What can YOU do to help fight human trafficking?

Here's a list from the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking. There are several ideas out there. Get started on one today!

1. Become informed. Visit websites such as the links on the right. Each site often has a list of ways to get involved.

2. Organize Sunday school classes or prayer groups to pray for the end of sexual trafficking. The Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking can send prayer guides upon request. Email your request to penny_matheson@usn.salvationarmy.org or call 703.519.5896.

3. Preach a sermon. Deliver a message from the pulpit about the need to abolish slavery and reaffirming the inherent, God-given dignity of the human race.

4. Spread the word. Raise the issue of sexual trafficking with people you know or meet. Make brochures and other literature about the subject available at information tables. Hang an anti-trafficking poster in your church, business, or office. For anti-trafficking posters or other resources email penny_matheson@usn.salvationarmy.org or call 703.519.5896.

5. Host a briefing or training on the topic of sexual trafficking in your corps in the community by bringing together anti-trafficking experts as well as local community leaders. IAST and the National Headquarters anti-trafficking staff are glad to work with individuals, groups, and corps wishing to organize such events.

6. Write articles and/or letters of opinion for local papers, church publications, denominational publications, or other publications.

7. Watch and report. Keep your eyes and ears open for reports and evidence of trafficking in your community. Report such matters to local authorities as well as the Trafficking in Persons Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. Forward news articles about sexual trafficking to the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking office via email to: penny_matheson@usn.salvationarmy.org.

8. Sign up for news and information about sexual trafficking from the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking. Interested people can join a free email listserve which distributes news about trafficking from around the world. IAST also makes available a free packet of information about sexual trafficking on request. To request a packet email penny_matheson@usn.salvationarmy.org or call 703.519.5896.

9. Volunteer. The Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking would benefit greatly from people who could volunteer to do research, website development, graphic design, law review, and volunteer coordination.

10. Use your musical talents to write and record a song about trafficking.

11. Produce your own anti-trafficking video. A group of students from a Washington DC area college as part of an advocacy project produced an eight minute video on trafficking. Perhaps you can too.

12. Organize to enforce zoning laws and to close strip clubs and "massage parlors" -- the fronts for prostitution and trafficking -- in your local community.

13. Work with local churches and community leaders to develop outreach to help women and children exit the sex industry. Start by identifying and mapping where the sex industry has a presence in your community and then organize prayer teams to do prayer walks or "drive-by" prayer in those areas. Strategize creative ways to do outreach to the women on the street or in the strip clubs. Programs like Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous or ROSES (Reaching Out To Our Sexually Exploited Sisters) can provide a frame work for getting started. For information about such programs contact lisa_thompson@usn.salvationarmy.org or call 703.519.5896.

14. Develop social services. Victims of organized sexual exploitation are often in desperate need of shelter and other services.

15. Protect your children. Adults Saving Kids produces a wonderful six-session for youth in grades 7, 8, and 9. It creates awareness of the lures of commercial sexual exploitation and provides resources for them. To order email ahartman@adultssavingkids.org or call 612.872.0684. Additionally consider launching a PROMISE (Partnership to Rescue Our Minors from Sexual Exploitation) Initiative in your community. For more information contact Adam_Freer@usw.salvationarmy.org or call

16. Write, call or visit the office of your U.S. congressional leaders. Tell them you support the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005. Other important legislation such as the Reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act is likely to be introduced this year. For more information on either bill contact Lisa Thompson at lisa_thompson@usn.salvationarmy.org or call 703.519.5896.

17. Combat Demand. Start a program in your community for people struggling with sexual addictions. For more information on combatting sexual addictions see Avenue at www.avenueresource.com or Faithful and True Ministries at www.faithfulandtrueministries.com. Also work in your community to seek the arrest of buyers of commercial sex, as well as to develop deterrent sex offender programs.