Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 125. The Mission of the Exodus Road: Strategically Fighting Human Trafficking - Laura Parker

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125. The Mission of the Exodus Road: Strategically Fighting Human Trafficking - Laura Parker · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm john.
• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast.
• 0:05
  Becky Endicott: nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Becky Endicott: We're here
• 0:15
  Jonathan McCoy: to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started.
• 0:35
  Becky Endicott: Welcome. Hey, Becky, you know what I love?
• 0:39
  Becky Endicott: What's that? I love warrior moms.
• 0:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, we've got one,
• 0:42
  Becky Endicott: we have got one on the podcast today. And I want everybody to buckle up because we're going into a heavy topic.
• 0:50
  Becky Endicott: But I will assure you that if you can just hang in there, and listen to this incredible discussion, it is going to grow your heart, it is going to improve your worldview. And there is a space for all of us to pour into this ideal that we're talking about with human trafficking today. So it is my great joy and honor to introduce you to Laura Parker. She is the co founder and president of the Exodus road, which is a nonprofit strategically fighting human trafficking. And she and her husband have this crazy story where they were doing like undercover work with in Southeast Asia with the police.
• 1:32
  Becky Endicott: And she has the story that we are going to dive into about how this topic converged with your family, and why you chose to lean into it rather than turn away. And so I'm so curious to hear about it. And but Laura has spent the last 10 years of her career in storytelling, marketing, digital, nonprofit fundraising, and leadership. And she is a mom to three teenagers God bless you, and is still married to her high school prom date. So she is this heart and soul of the Exodus road. And I want to read their tagline really quickly because it really touched me It says sons and daughters will be trafficked tonight. bought, sold, abused and enslaved. Were on a mission to find and free them. Wow, those are your missions important. Laura, welcome to the we're for good podcasts. We're so glad you're here.
• 2:27
  Laura Parker: Thank you so much for having me, john. And Becky.
• 2:29
  Laura Parker: It's really an honor to be here.
• 2:31
  Becky Endicott: Well, I want to know the story. And you can feel free to back it up just a little bit. And yeah, tell us a little bit about your early journey and how you got to the place you're at right now.
• 2:41
  Laura Parker: Yeah, sure. I am definitely never set out to step into the fight against human trafficking. It really wasn't actually something on my radar.
• 2:50
  Laura Parker: I did marry my high school sweetheart. And we got married.
• 2:56
  Laura Parker: We were a little bit of Globetrotters, in our younger years had kids settled in Colorado. And then my husband came home one night and said, I feel like there's more I really, I really feel like we need to pursue overseas opportunities.
• 3:11
  Laura Parker: And so through kind of a series of events, we ended up moving with our three small kids, they were three, five and seven at the time over to Thailand, where we took a two year contract to help run a children's home there. And the first year was awful. It was literally the it was just a year from hell. In some ways, we were so unprepared, we stumbled around a lot made tons of mistakes, and almost actually packed up and and left early. And about year after year one, my husband actually went from a random invitation from a friend to a working group on counter human trafficking work. And he didn't really know a lot about it. We literally just googled human trafficking, but we felt like number one other people that were more qualified, could handle this problem. It is way too big and dark and scary for us. And number two, we had assumed because of our googling activity, that everybody else was already on it. There was plenty of other people that were that were doing this work. So we went to this he went to this this working group and there were about 15 nonprofits they're from all over the area all fighting counter are fighting human trafficking in Thailand.
