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Human Traffickers Are Targeting Kids, Perhaps Yours · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:15
  It's time for the third hour of the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I'm
• 0:20
  Preston. That's Grant Allen running the radio program. It is Tuesday, January
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  twenty third, and it is show fifty eighty. The program affectionately known as
• 0:29
  common Sense Amplified, and we have sometimes some pretty challenging and difficult topics that
• 0:37
  we talk about here get you thinking about and aware of things that might not
• 0:42
  normally be on your radar. And so it goes with this topic this half
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  hour. Joining me is Robin Hassler Thompson. She is the executive director of
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  the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center. She co founded this back in twenty fifteen
• 0:57
  to assist survivors of human trafficking. Robin, Welcome to the program. How
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  are you. I'm good, Prestin. Thank you so much for having me
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  today, and thanks so much for highlighting this topic. Yeah, it's a
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  very important topic to me for a lot of personal reasons. I've been aware
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  of human trafficking for quite a while. What was your first introduction to the
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  nature and the scope of this problem. Oh, wow, that's a really
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  good question. I'll tell you. It started for me when I actually was
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  on a State Department mission almost twenty years ago now to Bangladesh. I was
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  there to deal with the issue of domestic violence. I was invited over there,
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  and when I was over there, I went to a shelter that housed
• 1:49
  victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. And what I
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  saw over there where children were boys who were trafficked. And this is going
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  to sound and maybe just just crazy to some people, but there were boys
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  who were trafficked into Saudi Arabia to be camel jockeys and they were brought back
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  to Bangladesh. They were taking this, They were, you know, taking
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  the Saudi Araa brought back to Bangladesh and they were in the shelter. And
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  I'll never forget those children, you know, the faces and the eyes of
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  these little boys. And later I found out when I, you know,
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  got back to the States and was working Brian Gumbel actually did a show about
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  this, and that show that he did shamed the leaders of Saudi Arabia to
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  put an end to what they were essentially doing is getting these boys from other
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  countries to be camel jockeys. Because they were light and they screamed and it
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  made the camels run faster, and it turns out those boys were also being
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  sexually assaulted and abused. Anyway, That's what opened my eyes to it,
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  and then I got back to this country. In real life, human trafficking
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  is going on all over the place, especially in Florida, Robin Is,
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  I know this is a global issue, obviously. What are the differences in
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  how this how this begins? You know, you mentioned these children in Bangladesh.
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  Are they being sold by their families? Are they being kidnapped, abducted?
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  What's the arrangement there? And then contrasts that with how human trafficking gets
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  a foothold in America. Yeah, you know, it's very it's very much
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  the same. You know, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and
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  that's why I'm so glad to do shows and to talk about this issue.
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  But really what happens most of the time is that people are groomed into being
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  traffic. It's not the snatch and grab, it's not the movie Taken,
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  you know what I mean? Right right, we've helped over two hundred people
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  since we started. That has happened to none of the victims of domestic I'm
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  sorry, of sex and labor trafficking that we've helped. What we see is
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  is a sort of ingratiating and subduction or whatever you want to call it by
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  a traffic or of somebody who has an unmet need, someone who doesn't have
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  housing or is in economic direstraits or whatever it is, and then someone appears
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  and says, hey, I can I can help you with that, and
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  they befriend that person. They get them into their web. I always think
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  of it as like a spider web. They get them into their web.
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  And that could happen in person. That happens among families. When I started
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  this work, President, we weren't really using the term familial trafficking or parental
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  trafficking, and we're doing it now more and more because of things like the
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  opioid epidemic, where you know, within families, people need to they they
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  are addicted, and they say, okay, how do I how do I
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  keep going? And they sell themselves or they might sell their children. So
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  it's kind of a complicated question, but I really would like your listeners to
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  know it's not the white man in the public parking lot, you know what
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  I mean. It's not someone being followed in the Dollar Store. If you
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  are worried about your kids being you know, pulled into this, make sure
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  you're finding out what they're doing online because a lot of this grooming takes place
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  online as well. Welcome to the Mad Radio Network, where we challenge you
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  to make a difference in your world in a positive way, improving the lives
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  of others. It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Yeah. I definitely
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  think we are falling under the category of making a difference here. This is
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  a problem and a lot of you are probably not aware of how close this
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  issue is to you and your children. I don't say that to scare you.
