Uniting Against Human Trafficking: Strategies for Change

Music. Hello, this is Dr. Kevin Cruz with the Truth, Faith, and Action Alliance, and we're excited to present our breakout session about sex trafficking and how we can take action right here in our own neighborhoods.

But before we get started, please don't forget to like our videos and subscribe to our channel. Liking and sharing our videos and posting them on social media is one of the best ways we can make people aware of what is happening. Today promises to provide one of the most interesting dialogues or think tanks about sex trafficking because we have five different ministries that are already making a difference in this area.

So much like our panel of experts at the prayer breakfast, they will be taking questions and answers from the host and from the audience. But please stay tuned afterwards because I also want to introduce you to another ministry right here in Florida that has some great action plans for how you can help. Hello, hello. Welcome, guys. How's everybody doing? How was lunch? Everybody's awake? Didn't put you to sleep, did it? Okay, awesome. Well, welcome, guys, to the sex trafficking breakout session.

My name is Frank Rich. I'm the CEO and founder of Rebuilt Recovery. I'm really honored to be up here today with this incredible panel of experts, guests, former law enforcement founders, CEOs, really amazing people. We're going to talk to you guys today about sex trafficking, what's happening here in our homes, what's happening in our cities, in our communities, and hopefully give you guys some action steps.

That if you want to leave here today and take some action, which we hope that's what you're here to do is to learn, to educate, but more importantly, inspire you guys to take action. So I'm going to introduce our amazing panel of guests. I will be emceeing, hosting what will be more of a Q&A kind of discussion dialogue. So sitting here to my left first, we have Sergeant, retired Sergeant Alan Wilkitt.

He's been an award-winning law enforcement officer for over 25 years, but he has devoted the past several years to fight against human trafficking. He is the founder of the Pasco Human Trafficking Task Force, the Human Trafficking Commission, and Light Up the Nights. StopHumantrafficking.com is a first responder to empower survivors and disrupt traffic. They also seek to raise awareness of the problem and the need to change our laws.

They have started a trafficking hotline in Central Florida in a groundbreaking adult female human trafficking crisis center. Guys, Alan Wilkins. Some of you that were here this morning got a chance to hear from Nate. Nate is the founder of Innocence Rescue, correct? Their mission is to protect and preserve the innocence of children from child sex trafficking, exploitation, and sexual assault inside the United States by supporting local law enforcement.

What does he do on the front lines of the dark web battling child sex trafficking in the USA? Training for officers to identify and recognize trafficking, internal forensic labs to unlock phones, computers, and other electronic devices. They provide training and certifications to run forensic tools. They do training for prosecutors and law enforcement for online investigations, prosecution, and property seizures. The ESD canines are used to locate evidence stored on electronic storage.

So using canines out there. Hunt these down and provide resources for mental health for police departments and IRM officers. Guys, Nate Lewis.

Sitting next to Nate, we have Sarah Lachance. She's the president and founder of Stop the Movement. Stop the Movement is a Tampa Bay-based nonprofit with the goal of educating, equipment, and empowering the community to fight against exploitation and trafficking.

They help by promoting self-defense classes, online safety training, human trafficking awareness seminars and direct services through community outreach at stop the movement they believe that change is possible in our lifetime that people deserve basic human rights and that none are free until all are free guys sarah lachance and down here at the end last but not least we have monica satcher runs acts of love is an evangelistic ministry that fights sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Every month, Acts of Love's outreach teams take food and nice gifts to strip clubs, brothels, street corners, motels, and truck stops to bring the brightest light into the darkest places. Their team reach over 500 women in seven counties across Florida. Their umbrella network has five umbrella outreaches across the United States and mentors other leaders in this fight.

Acts of Love has seen over 7,000 salvations in seven years. incredible, and is currently discipling over 200 women weekly and has helped scores of women leave the life and enter programs as needed. Incredible work, guys. Monica Satcher.

Monica, we're going to kick this discussion off with you since you're down there at the end, and you have the microphone. What got you involved in preventing sex trafficking? Well, I was a homeschool mom. That was my ministry. And the Lord was getting onto me that he's called me to be an evangelist. He's called me to more than just taking care of my children. And so I'm like, well, what should I do?

And someone said, you should go to the strip clubs. And it sounded crazy, but it went off in my spirit. And so I started looking into it. And I mean, I kid you not, within six weeks, I had a team and we were in the clubs. It was supernatural. And then now I drive an hour and a half to Pasco County because this man was praying for women to come to his clubs. And that's how we know each other. And so it just took off from there. It was just saying yes.