• 4:36
  Laura Parker: And it was really interesting because they split the group up and they said everyone that's interested are working in prevention go here and intervention go here and aftercare go here. And he said it was like the parting of the Red Sea. It was like half the group went here and half the group went here and there was just one other guy, just a single guy that was in the intervention space and My husband's name is Matt. And he was like, Well, I guess I don't really know anything about any of it. So I will go ahead and see if I can learn about this middle space. And from that experience, he ended up getting connected with the Royal police to royal police, and ended up doing research for about a year and just learning about human trafficking, learning about what the gaps were there in Thailand, and how little was actually being done bear at the time, this was about a decade ago. And the intervention space, which is identifying with local police, those who are currently trapped in human trafficking scenarios, and then building evidence to support police and building the capacity within the justice system to do an operation which would result in survivor rescues, and then the rest of trackers. And he eventually got called up after about a year of research by this partner down in another city and they said, hey, there's this this suspicious thing that we're noticing they're these pictures of these little girls in the back wall of this bar in a red light district. And they say it's just a school, but we think that it's something different could you someone from your research committee come and check it out, pose as a as a john or as a tourist, maybe a sex tourist and go and just check out if if these pictures on the back of this wall are legitimate or not.
• 6:19
  Laura Parker: And so he called he called he called he called and no one could go, either their organizations wouldn't let them go, or they didn't have experience or their their wives when let them go. And it honestly never crossed our minds that he should maybe go. And But eventually, we got to that point where he ended up going with two other friends and members in the counter trafficking community there. And that was his first kind of mission into this space he had never done. He's not military background, he not a private investigator. He's really good with people. And so he just went and started, just learned essentially from that first time. And when he came back, I remember him telling me about some of the realities of what he saw there kind of behind curtains behind closed doors.
• 7:13
  Laura Parker: And it was just really, really heartbreaking. And something that we had never experienced in our lives before up close, maybe seen on movies, but didn't think was was actually happening in the real world. And there was this moment when he was crying, and I was crying. And we were sitting beside this river and our kids were playing in the river. And we said, my husband that said, Maybe we should, maybe we should do this. Again, this is actually the thing that police really need is they need people to go in and identify minors, especially in these in these establishments. And and again, you're both in tears. And one of our little kids, I think it was our middle child came up and had a was was playing at that exact moment. And I just remember thinking, if it were kelty, which is our oldest actually, if it were kelty? Would we want someone to do this work and figure out how to find her? And of course, we said yeah, of course we would want someone to figure it out, even if we didn't have the answers, because we really, we had no idea what we were doing. And and so from that moment, it just kind of spun about two weeks later, he went into the police station, and he said to the sergeant that he had been working with, he said, I know you probably have people that are doing this work already. But do you need a Western informant to go in and potentially identify minors in the sex industry? And the gentleman said to him, that everyone likes to talk about human trafficking, no one's willing to do what you just said, I have no one. And so that started our very humble journey into undercover operations in Southeast Asia. After about two months, they asked him to wear body worn undercover gear. And he said Sure, I can do that can you can give me some and they said oh, we don't have any. So we literally bought from Amazon or his first body worn camera.
• 9:23
  Laura Parker: Oh my god made it into his computer bag. And we rigged it up to start recording evidence of human trafficking and some of the darkest, most awful places in the world. And from there just learned a lot made tons of mistakes, obviously. And as this story goes, and things progressed, we ended up expanding into India. Hiring national teams in Thailand.
• 9:54
  Laura Parker: We're also in Latin America now and moving into the Philippines this year.
• 10:00
  Unknown: So, it's been a really exciting wild ride, you know, our primary focus has been the undercover operations just because that's that's been what we have organically stepped into and learned. And it's been the problem we've been trying to solve in the world. Oh, my gosh, I am. Wow, I'm trying to process this because at the same time, you know, we've talked about this a little bit, my wife and I were in Chiang Mai 10 years ago, which is so fascinating that I think we were in a different part of the town, and just the in equities on those different sides, you know, and I feel like such an amazing, beautiful places, Thailand has some of these dark corners that are just unthinkable the things that y'all have seen. And I just think to have your story that it was so much of a family decision, for y'all to step into this to this step into this place where no one was willing to step into. Because I mean, it put all of y'all at risk, you know, and all of y'all into a more more vulnerable position.
