01/03/2017

January is Anti-Human Trafficking Month

On behalf of the SOS WELCA Task Force created to help educate and inform people about the dreadful events of human trafficking, we are sharing some stories with you this month. 

The Task Force was created in 2015 and is headed by our very own Sister Sally Burk.  The Task Force has held two community events that brought facts and details about human sex trafficking to the community in Gahanna in 2015 and Zanesville in 2016.  In addition, Sister Sally and her sister, Martha Burk have been going around the Southern Ohio Synod and Northwest Ohio Synod talking to Sunday School classes, synod and WELCA events to tell people how this heinous crime is happening in our local schools, in our neighborhoods, to young women and men.  Even our quiet suburbs and wealthy families are not immune to the tentacles of these crimes.  Our Task Force has received a grant in 2017 from the ELCA Deaconess Community to ramp up our education events and provide more training on how to work on prevention.  Please keep an eye out for more information about our progress during January, Anti-Human Trafficking month and the rest of the calendar year.

Here are a few other events coming up in the Central Ohio Area:

****   Saturday, January 28, from 9:00am – 1:45pm at the Reynoldsburg High School Summit Road Campus, 8579 Summit Rd, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068.  The Reynoldsburg Youth Human Trafficking Coalition will host their annual "Break Every Chain" Community Human Trafficking Conference. The theme this year is Human Trafficking and the Heroin Epidemic. This conference is free and open to the public. Come learn about human trafficking and the heroin epidemic in Ohio from experts from the Ohio Attorney General's Office. You will also hear from a survivor of human trafficking and an expert panel of local professionals working on fighting human trafficking in your community. The event is free, but you can purchase a $5.00 box lunch the day of event during registration check-in.  Register on-line at https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-reynoldsburg-youth-human-trafficking-coalition- 12229947531 

****   Thursday and Friday, February 2 - 3, 2017 from 8:30 - 4:30 at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium, there is a two-day event: The 8th Annual Ohio Human Trafficking Awareness Day & The 1st Annual Ohio Human Trafficking Youth Prevention Summit.  This event is totally free and hosted by State Representative Teresa Fedor. You can register for the free event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/8th-annual-ohio-human-trafficking-awareness-day-youth-summit-tickets-28770533440 or contact Jen Stack at 614-644-6017.

Can't attend an event but have an event of your own coming up? Support human trafficking victims as they learn new skills and heal.

****   Do you need an event catered?  Do you have any parishioners who regularly have catered "lunch meetings" at their corporate offices?  Look into Freedom a la Cart, a food-catering company that provides catering services from "boxed" lunches to more sophisticated meals.  The catering company provides superior quality food that is competitively priced, but its primary purpose is helping human-trafficking victims learn new skills.  The Task Force has used the company and we really liked it!  You can contact Freedom a la Cart online at freedomalacart.org or call 614-992-3252.