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  I say that to make you aware. Robin Hasler Thompson with us.
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  She's the executive director of the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center. Let you know,
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  we're going to talk about the event, but that's kind of a local
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  event, so I'll say that for the final segment, Robin, we have
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  listeners all over the country, all over the region. What are First of
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  all, are we talking in America more females versus males, more girls than
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  boys? And if so, or if not, what ages are being groomed
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  the most? You know that is such a good question, and I think
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  the answer is, unfortunately is I don't know exactly if it's more boys or
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  girls, or men or women. What we see is both the answer is
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  both okay. And because this is so hidden, just like if you think
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  about you know, what's going on in a family and any other kind of
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  situation, you know, you you don't know, And what we say is
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  everyone is potentially at risk. So if you have a child who has an
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  unmit need, and and anybody with with a child probably understands that that could
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  mean anything from what happened yesterday when a boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you
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  in high school and you know your heart is you know, broken, to
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  anybody who's whose parents can't pay the pay the rent or keep a you know,
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  keep keep the electricity on. So there could be lots of different unmet
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  needs. And that's what a trafficker will target. So if you're online and
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  you're a child, you there could be somebody from another country, from this
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  country, going into that game that that child is playing and posing as a
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  friend, asking for photographs, you know, risky photographs of that child.
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  And you know, if a child thinks they're talking to a buddy or you
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  know, a friend, or they're just having a good time, they might
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  do it, you know, and then they take that information and then exploit
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  it. I have a friend whose daughter basically said, Mom, I was
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  playing this game and this guy started asking me do I have any brothers or
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  sisters? She started and then she thought it was another, you know,
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  like a peer. So what we have online, President, we have something
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  called our Youth and Caregiver Toolkit, And when we talk about kids being vulnerable
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  online, I like to encourage anyone who's around a kid, whether it's a
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  coach or a bus driver or a you know, a church leader or you
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  know, a youth leader, that you understand what kids are doing online and
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  talk to them about this issue so that they're not duped by a trafficker.
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  And really it's kind of a pretty extensive investment, is what one survivor told
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  me. A trafficker makes us a significant investment in time when they're grooming somebody.
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  So that's what you really have to start to understand, is that it
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  can happen in person. You know, it could be one and teenager recruiting
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  another teenager at the behest of a trafer or it could be it's happening one
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  on one online and parents just don't know. I've had a parent, you
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  know, parents tell us I know where my daughter and son is twenty four
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  to seven. Well you don't know where they are online? Boy, isn't
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  that the truth? Robin standby. We're going to talk about an event that's
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  coming up, folks. The website is Survive and Thrive Advocacy dot org.
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  Survive and Thrive Advocacy dot Org. There you can also learn more about an
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  event coming up called at Imagine Freedom twenty twenty four, and it's an event
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  where you can really learn and hear from people that are making a difference the
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  best they can. The best thing you can do is be invested in your
• 9:54
  kids' lives. It's your business. Just trust me on that. For those
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  who you just joining us this morning on the Morning Show with President Scott,
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  we're talking about human trafficking and it's Survive and Thrive Advocacy dot org. Have
• 10:07
  I got that right? You've got that one hundred percent right. Preston what
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  kinds of tools are available specifically to parents and victims, Well, our website
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  does have a lot there, I think for everybody. So first, let
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  me say there's a podcast called Imagine Freedom and you can find it wherever you
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  get your podcast. Excuse me, I've got a frog anyway, so you
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  can find Imagine Freedom and Preston. I'm speaking only with survivors of trafficking on
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  this podcast, so really encourage people to go there. I've told parents they
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  can ask their kids, you know, especially teenagers to listen to the podcast
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  or twenty minutes, you know what I mean, so you could find out
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  more about what we should be doing to help protect our children and each other
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  from trafficking and really build and strength in our community. The other thing we
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  have is a training for businesses. A lot of people don't realize how the
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  business community, whether it's for profit or nonprofit, has a role to play.