• 10:56
  Unknown: But I just think that speaks to your character of the, you know, most marginalized people on the planet that are needing help. So thank you for for that what an incredible story that y'all have stepped into. So I guess I'm just curious, like, what, you know, how did it How did you kind of get traction and come back and organize and say, how are we going to just scale this and get the resources together and paint the vision for people here in the states to get involved? What was the next part of your story? Yeah, well, you know, it was interesting, because we didn't have plans to move back to the States. But to your point, there was some trauma, obviously, that that we were all struggling with. And we actually had one kiddo in particular, who was really struggling. And so we said, okay, we need to go back, we need to take a knee. And we had actually had some some more intense, slightly scarier security issues and, and concerns. And so we thought, we're going to go back, and we're going to see if we can launch something in three months, we gave ourselves three months, and we had both of us at a kitchen table or kitchen table. And we we tried to, to share the idea. And it was really interesting, because there were some people that were really excited about it, and some people that were very adverse to it. And I think in this space, particularly, it's really difficult, because there's so much that you can't say, because of security concerns, there's so much that you can't show because of protecting survivor dignity. And so we were put in this place of having to be really creative and communicating what was happening. And trying to humanize that in a way that people connected with it on a on a human level on a hey, these aren't just someone else's kids.
• 12:48
  Unknown: These are our visitors. These are like my kids, too. And so, so yeah, we just started with our network. And we gave it three months. And then we we hit about four months. And we said, well, we can make it one more month, and with just very little funding. And then we got a$8,000 check from this group of women in Arizona. And we took that money. And we rented our first office space, which was about a tire shop in the little town we were living in. And our friends started working with us.
• 13:20
  Unknown: And that was kind of the the genesis of how that thing started. But it's been a really difficult journey for sure. I mean, as you guys know, nonprofit work is so hard. And so it definitely has not been easy in any stretch of the imagination. Well, nonprofit work is hard. But working specifically in this space of the nonprofit sector is got to be exponentially harder. And I think the thing that just strikes me so much about your story, Laura is the level of bravery and the level of sacrifice that your husband would have to make that you would have to make and it but it's coming from this place of love and compassion and of wanting p you know children to be safe to want to to making sure that they have a vibrant life that they have ability to dream and in they can do that in a safe place. It's just about the most noble thing I could possibly think of. And I and I think with, you know, with your husband's natural curiosity and ability to say yes is such a gift. But I also think that the other thing that is such a benefit to your organization is your skill set and your background and how you can leverage storytelling, you know, especially in the digital space to get this message out. And I am just really curious about how you're leveraging all those fundraising and marketing skills and storytelling skills to kind of bring this mission and this story to life. How did you do that?
• 15:31
  Laura Parker: Yeah, well, I don't have a background in marketing.
• 15:34
  Laura Parker: at all, I'm a writer and say I, that was really my my primary skill set, I have a education degree, and then I was at home with my kids for a decade. And then when we started the exodus road, it was Matt was the operations and I was the, the writer and the social media person. And I think I just learned early on how to again, like I was saying earlier, like how to how to try to humanize the issue, because I think there's so many challenges in communicating this work, I think one of them is that so many people have sexual trauma themselves that even even clicking on a link is, is scary and intimidating. And so on one hand, it was giving people ramps into the issue that felt a little bit safe for them to be able to engage and just take a step towards it. And then on the other hand, there was this, the reality of, of what is actually happening behind closed doors, and, and the fact that I was able to see very firsthand the very worst of what humanity can, can do to each other. It is, it's, it is, it's a lot of darkness. And so in some ways, some people need that. And you know, they need the actual, they need the words that say this is actually what is happening behind the curtain.
• 17:12
  Laura Parker: And it's worse than you think.
• 17:12
  Laura Parker: And, and so trying to figure out how to how to tell the truth to those two groups of people, while not being able to talk about a lot of details, not being able to show actual faces, you know, if if you're selling or not selling, if you're storytelling around education, or water, or you can show the smiling pictures of the kids.
• 17:40
  Laura Parker: And we can't show any of that.