And knowing that to get out of your comfort zone and to know that you don't have to be good enough. You don't even have to know how you just have to say yes. Yes. That's a lesson I think here for everybody today is you don't need to know what you don't even know how it just starts with a yes. Incredible. Sarah. What got you involved in preventing sex trafficking? Well, we were just talking about this before the panel got started, but everyone's got a story.

If we had time, we'd go around the room and be able to hear each person's story and what prompted your interest in coming to this panel today. But my interest was sparked years ago when someone very close to me was sexually assaulted and there was no justice. Nothing came of it. There was no healing. There was no therapy. There was no incarceration.

And as we'll talk about in a little bit, the stats are extremely high that when there's a perpetrator hurting one child, they're probably hurting more. And that didn't sit well with me. And then I moved to California and I found out that not only were people being sexually assaulted, but they were being sexually assaulted for profit. I couldn't believe that that was actually happening. And that sparked a journey 10 years ago of trying to figure out where I fit

in and where God wanted to utilize me. And that's why we're here today. Yeah. Amen. Incredible. Mr. Nate Lewis, what got you involved in preventing this trafficking? I was introduced to human trafficking from a friend of mine, Jim Caviezel. He played Tim Ballard in The Sound of Freedom. And then he introduced me to Tim Ballard. And then I got recruited to go work for that organization. I spent several years traveling in the world in this arena. But I didn't really know why I was getting into it.

At first i mean i knew it's pretty obvious but the people that were involved at the time were great people in the cause but then i had my first actual experience in northern africa with child sacrifice but looking at human trafficking on all different levels not just sex trafficking and then it was there was no way i could go back and the more the years that i spent involved in seeing how it happens all over the world i mean there's just no way it's like one of those things that

you like you say you just say yes to that you're committed and and then you see these children. And I think for me, it's the children that got me, you know, it's just. The innocence of a child is, is so precious. And it's like one, I think the finest gem in the world, the most valuable thing, and it's lost at some point. And what are we here to do to protect that? And so that's, that's why I ended up starting Innocence Rescue Mission is to focus here in the United States.

There's a lot of organizations focused outside the United States, a lot of money spent outside the United States. We're here to support and equip law enforcement. And that's kind of where my area of expertise is in a sense. And, and I know what holes and pitfalls they have. And so I said, yes, and I had no idea how I was going to do it or where it was going to happen. And it's come together by God, honestly.

And that's basically how I got involved. Yeah. And I think that'll really resonate with all of our stories and journeys. And, you know, speaking of a child innocence, like this entire afternoon, this entire day is dedicated to saving our children. Right. And I think rescuing or restoring that innocence is really sitting at the core of all of that. So, so love that Nate, Mr. Wilkett, Sergeant Allen. Thank you. First of all, I just want to address a couple of things.

I've had an opportunity to work on a local level and in this fight with the two ladies sitting over here on my left. They do, both of them do incredible work. Monica made the statement. She said she kind of got involved in Pasco because she came up to my clubs. I just want to make sure that no one goes out of here and says he owns a bunch of strip clubs in Pasco. And she, she obviously was meeting, they were clubs I was going after and taking down.

We, we got about half of them before I retired, but it's funny, a funny story about my daughter. My daughter called me, we were working a strip club operation in Pasco and my daughter calls about 10 o'clock at night. She's an attorney out in Denver now. And she called, she said, Hey dad, what are you doing? And I said, well, I'm leaving one strip club and heading to another.

And there was this big, long, awkward pause and she said, okay, dad, I know you're working, but you probably shouldn't tell your daughter that. So I have to be careful when those things are said. What got me into this was, was first of all, I was well into my career when I first, and I'll never forget first hearing the term human trafficking and my gut reaction as a cop was. Human trafficking, that's not happening here. And the TVPA had just been passed in the year 2000.

Florida had just passed its first human trafficking laws a couple, three years after 2000. And we were starting to do training on human trafficking. And I'll never forget when St. Louis University sat there through a week-long class on human trafficking and thought, this is happening here. And then my mind went back to cases that I'd worked before we had the term human trafficking, that now going back, I would recognize were human trafficking cases.

But we as law enforcement were trying to work them in other ways. And what really pushed me was as my memory began to go back to a victim, an eight-year-old girl that I carried out of the house after being pimped out by her two uncles. She had been raped hundreds of times. I'll never forget bagging her little dress because her uncles would dress her up as a birthday date for strange men to come in and violate her in ways that are unspeakable.