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  And you know, when when law enforcement says see something, say something,
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  you got to know what you're looking at in order to say something.
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  So you know, so if you if you think, like only girls are
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  sex traffics, and you see a boy on the street who's being preyed on,
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  you wouldn't say anything because you wouldn't know. So that's what our training
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  program, called stackpro dot org does. It's one hour online free. You
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  can go there and learn the signs, how it looks in the workplace.
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  And then we have toolkits. We have toolkits for parents and kids, caregivers
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  and teens and that's a youth and caregiver toolkit on the website you just mentioned.
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  And then we've got other tools for people and president. Every week,
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  I'm sorry, every month the third Friday, we have a webinar again,
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  another free webinar on issues that involve trafficking. This month we had one on
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  human trafficking and the targeting of people with disabilities, and we had an expert
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  from the Department of Children and Families on talk about how we can be aware
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  and make sure we're getting the help to people who might be targeted by a
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  traffcker or who have already been traffic traffickers target Like I said, vulnerabilities that
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  if somebody has a developmental disability and neurological disability, a physical disability at traffic
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  or sees that and sees dollar signs unfortunately. So we really want people to
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  know there's so much you can do on the front end. I love that
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  make a difference mad that you have so people can make a difference and understand
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  more so they can see it and actually take action. You mentioned dollars.
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  Let's spend those dollars in a more positive direction. Because your annual fundraisers coming
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  up next Tuesday, late late afternoon, early evening. Tell everybody about it.
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  Thank you so much. Yes, this is our annual event, Imagine
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  Freedom twenty twenty four. It's going to be a great opportunity for people to
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  get together, to learn more and to connect with people who are making a
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  difference in our community. We give out what we call our Gratitude Awards,
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  and we have people in the community who've been doing extraordinary work in this field,
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  and so we're going to acknowledge and recognize them. We're going to unveil
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  a mural, a piece of artwork that we're going to take throughout this region
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  to have public conversations about what is trafficking. People don't think traffickers are in
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  rural areas Preston for example, and we're in a very area. So we're
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  going to take these this artwork there, we're going to unveil it. It's
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  going to be a time when you can get together and really think and celebrate
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  the people who are doing good in this issue as well as understand the depth
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  of what's going on. Folks can go to our website and see other events
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  that we're having this month. This is Human Trafficking Prevention Months, So we're
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  trying to do do this kind of a big event every year and really encourage
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  people to come. Tickets are only twenty five bucks. It's not too late
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  to be a sponsor. So really, when I mentioned all those other resources,
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  we do these for free. These are offered for free to the public,
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  and we're asking people now if you're benefiting, if you think what we're
• 14:20
  doing is worthwhile, to please just go on our website. Any donation is
• 14:26
  so so much appreciated, and I imagine it makes a huge difference, a
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  huge difference. You would be surprised. We've trained over sixteen thousand people since
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  our inception, and as I said, we've helped over two hundred survivors.
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  And every day we're in the community reaching out to vulnerable populations, whether they're
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  at our homeless shelter or you know, in other places where we know traffickers
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  will prey on people. So we're out there and we really the only way
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  we do this is with the help of people and the help of other people.
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  It takes a village, and we really rely on our community for our
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  support because you know, in my heart of hearts, I know that strengths.
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  This strengthens every community where traffickers are. If people know more, they're
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  able to step up and protect one another. Robin, thanks for what you're
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  doing and I know we'll be in touch over over the year and years.
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  Appreciate it so very much and thanks for joining me. I appreciate you so
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  much. Preston, Thank you so so much again. Robin Hassler Thompson with
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  us and it's the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center. If you can go to
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  the event, awesome. If you just want to make a donation, even
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  better. Recurring is always good. You know my thoughts on those things.
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  Survive and Thrive Advocacy dot Org here on The Morning Show with Preston Scott