happen.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we just had this amazing conversation about how she was rescued and what her experience was.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you just, you don't know when I talk about this or how somebody is going to react.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Lynn, could you tell us the name of the book?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Slave Across the Street.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it's a great title.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the author's name again?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Teresa Flores.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's the founder of Soap.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does SOAP have a website
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_03: or a contact information?
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's the soapproject.org.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: So any support, you know, for outreaches, for retreats, it's all so appreciated.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: It seems like this type of work lends itself to
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: who Tomorrow's American Catholic might be,
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: as you said, this combination of faith and justice work.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Could you speak a little bit about, Lynn,
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: just your ideas of Tomorrow's American Catholic or who that person might be
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: or how this work plays into that idea?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: And also your current relationship to the church or things you might like
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: to see develop or expand?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think I thought early on,
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: you know, about St. James and the community that was there was so important to me.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when I moved away, it was hard to find another community.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the Sisters of Mercy provided that because I couldn't find the church that worked for me.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And some of it had to do with my own work and I was traveling and a lot of things.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me to connect.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: With the Sisters, that relationship just blossomed in the associate community.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then with SOAP as well, I feel deeply connected to that work and the justice work.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: To me, I'm looking for more community And ways to do that and to bring justice
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: and this work together.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Will it always be soap for me?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: I will never leave soap probably.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: But what else is there and how do I bring my gifts and others together?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's important.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think now what I do is a lot of small faith sharing group.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to get back with a faith sharing group here locally because that's important to me.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: At one point there was a small group.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: There is a small group just doing
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, church at home.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's important to me, too.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: Is that a scripture-based group?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just curious.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: Do you read the lectionary together,
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: or is it more just faith-sharing,
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: kind of what's come up for you in that week, or how does that work for you?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, that's what we're doing, and we also are reading.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: We'll pick a book and read something.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm new to this group, so it's just newer, but yes, we read the Gospel of the Week, yeah.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious, Lynn.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's so many people that are looking for what you're talking about.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how did you find this faith sharing group?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was through SOAP.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was somebody who came to my very first SOAP event, and I just stayed connected to her.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there was another activity that was done at church through Just Faith.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with Just Faith,
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: this was before the pandemic,
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: and we were at my parish at the time,
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: was one of the last groups to have a full school year of Classes basically,
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: and we finished virtually because this was 2020,
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: but this is someone who just picked up the work of just faith.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got connected with her and tried to support her work and
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: then just reached out to her and she told me about our faith sharing group.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to ask her to be a part of it.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And do you meet virtually or
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: in person?
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: In person, in person, which is great.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: I work all day on my laptop.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: You just want to close that thing down.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to be doing faith calls on Zoom.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Lynn, thanks so much.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, yes.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, thank you, Lynn.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Really appreciate it.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was eye-opening.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pleasure to speak with all of you.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: You can find additional podcasts as well as our written work at our website,
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: tomorrowsamericancatholic.org.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: If you've enjoyed today's conversation, please consider subscribing at our website.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: We are completely reader and listener supported,
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: and every little bit helps us to sustain our work.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: Gift subscriptions are also available.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: Our podcast co-facilitators are Patrick Carolyn, Michael Centauri, and Barbara Maraconda.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Music is by Dana Music.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you for taking some time to listen with us today.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: And we invite you to continue to join us in discovering Tomorrow's American Catholic together.