And I thought to myself that I still remember the noises. I remember the smells of that house. I remember the crinkling of the evidence bag. And I said to myself, as long as God gives me the strength, I will fight for every one of these girls.

I will fight for every one of these boys because these are God's treasures and they deserve a life of freedom and happiness. Yeah. Nate mentioned being friends with Jim who played Tim in the movie, Sound of Freedom. And there's that powerful line. Hopefully you all have seen it. If not, It's a must watch after today's event, but God's kids are not for sale. There's also a line in there that says, when God asks you to do something, you don't hesitate. Yes. Yeah.

So we're going to dive in, guys. Like I said, our goal here is to educate, inspire, and hopefully have you guys leaving here today ready to take some action. One thing I'm really inspired about is that out of this panel, we have a 50-50 male-female panel experts. One thing I can always remember Sarah sharing with me the first time I met her, she runs a very female-dominated organization. I've had the opportunity to speak with her and at their events multiple times is the need for men.

So to you guys that are out there, love to see you in this audience. We need guys on the ground just as much as we need women. So I want to get into this. Sarah, we're going to start with you. What are the signs of sex trafficking and what is it that we need to be looking for when we're out there? Okay, great question. And guys, feel free to chime in.

There's a whole laundry list of things we can give you. We don't have time to go over it all today, but there are some things that you need to be aware of. Raise your hand if you go to a gas station during the week. Okay. Or you have kids in school or you go to church or you go to the mall.

Probably not the mall so much anymore, but are you just walking down the street? You walk your dog every day. These are opportunities or you go to Starbucks. These are opportunities for you to see things. Now, once we get into it, you'll probably exactly like Alan did jog your memory to a situation that stood out to you. But you didn't know what to do about it, it felt off and you weren't sure how to handle it. And so you probably didn't do anything.

And that's okay. But our goal is to equip you to ensure that in the future, when inevitably you see something, that you're able to say something, that you're able to do something. So we'll do two quick things. I'll go over a couple of the signs to look for and then equip you with what to do. So. And again, this is not an exhaustive list. And just because you see one of these things does not necessarily mean that someone is being trafficked. I should preface it with that.

However, if you feel like you see a situation that's giving you pause or giving you a concern, our recommendation for our organization is to just make a call. And we'll give you that information for the Human Trafficking Hotline. It doesn't hurt. If you're wrong, no harm, no foul. They won't do anything. You call anonymously. They can't track that it was you making the call. And if you're right, you helped save someone's life.

That's how serious it is. That's how important it is. So my prayer is that if you feel like you need to make a call, don't hesitate. Just make a call. So what should we be looking for? And the examples that I'm going to give you are all real life situations that we've personally experienced and the panel could give you more. But we're looking for things like someone who is with somebody who is controlling their every move. It does not seem like they're together. They're not in a partnership.

It's generally a female with a man who is controlling them. She's not making eye contact. She seems under his control, unsafe. There may be signs of physical abuse. Obviously, you won't know if there's any type of other abuse at the moment, but we have encountered situations where we've come in contact with victims who they don't know what city they're in. If you're at a gas station and it seems crazy, right, because it hasn't happened to you yet.

We've had this happen. If you're at a gas station and someone comes up to you and asks what city they're in, that's a red flag. If they don't have any identification on them, this is also a red flag. Again, if they don't have an ID on them, does that mean they're being trafficked? No, not necessarily, but in conjunction with being with someone who seems like they're controlling them and very specific, what we call branding tattoos.

That's also a red flag. Someone who has tattoos being trafficked? Probably not. But some traffickers, some pimps are so brazen that they will put tattoos on their property that will say property of. Have you ever seen any of that? I've seen that. Or they'll have their name tattooed on them in multiple places. A new thing that we saw at a DMV in Pinellas County was a QR code. A working QR code was on the thigh of a girl that was at the DMV.

And what that does is you can go scan that with your phone and find out how much that person's worth. And you can purchase them. So when you see things like that, don't blow over them. Those are all signs that something is probably amiss. And again, I know that's not an exhaustive list. So if anybody needs to jump

in, please do because I want to equip you. before they do that, I want you to pull your phone out right now, which is generally not something we want you to do while we're talking, but I want to give you the human trafficking hotline. We don't ever end any of our talks without it, so I apologize for taking an extra minute, but this is imperative.

This is anonymous. You can call any time. The information gets disseminated to a national organization, and they trickle it down to the local police who are equipped to do what we are not equipped to do. So that number is 888-373-7888. And if you didn't get it, grab it from your neighbor because I don't want to take up too much more time. But that's the most important thing that you could have today because you will come across it and you need to know what to do.