• 17:40
  Laura Parker: And in fact, even showing pictures of people with eyes blurred that also is actually dehumanizing. And so it's been a real challenge. But I think what I've learned over the years through a lot of trial and error is, is that there is no right or wrong, it's really about placing the right story in front of the right audience, based on what, what they need and what they can handle with the idea of encouraging them just to take the one step further, just one step towards instead of a step away. And I think at the beginning, I didn't do that.
• 18:19
  Laura Parker: Well, I was lamb blasting everybody with everything. And so I think I've worked on my bedside manner, a little bit in the last four or five years, but we have we have a team here, you know, it's definitely not all me and and I've surrounded myself with a lot of really creative, bright people. And, and that helps too, and you're not just doing it by yourself,
• 18:45
  Jonathan McCoy: I think you bring up a valid point, because we've seen on some of yours, storytelling that you say justice is in the hands of ordinary people. And I think that that speaks directly into what you're saying here that, you know, we're not going to get from A to Z of the story. And in an instant, most likely, maybe that's too much for most people.
• 19:05
  Jonathan McCoy: But what's that next step? and pushing people to taking action with you doesn't always mean a donation, it may mean advocacy or just opening doors. So would you kind of talk a little bit about that? How can we get activated in this fight for justice as everyday people? You know, a world away from some of this that you're fighting, fighting?
• 19:25
  Laura Parker: Yeah, I think a lot of times people don't step in to whatever justice issue is tugging in their hearts, because they don't feel like they're equipped where they don't feel like they have the answer. And I just encourage people, everybody has a role to play in, in this fight for a free world. And it just to I can't necessarily prescribe that for you. Because it might look like a lot of different things. I will say that. When people ask me, Well, what can I do? I'm just a whatever. You're not just a mom, just a business person, just a student. I think one of the most important things that you can do is to look first in your own community. And a lot of people don't understand that human trafficking happens in the United States and that one of the biggest vulnerable populations are homeless women and members of the LGBTQ community, especially youth, and then kids that are in the foster care system or just aging out of the foster care system. And so in your own community, if there's anything that you can do to support those vulner Trouble populations in the United States especially, then that's that's a great place to start, I think to just this idea of leveraging your digital influence, right?
• 20:45
  Laura Parker: Like we all have a digital platform and digital congregation no matter how big or small and I remember someone telling me once she was like, I really want to forget about human trafficking, but I can't because I follow you. And so it's just that's such a small way, but to leverage your influence about the things you care about is actually really, really significant. So and I think, too, you know, another thing a lot of people don't understand this issue is just the power of the dollar. You know, that anytime you can buy fair trade, that you're actually supporting, free and fair, ethical labor practices, and over 60% of human trafficking victims are caught in forced labor. And so it's not just sex trafficking and so that's a really practical first step that people can do you know, buy Fairtrade chocolate buy Fairtrade coffee. Ethical buying is is actually an excellent really practical way to lead your families and yourself and casting a vote for a free world.
• 21:46
  Jonathan McCoy: Laura is a true founder, because she is so up here. Because I want to say you can become a monthly donor of the Exodus. But you're so bought in that it's systemic, y'all.
• 21:57
  Jonathan McCoy: It's it's in what we're purchasing day to day, it's in the relationships, it's in all of it. So I love that you that's your answer. I think it speaks to your humanity and heart in the correct exact correct space.
• 22:10
  Becky Endicott: I mean, I was thinking the exact same thing that if you were even, you know, doubtful of Lara's intentions when we started, what she has said here is I'm showing up in this world to eradicate sex trafficking. And I don't care if it's in Southeast Asia, where we're located or Latin America, starting your own community, because if we can start to build infrastructure and systems in place that are community based that push out, Holy smokes, I mean, this is how major problems can be solved. And it does take a village, I just feel this groundswell of support that we need. And it's going to take all of us to your point to like, not turn away when things get ugly, that that's when we're needed the most. We have to kind of look at that and figure out how can I make an impact and because I sure as heck don't want one of my children, you know, to be in the situation and I know no mother out there would ever want their child to be put in this situation.
