Prevent sex trafficking of minors by creating and distributing curriculums with accompanying new media.

Why we care: American children are being trafficked and exploited everyday and we need creative responses to help end this cycle before it begins.

How we’re solving this: One of the most effective ways to prevent sex trafficking and exploitation of American children is to involve them in the solution.

A few years ago, we made a film called, Playground: The Child Sex Trade in America, and most recently documented Jessica’s Story for CHIME FOR CHANGE. Both of these projects have made it impossible to ignore devastating impact of child sex trafficking and exploitation in North America.

As much as we might think otherwise, trafficking and exploitation isn’t a problem that just faces distant people in distant lands—it’s happening down the street, around the corner and in our own backyards. 

An astounding 300,000 children in America are at risk of exploitation and trafficking each year, with many children being forced into the sex trade around age 13.  Every interview we’ve conducted in our film projects has yielded heartbreaking stories of girls let down by systems that should have protected them. Every interview has made the fight to combat sex trafficking and child exploitation more personal. 

We believe education and awareness are the first steps to ending the problem. Through our partnerships with other organizations fighting sex trafficking and child sexual abuse, we are distributing a curriculum using the footage from Playground and Jessica’s Story to more than 200 high schools in New York City and both middle and high schools in Vancouver, British Columbia. A number of school systems from across the country are contacting us for similar support, and our plan is to continue to appropriately adapt the materials to other markets.

This curriculum is a teacher’s guide that utilizes media produced by the Nest Foundation, including Playground and Jessica’s Story. Through it, students will examine sex trafficking as a domestic issue, gain an understanding of the challenges faced by victims, and become aware of recruiting tactics and safe Internet practices. The curriculum culminates in an action project, in which students create their own awareness campaigns for their communities by using resources that are readily available. Through this process, students become empowered as peer mentors who have practical tools that will keep them safe and stop the cycle of trafficking and exploitation.