Awesome. Thank you, Sarah. Sure. 888-373-7888.

Awesome so we know the signs we know who to call i want to come to alan and and nate here because i think all of us are thinking well this is the issue as big as these guys are talking about like this should be something that our local law enforcement is addressing and has a good handle on at least attacking it but i think both of you are sitting here because you both have recognized that maybe the local law enforcement isn't doing the best job at it so nate coming

to you here why isn't law enforcement able to stop sex trafficking and what can we do here to help? Well, this is a complex question. Law enforcement, the current situation they're in is they're completely underfunded. The resources aren't available. The manpower isn't available. There are certain areas that I've experienced where they don't even think that it's happening. They also, to their own credit, they don't know where to start.

So where do they begin? And so those are just kind of off the surface reasons why. And to get a little more granular is there was a time period in America where if you were a cop, you got spit on and things thrown at you and it was horrible what was going on. And then people were retiring earlier. I'm sure you know this and the recruit number levels were low of recruits coming in. And there's just this kind of, I don't know, feeling what was going on.

Even policing, you're talking about first responders, you know, and I work with guys, I'm sure you as well. I look at them as like the guy with the shield and the little kid under their arm, and they're actually the guardian angel, the protector of these children. And then they're getting just barraged socially, which I think is horrible.

I know I kind of went off topic, but the reality is the government at this point in time, the government is not going to provide any more funding at this moment. There are task forces, and they are getting way better. So don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there's not anything going on. There is. Thank goodness for that. and it's catching on and people are starting to realize and there's a lot more, as you know, and we were talking about earlier, they used to be volunteers, these girls.

Now they're victims and they're treating them that way. So before it was an interrogation and now they're actually building relationships during the rescue. And there's even training now for officers, which I think is so amazing to become a professional, I call it relationship builder, because those girls are in a very vulnerable situation, especially when they've been trained that law enforcement is the enemy.

And they think they're in trouble and whatever it may be. And so the resources is probably the largest thing. That's why we exist. So we are just the bridge between the people and the police. So we provide grants to police for training and for equipment and tools to do this stuff so that they don't have to use their own budget. They don't have to send people to training.

They don't have to do all that. We are there to do hands-on everything that they would need to basically teach them how to fish, give them the equipment to fish and let them go out there and fish. And then we can scale that across the United States, funded by the people of the United States. So we're lacking resources as a whole in the United States for law enforcement. And we're here to serve our communities through law enforcement. And that's an opportunity for everybody here to do the same.

Part of our model, and I'm going to pass it off here in a second, but we feel like there's so many people. Look how many people are here today to talk about this. And you want to do something about it. And everybody asks the question, what can I do? What can I do? I'm going to tell you right now what you can do. We can start a fundraiser to fund your local police and you guys can all fund it. And then they can get the training and the equipment they need.

You know where they're going to spend it? Right in your community and they're going to clean your community up. It's not going to Thailand. It's not going to Mexico. Staying in your community. And that's what's important is you guys can do something about it. You can talk about it. We can do awareness events and stuff like that. So I think the resources and the tools and the training is really where we need to support our law enforcement.

I'm on the law enforcement side, just so you know, I have spent a lot of time in aftercare, but I'm looking at hunting predators and making as many arrests as possible. And how do I train other law enforcement departments to arrest as many people as possible and get into the organized crime part of it, which as we can talk about so much more, the seizures and all the other stuff. I mean, they're all with drugs and illegal firearms and it just goes from there.

So the resources, that's part of the biggest issue. Yeah, we were talking inside the other building earlier about refunding the police and overfunding if possible.

Alan, you know, if you can't speak from your personal experience as somebody that was in the law enforcement, you know, mentioned the lack of resources, but even the limited resources that we have, how much of it in law enforcement is going towards trafficking and why? Yeah. Thank you, Frank. Before I actually answer the question, let me make a disclaimer because I am a very controversial guy. Because I have a tendency to say things just pretty brutal and blunt.

I'm here actually representing Tomas from United abolitionists who was supposed to be here and couldn't go. So I am a very cheap stand-in for Tomas. So anything that I say that's good, please credit Tomas with that. Anything that I say controversial, it's my opinion, okay? I don't hold it against him. A couple of things that I'll say very, very quickly is, first of all, we have to understand the nature of trafficking. Nate said it well, I won't spend time talking about underfunded,

lack of resource. All of that is very true. It's also relatively a new crime. It just got passed. Now, not a new crime as far as being done, but being able to charge somebody with human trafficking was only federally framed up in the year 2000. And Florida was three or four years after that. So it's kind of this newer criminal thing that we're still all trying to figure out. We're getting a lot better, but it took a long time to kind of ramp up to really go after this.