• 23:13
  Jonathan McCoy: Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor, who happens to be one of our favorite companies virtuous, you know, we believe everyone matters. And we witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see an activate donors at every level. And virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM. virtuous helps charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising.
• 23:32
  Jonathan McCoy: And we love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized donor engagement. Sound like virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org Follow the link in our show notes.
• 23:46
  Becky Endicott: So I I'm really curious, because we ask all of our guests about what's the story of philanthropy that has touched you and stayed with you in your lifetime. And I would have to imagine that you have so many stories, whether it's with this organization, whether with different partners that you have worked with, what's one that you're thinking about that you share with our community?
• 24:12
  Laura Parker: I think I think the one I'd love to share is the story of a girl that we call noi. That's not her real name, but she was 22. And that first year in Thailand, we had actually intersected with her.
• 24:30
  Laura Parker: She was actually at our children's home that we were working at, in Thailand, and it was maybe about five or six years later. And we got a text from someone that was still connected there. And the text just said, Can you read this message from noise, and the message said, helped me I have been trafficked. And then the next line is on Facebook Messenger. And the next line was I was seized passports. And so our friend that had gotten it said, we'll drop a pin to where you are. And we were thinking, Okay, this is she's in Bangkok, or maybe she's in LAO. And the pin dropped and she was in the kingdom of Bahrain, which is, you know, an eight hour flight from from Thailand. And I remember that moment for us. We were actually sitting at dinner with our kids and When we saw it was the kingdom of Bahrain, it was like our, my husband, I both like our stomach just dropped.
• 25:42
  Laura Parker: And I think in that, in that moment, we knew that we had about 24 to 48 hours to somehow figure out how to locate her before she was moved. And as we, as we were texting her, we found that she was with seven other Thai women, and they were in a room. And they had taken jobs that they thought were they were tricked. And they were taking jobs that they thought were at a restaurant. And when they got into Bahrain, their passports were taken away from their broker, and they were put in this room. And they were going to have to be forced into the sex industry. And I remember at that moment at dinner with my kids, she's this sweethearts, 22 years old. And I remember thinking we how we are a small nonprofit. We are at that time, we were only working in Thailand and India we have we have no context in Bahrain, what are and then I remember, I remember it about 30 minutes later, I thought, Wait, I typed baja rain before because I remember I had to look it up how to spell it?
• 26:52
  Laura Parker: Why in the world would I have typed that? And then I thought, because I was doing a social media. I was like, wait, I had to type it because I put something about Bahrain on our social media. And I literally looked back on our own organizational Instagram feed.
• 27:05
  Laura Parker: and saw that a year before, there was a human trafficking delegation from Bahrain, that had come to Colorado Springs, and happened to have lunch with our VP of global ops who is here at the time. And we had a picture of this delegation, and our ops person. So I immediately wrote him and I was like, three, did we get a card? And he's like, actually, yeah, we do have a card of this particular woman.
• 27:36
  Laura Parker: And so so we were like, well, maybe maybe it's not hopeless here for Noy and so reached out and the Bahraini Government is, is ready to go. And the problem was the SWAT team is waiting with the problems. We had no idea where she actually was because you know, those Google pins are not. They're not.
• 27:59
  Laura Parker: They're accurate within context, but not exactly. And she was actually in a really, really busy touristy place. And there were lots of hotels where she was. And the SWAT team said, we're not going to we're not going to like grade an entire buildings. Like we have to know at least what buildings she's on and what floor she's on. So Meanwhile, this is about maybe 15 hours into this, from when we heard got the text at dinner.
• 28:26
  Laura Parker: And we're about 15 hours in and the whole time our operations manager, who was tie was communicating with noise. And every hour she writes these texts that say, When are you coming? Are you coming? When can you get here? Because we had
• 28:44
  Jonathan McCoy: does ally where she is she doesn't know where she is right? She doesn't know where she is.