The other thing is, and I think Nate alluded to it, is masking crimes. Human trafficking masks itself as other criminal activities. Prostitution. It will masquerade as prostitution, solicitation, drug trafficking, shoplifting. There are so many masking crimes that are kind of easier for law enforcement to go after and grab for a shoplifting without peeling back the cover. Why are you stealing three boxes of condoms?

You know, that would require additional investigation. We're getting better at doing that. The other thing I would tell you is that this is now, this is not Tomas anymore. So I'm, this is coming to my, I was in front of the, in front of the Senate testifying. And one of the senators asked me, they said, because we were talking about supply and demand when it came to human trafficking and there's a human trafficking triangle.

And that visually says for trafficking to happen, you need this triangle to be in play. On one side is a victim, one side is a trafficker, and that bottom side of the triangle is a buyer. The buyer is what throws demand into the trafficking triangle, which then creates this market for supply. Does that make sense? And when we talk about that, we've used the term $150 billion a year for at least 11 or 12 years in our presentations.

The International Labor Organization just revised that number, and that number went up 37 percent and now we're looking at 236 billion dollars a year nasdaq came out with their 2024 report and has it at 346 billion dollars and between trafficking of humans and trafficking of drugs those two criminal activities alone account for over a third of all illicit criminal activity in the world think about that how much money's driving this and if money's driving it. Who's involved? Who's the buyer?

Well, predominantly it's men, not exclusively, which is why Frank said, we need men engaging. We need men confronting men, period, in this fight. We have depended on the women to carry this fight against this criminal activity for way too long. It's time for men to stand up, get a backbone and confront other men and say, buying another human being is not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. So I'm testifying from the Senate. Get off my story. And I'll be quick.

I want to wrap up. I didn't mean to even talk much today. But I'm testifying in front of the Senate, and this one senator asked me, well, Alan, why is it that we can't really go after the buyer? Which I thought was kind of an—because they're the lawmakers, and I'm thinking, well, that's kind of interesting.

But me being Alan, said to them, as I looked at this dais of men, predominantly one woman, the rest of our men, setting up on this big dais, looking down at this little podium that you're standing behind. And I said, because, Senator, the buyer looks just like you. And the buyer or the senator looked at me and said, what'd you say, Alan? Well, don't ask me a question if you don't want an answer. So then I looked the other way and said, because the buyer looks just like all of you.

Why? Because the most common buyer. Now, again, it's not exclusive, but the most common buyer is a white male in his bid to late 40s, makes over $100,000 a year and is in positions of power and influence. So you tell me why we can't go after this crime. And then when I do arrest a buyer, do you know what he gets? A misdemeanor. But if I arrest the victim, the victim gets a felony.

So it's time for us to really look at the buyer again and say this, you are equally culpable for the trauma being inflicted on the victim as the trafficker is. And if the trafficker's copping a felony, it's time for the buyer to get a felony and let them know it's not okay to buy humans.

Alan's such a powerhouse. I remember the first event Sarah had me speak as she rented a movie theater in Largo, Florida. And I've worked all week to get this PowerPoint presentation come up. I think I spoke for maybe 12 to 15 minutes. I was like one of my first public speaking events ever. And like, I was so excited. My mom was there. Alan follows me up. He's got no slides, nothing comes from the heart, drops it just like he did here.

45 minutes. I said, Sarah, don't ever put me before Alan ever again, ever again. Talking on these resources though, Monica, I want to come to you. Your organization has done an amazing job with rescuing, right? I think we said 500 people being wretched, 500 women right now, 7,000 salvations over the last seven years. What does rescue involve and what kind of resources are needed on your side to get these victims rescued? Well, what we do specifically is we go to where they're being trafficked.

And you can testify if you go in to see a sign ordinance, right? And you connect with any of the women, when you leave within 10 minutes, she'll be moved. We go in, we'll spend 30 minutes with them, exchange phone numbers. Church ladies are harmless. And we build relationships with them and then where we can say, hey, I got more for you. I just had another girl speak to a detective this week because she trusts me. And the brothels there, in 2018, Polaris did a report.

There were over 9,000 illicit massage businesses, brothels in the United States of America. And at that time, there were 8,222 Starbucks. It's happening right here. I passed some coming here. And so, you know, we go there and then our goal is to get them saved. Four women that we know of, two died of an overdose, two were murdered, but we know they're in heaven because in the first 10 minutes that we met them, we gave them Jesus.

I can't tell you how many women reach out to me a year, two years later and say, I just felt God with me. I kept just last week, I kept hearing the last year, call the church ladies, call the church ladies, call, and she finally obeyed the voice of the Lord. But because she had the Lord in her heart, he watches over his word to perform it. That's our goal. And so we know there's a spiritual asset, and there's so many wonderful organizations, but we don't stop there.

I have tons of organizations that I work with to go to detox, to go to different types of care. I have homes where if they have children, they can keep their children, maternity centers. And again, it's about working together. And if you don't have to know what you're doing to do it. Once the problem arises, God will give you a solution. You'll meet the right person. You'll find the right thing, you know, on Google.

It's out there. But ultimately, I truly believe that rescue and healing cannot come without Jesus. Without Jesus. And just period. And so I won't send a girl to an organization that's not faith-based. If they have a, will they have an option to go to church? They're off my list. It's not an option. If I'm paying for you to do all this, you're going to go church with me. And so, but that's where it starts. That's what we do. And again,

it looks different in so many ways. With the children, it's different. We're actually just about to launch a Freedom Center that's going to be like a college campus with affordable housing. We're also going to be housing children who foster out of the foster care, age out of the foster care system. But we're going to have resources to pay for things like this. Like our organization gives money to the law enforcement and the detectives and the child crimes unit because it's tough.

You know, we buy them things. We want to, you know, our organization will be funding law enforcement to pay to have detectives to do this and to have the resources. And so, but you know, I'm nobody. I don't have money. But I have a vision in my heart and I have a big God. And I have people like you that are willing to say yes and write checks. And so that's the important of getting it together.

And so and when you real quick, when you talked about the awareness and what it looks like, you know, the sound of freedom, I was so blessed to get to watch it with President Trump, his Bedminster resort with, you know, the producer and the actor and all those fancy names. It doesn't matter. And it made it aware that it happens, right? And that movie is so important. And it is true 100%, but in America, that's not. These children who are being sold from 3 to 6 p.m.

Every day are going to school, private schools, Christian schools. There are traffickers on boards at church. They're going to church. Kids could be playing with them. You're walking by them in the park. And so that's why if something seems off, don't hesitate, because the Lord will tell you something or show you something in the Spirit that you wouldn't otherwise know, and you cannot wonder. And I might be jumping ahead there, but when it comes to children,

you don't investigate. Pastors, you don't investigate. You don't ask questions. You call law enforcement, because you can muddy the waters of a prosecution if you start asking questions what happened, and so you just immediately call law enforcement.

I'm sure that'll be covered but that's important i wanted to say it so but i'll stop talking yeah no amazing uh sarah we're going to come to to you and stay on the topic of children but that may be the first time anybody has ever referred to themselves as a nobody and then in the following sentence said they watched the movie with the president i was just saying it's a big deal yes sir that's a big. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want to take that one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, Sarah, we'll come back to you. Nate, Alan, either one of you want to jump on that real quick? So I know what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. I experience what you're saying. And just so you know, sometimes they just don't understand how it's happening, and they don't know how it's happening. I would love to get in contact with them because our team actually does.

I'm just going to tell you right now. within the last 24 hours, we had 48 people try to buy a 14 year old from us right here. And this is an address not far from here. So I can just show them evidence. It's really easy. They can tell me all day it's not. And then my team of investigators that we do, so we do a lot of online investigations where we pretend to be young girls and men. And so we can, we can do it all. That's a one of like the lukewarm sites.

That's not even like on the hardcore ones. Like that's on one lukewarm one. It's way worse than that. Here, that's not even Tampa. Tampa would be hundreds of maybe a thousand. So I would love an introduction and we can just present evidence. You're either uneducated or fired. Exactly. Yeah, Sarah, coming to you. Obviously, we're here today. Save our children. By show of hands, parents in the audience. Okay. So large, large contingency of parents here.

When we speak about children, What are some of the vulnerabilities that increase a child's chance of being exploited? And second part of that question, what safeguards can all these parents out here put in place to protect their children on a daily basis? That's a great question. I wonder who came up with it. We wrote our own questions. You'll have to remind me of the second part. Okay, and I know Nate talked about this this morning, and stats are a little bit different depending on who you ask.

But one stat that I always mention is that it's one in four girls and one in seven boys be the victim of a sexual assault before they're 18. And if you look around the room, there's a lot of boys and girls in here. And so not necessarily that any of us may have been trafficked, but that's too many people experiencing any type of sexual exploitation. So there are things that anybody could be a victim. Anybody can be a victim of trafficking.