• 28:50
  Laura Parker: Yeah, she's she's caught. She's stuck in this room with the seven other Thai women with the handler. And they're not allowed to leave this hotel room. It was an apartment building this apartment building room. And so we said to her suite year and a half to be brave, and you're going to have to figure out where you are, you're going to have to take pictures out of the window, you're going to have to hunt around when they're not watching and and find an envelope or a card or something. And so she this sweet 22 year old Thai girl caught in Black Rain is starts taking pictures out of bathroom, Windows and side windows.
• 29:31
  Laura Parker: Meanwhile, still saying are you coming? When are you coming? So in the meantime, we're also coordinating with the Thai government. Because there has to be permission and approved for passports and there's all this legal framework scrambling of happening in the background.
• 29:50
  Laura Parker: Meanwhile, the one piece of evidence is just where is she?
• 29:52
  Laura Parker: And I remember watching my husband for like 24 hours.
• 29:58
  Laura Parker: Remember, we were at a soccer game. It was like our kids last soccer game. And he is just scrambling to try to figure out where she is based on these pictures out of these windows.
• 30:13
  Laura Parker: And he doesn't even sleep that I mean he just is he's really desperate and we know that the clock is ticking. And so he finally realizes that out of the corner of one of the pictures that she has taken, there's this like sconce like an architectural sconce under One of the windows, and he sees that a tourist in the background had set had taken a picture. And in the corner of some random person's picture on the internet, there was that sconce.
• 30:47
  Laura Parker: And so he was able to see that that sconce is only on the fourth floor. And it has to be on the west side of the building. And so that information was enough, we gave that to the Bahraini police and, and within just a couple hours, Moy and the other women were were saved from that place. And, and then within a week, she was back home and our operations manager escorting her back to her village and she got married.
• 31:18
  Laura Parker: And but I think that story is it's this story to me of like, just impossible odds. And, and I think it captures like what I feel in this work all the time, which is I'm really not enough.
• 31:34
  Laura Parker: And we just do not have the resources to impact this. And there's so many times when we don't actually have the resources to impact it. And we actually can't, we can't intervene. And that's really heartbreaking too. But I think that story, I returned to it often because it, it just reminds me that that if you just show up and try maybe you'll maybe you'll stumble across the right Google picture on the internet. And, and maybe you'll you'll have interacted with someone a year ago, that is the exact person that you need to impact change, and you just have to keep showing up and walking forward. So I think that would be my story. We actually right on at the exodus road, we have this tradition that we write on rocks, the names of survivors.
• 32:29
  Laura Parker: And the idea is just that if we ever you know, if we ever have to close shot, if we ever don't make it if, if if we can't move forward that we want to have these like Memorial stones of, of what we were able to do as a community together. And so actually I have on my desk, I have noise rock on my desk. And it's this reminder of impact that we that we can make. And then we also all all of us also have a blank rock on our desk.
• 33:01
  Laura Parker: And it's this idea of, of, you know, if there's just one more that we could impact, what will their names be? And I think that that symbol is has been a really important thing for us to kind of keep hope alive in the middle of a lot of dark and discouraging days. So okay, I think that would that would be my story, the story of noise. I,
• 33:25
  Becky Endicott: I need to make a bold statement here. And I don't think I've ever done this in over 100 podcast episodes. If you connected with that story about Noy if you felt any semblance of fear of joy at her being saved at disbelief that this has happened. You have a president and founder who is sitting here saying they don't have enough resources to solve this problem to get everybody that they have the capacity and the knowledge to go and save them. You're talking about if we ever close shop, I am telling you do gooders go to the exodus roads website, please make a donation. I don't want Laura to ever feel like we don't have the funds to go out and get this girl that we have and go and save her. This organization needs a movement and a mountain of people to bring it to fruition and to have it fulfill its full glory. Please, please help them. Okay, that was my one time to ask our community to please go in and help somebody.
• 34:36
  Jonathan McCoy: So come effected by it, put it on the company card we need to get
• 34:42
  Becky Endicott: on the cards. I got it.
• 34:45
  Jonathan McCoy: You know it's not last I mean that your story.
• 34:48
  Jonathan McCoy: I think you had a similar reaction when this hall started of like, we do not have the resources to step into this gap.
• 34:55
  Jonathan McCoy: And now you are 10 years later, you've had obviously 1000s of supporters that have been part of this work built this road.
• 35:02
  Jonathan McCoy: And you're still saying the same thing. And I think the power of that is we can't sit on the sidelines till we feel like we've got all the resources. I mean, you stepped out in humility, that you're just going to do what you can do you know, with what you've been given. And I think that is something that everybody today can do. Just piggybacking on what Becky's saying, Oh my gosh, that's my one good thing. But Laura, we asked all of our guests what's your one good thing and that to us? This is something practical that we could just do today. You know, it could be a hack or just a secret that you employ Can't wait. Yes,
• 35:35
  Laura Parker: yes, I'm so excited about this question because I've been listening to what other people have been saying. And so I'm excited about sharing mine. I think that one of the things I've learned in a decade of this work is that when you have with nonprofit leaders, if you have great passion, plus great need, plus very little resources equals typically, unhealthy people. Right?
• 35:57
  Laura Parker: combination of that, times years, creates just really unhealthy people. And I was totally one of those two, where my, my identity was super glued to the organization and the work. And that's a really unhealthy way to live. And so one of the things I've been learning about in the last two years is how to be more mindful how to be less codependent. And so I wanted to share this really easy thing we have. We have team team meetings several times a week, and I shared this with our team last week. So the site's friend of mine. And it's a mindfulness practice I've been doing for the last maybe three months, I noticed about myself, you know, I work full time, I have three teens at home. My husband, I both travel a lot.
• 36:48
  Laura Parker: And I noticed that because I was trying to cram so much into my day, I was actually using the car time of driving from kid drop off to the office and from office, back to kid pick up. I was using that time as like an extension of a mobile office, I was boxing, I was listening to podcast I was communicating while I was driving. And so I was I was running from an intense day at work straight home into the intensity of my family, and just not being the best version of myself. So what I've done for the last couple months is I have turned off all communications, it's totally quiet. And on the way home, I have a different practice, we're on the way to work, but on the way back to work. And I asked myself three questions. And the first question is, how am I feeling. And it's just a really simple way to give myself some space to be really honest with how that day went, and how I'm actually feeling which sounds silly, but I think when you're running from one to the other.
• 37:51
  Laura Parker: Sometimes you just don't give yourself enough space to be like, Oh, I actually feel really disappointed or I feel overwhelmed or I feel stressed or I feel whatever. So the first question is, how am I feeling?
• 38:04
  Laura Parker: The second question is, what were the gifts? And I think about that day specifically. And I think about what were the gifts from this day, and they can be small and big. And it's just that idea of turning from myself to what I'm thankful for.
• 38:18
  Laura Parker: And then my third question I asked myself in the 10 minute car region, is what is my intention next. And it's just that idea of setting my intention to the next people I'm going to be interacting with.
• 38:31
  Laura Parker: And that's been really good too, because there'll be different things that come to mind. And sometimes it's my intention is to laugh, my intention is to pay attention. This kid specifically, my intention is to put my phone away and not talk at all about work. And so that's just a really practical thing that I think busy nonprofit leaders who oftentimes sacrifice themselves on the altar of the good that they're doing. Maybe Maybe that will be helpful in offering them a little self care. Okay,
• 39:07
  Jonathan McCoy: just sweet.
• 39:11
  Becky Endicott: I love the order that they're in. Because how am I feeling we need to check in on ourselves first nonprofit professionals, you are giving so much all day to other people, please check in number one and take care of yourself, too. It's like a check in on your blessings. It's like what were my gifts today is because on really crappy days, where I'm feeling joyless, I don't feel like I could go there normally.