Anybody can be a victim of a sexual assault. However, we know from the data that there are certain vulnerabilities that may make someone more susceptible to becoming a victim of trafficking. And one of those things is previous sexual abuse. And so we don't want to overlook the severity of that. So if someone has been previously sexually abused, they're at a much higher rate of their chance of being exploited because it has already happened to them.

And in addition to that, we're talking about low self-esteem. We're talking about people who are struggling in school. And all of these things are connected.

Cyber bullying is a huge connector that we're seeing right now that's leading to and how does that make sense well because if your kid is being cyber bullied and it's relentless and they're not getting a break from it whereas when we were growing up we got bullied at school and then we went home and we got a break they don't have a break now so it's constant and then if someone reaches out to them like nate said they're pretending to be a 14 year old girl

someone reaches out to your kid pretending to be a really cute 16 year old boy and tells your teenage age daughter who's being bullied all the time. Wow, you're really pretty. The color of your eyes is so pretty. What school do you go to? And it starts that fast. And they get information, and they're giving someone what they need because they're vulnerable. And then they flip it around on them. And it happens every single day in every single town in America.

So we want to watch out for those things. If our kids are oversharing online, that's probably something that we should be aware of. We talk about the importance of mental health and how great it is to share our victories and our struggles. But we also want to warn kids that if you're posting things online, like, I hate my parents. You're a 14-year-old girl. I'm really struggling with depression and anxiety.

There are bad people out there, as evidenced by the amount of people in the past 24 hours that were looking to purchase a 14-year-old for sex, that will find that child online who didn't know any better because kids are naive. And say, wow, gosh, I'm so sorry. Your parents probably do suck. What are they doing? You know, tell me about your depression. Well, I think you're great. I think you're beautiful. I think you're smart. You know, let me take you out. Let me buy you new stuff.

It's insidious. And these buyers, these traffickers, these pimps are so patient and they're calculated and they're manipulative and they will take the time to learn your children. Don't think that they won't. So that leads into the second part of the question is what can we do? The first thing that we tell, since we're speaking to adults, the first thing we tell parents is you have to be aware of the situation. You cannot stick your head in the sand anymore. That doesn't work.

It's never going to be effective. And the other thing is you also can't just take technology away from your kids. Would we like to? Sure. But technology is now and it is the future and it isn't going anywhere. So we need to equip our kids with what to do rather than scare them into never utilizing it. Because what happens when they move out? Then they're fully unprepared for what the world has to offer.

So we shouldn't expose them, but we should equip and empower them to know how to utilize technology appropriately. And that begins with you knowing what's on their phone, with you knowing what videos they're watching on YouTube, who their friends are online, what social media platforms do they have? Who are they talking to? And we have to have the conversations. And I'll let you know right now, they're not fun, and they're awkward, and neither one of you is going to enjoy

it. So if that doesn't ramp you up to have it, I don't know what will. But it's necessary because love is active. It's not passive. And so if we don't have these conversations with our kids, I promise you that they're having them with each other and kids don't have the appropriate information. And so they're sharing this stuff and it needs to be coming from us because we love them more than anything. There's that question, I believe.

Thank you. You need to educate the human answers and answers, not just to our people, our children, but also to our government, our citizens. Thank you, Beach. I have a question. Did you know that Hillsdale County and Pasco County County, the wildly new policies of catch and release of the illegal killings that are arrested and put in your jail? They did not have the ICE 287G program to have ICE public victims under deported.

That is Hillsdale County. you. household counties. Did you know that there is also 20 other counties throughout our state that also have a lot of the growing policies of catch and release of putting illegal alien immigrants back into our community? Did you know that there is over 3,000 sheriffs throughout our nation, but only 140 of them are actually using this policy, IC2-87G, to take illegal aliens and help Portland? Please help us share that message. Thank you for me Me asking that question

gives you no doubt. Thank you. Sure. I want to add real quick to what she was saying. When she was talking about conversations, I have six kids and I train women. We do in-home encounters. People bring their friends over and watch videos that we send them and have conversations. These conversations are not a one-time thing. These conversations are daily. My daughter went to a friend's house after school. One of the moms brings her

home for me when I'm working, and she had been wanting to go over. I had peace about it. I said, oh, just have her call me real quick so I can say, hey, she's like, okay, she'll be fine, whatever. I was like, yeah, I'll just talk to her real quick. And the conversation I tell them every time is, listen to the Holy Spirit, follow your gut, if they don't understand that. And I always ask, who's going to be there? Is there anybody coming to visit, any family members or neighbors planning to

visit? And I tell my kids, stay out in the open. Don't go off anywhere, even with children. Don't stay behind closed doors. If you feel uncomfortable, tell them you feel like you're going to throw up and you need to go home, call me. And I teach my children, even I have quiet, even though I'm an extrovert, I have introvert children, but they know when to be extrovert. They know how to set boundaries. My teenage son, I was trying to give him hugs and kisses.