• 39:35
  Becky Endicott: But it's like there is something good in every day, especially when you live in the Western world and the amount of convenience and privileges that we have access to. And then what is my intention next, if you can cast what you want to achieve?
• 39:50
  Becky Endicott: Even if it's really tiny, like I want to I want to play uno with my child, you know, in a quiet moment today. That is important.
• 39:57
  Becky Endicott: If that centers you you go play Oh, no. You know, I just think that that was a really healthy mental health and self improvement tip right there.
• 40:04
  Becky Endicott: Excellent. Laura. Okay, Laura, how can people connect with Exodus road? How can they become one of your rabid fans, your champions, your believers? How can they connect with you let us know all the details.
• 40:20
  Laura Parker: Yeah, follow us on social media at the exodus road.
• 40:25
  Laura Parker: That'd be great. We're on mostly on Instagram. Also on Facebook.
• 40:29
  Laura Parker: we've experimented with tik tok.
• 40:29
  Laura Parker: That's been an interesting journey but Instagram, for sure is our is our primary place. And then our website is the exodus reddit.com, we have lots of stories, we also have a lot of free resources for parents to keep your kids safe. So I think if you're a mom or a dad, and you're worried about safety in the digital world, we have a lot of free resources that we've created for you, especially. And this is not coming down to next month. But we have a two part training series called traffic watch Academy that we're launching in the US, that's going to be a free to two videos service, like two modules, two video modules that are designed specifically for friends, the US to just learn about human trafficking and learn really practical tips for how to how to recognize that you're in community, and how to step into the fight. So that'll be coming on our website to in about a month, we also have a podcast called until all are free. And on the podcast, we interview lots of different operatives share their stories, we have survivors, and we also have counter human trafficking experts, we have really engaging conversations there. So it's called until all are free. And if
• 41:42
  Becky Endicott: you're curious about where to start, take Laura's advice, starting your own community. So I think, you know, this will probably drop at about the same time that your class drops, and we'll make sure that people have access to that.
• 41:55
  Becky Endicott: Because education and awareness is the first place we should all start.
• 41:59
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, absolutely. Please give your husband a fist bump, Matt Parker,
• 42:05
  Becky Endicott: man you are,
• 42:07
  Jonathan McCoy: and just love What an awesome wife, your family I mean, what an incredible story. And I will say
• 42:12
  Laura Parker: to if I can just say she I know we've I've talked about our story, but we really and truly the exodus road community. The large part of our work is empowering nationals on the front lines. And the majority of our staff is local nationals. And they're the ones that are truly the heroes in our organization. So if I had more time, you'll have to invite me back so I can tell some of their stories too, because they're they're just pretty remarkable inspirational. So
• 42:42
  Becky Endicott: we will have you back. And I am going to be a dreamy eyed optimist to think that in two years, you're going to come back on and you're going to be like, wow, your do gooders all created this massive movement. And now we have all these resources, and we're helping more people than ever.
• 42:57
  Becky Endicott: I'm putting it out there in the universe. Thank you, Laura, you are such a great human. I just feel like I have grown as, as a human being just listening to this conversation. Thank you for opening up your heart and your mission to us.
• 43:10
  Jonathan McCoy: Thank you. It's been an honor
• 43:11
  Laura Parker: that much. Thanks for having me.
• 43:13
  Becky Endicott: Thanks for listening to today's conversation. We hope you feel moved by Exodus is Rhodes mighty mission and will choose to lean into the conversation eradicating human trafficking in our world. You probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you do more for your mission. That's what we'd love for you to join our good community. That's our own social network and it's free. Sign up today. We're for good comm backslash Hello. One more thing if you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review means the world to us and Your support helps more people find our community. Thanks friends. Our production hero is someone who has poured into women's issues since she was a teen Julie Confer Hello, our theme song is sunray by Remy borsato