He goes, no, no, no. He goes, I'm trying to set a boundary, you know, like they know. And with your sons, great times for conversations are in the car. They're in the backseat. You're not face to face. It's not awkward. And you're having conversations about masturbation, you're having conversations about pornography, you're having conversations about how to treat women, how to treat yourself. And then when they go places, even school, every day, what was it fun?

Yeah, and they'll just have little dumb, and that's what you want, is a little easygoing, whatever. You know, what made you happy? What made you sad? And when they're older, you know, I ask them, I say, you know, did you have a check? You know, did you, in your gut, did you have a bad feeling about anybody or anything?

Did anything make you uncomfortable? comfortable and then when they say something you don't overreact because they will not trust you you have to just play it cool and so and then just move on into that but when you have those all the time they know to watch their you know the way they are they know the bathroom rules they my sons know to follow the girls I don't take them to the bathroom alone even my 14 year old daughter

but they know what to do in school how to be comfortable and the main thing is if you're a believer, you better be teaching them to follow the Holy Spirit. Because if my children get hurt or something happened, I'll say, where'd you miss it? And I'll make them look back and try to see where the Holy Spirit said, you know, don't take that turn or don't go to the movies right now, you know, things like that. So they can learn to avoid that. That's great stuff. Amazing. Nate, I want to come to you.

Sarah did an awesome job of talking about some of the things that parents can do, monitoring their child's social media, looking at the things that they're posting. Hey, you know, you said this thing about being unhappy here. Your organization has done an incredible job leveraging technology and social media, even mentioned here in the last 24 hours, what you guys posted. Don't mention it. I'm not going to mention any, any, anything that you shared with me,

but what role is social media playing for the traffickers? How are they using these different platforms? Are there other sites out there that maybe aren't the mainstream ones that we need to be educated on? So yeah, speak to the social media for a bit if you can. Well, it's a majority of it's happening online and with social media, with trafficking. But I would say more importantly, we talk about predators.

She kind of talked about this a little bit earlier. I think in 2022, there was 22,000 reports of trafficking, which we know is way more than that. But right now, one in eight of you have been sexually abused. That's 42 million people that are survivors of sexual assault. So you got to understand, I think, when you're looking at social media, there's predators. He's talking about arrest the buyers. We'll call them predators.

I call them predators because I like to hunt predators. That's kind of what I like to do. So here's how it's happening. This is a true story. I would testify. We could go to Congress and go after them.

And I'm going to tell you, it's Snapchat. I'll just call them right out. so when we put an undercover false ad or it's not even an ad there it's a profile we start building it within 14 minutes we had our first 39 year old soliciting that girl within four days and that's part-time because so much going on you just kind of open up snapchat just like accept accept accept accept accept hundreds and hundreds right and then all of a sudden bing bing we videoed it we'll probably

have a video at some point if we ever go public but within four days we had 450 Dr. 69 is friending us and talking to us and communicating with us, a 14-year-old, on Snapchat.

Yes, I'll say Snapchat. And they can come after me all they want because they can't back it up. They're enabling it. They're enabling it. I'm telling you. And then all these other social media platforms have to be monitored. But they're not. They're not being monitored. It's very unfortunate. And exactly what she said, you're not going to be able to take it away from your children. So you have to have the conversation with

them. And in order to have a conversation with your children, you have to have an actual relationship with them. And I think that that's the key point to all of this stuff is where do you start building a trust-built relationship with your children? Because you're not going to get away from technology. They're going to go make up an account and you're going to find it or they're going to be on their friend's social media account or whatever it's going to be.

So they're going to be there. And I think it's important, which we're all talking about, is facts and evidence and true stories and case studies of what's really happening. One of the most effective things I've seen is when parents come and say, like, we do these child purchase safety, online safety programs. Things like this. And they bring their child and they don't want to be there or whatever.

But when their child listens and hears what's going on and how it happens, they actually say to their mom, I'm so sorry, I'd never listened to you. And then the parent will say, wow, that conversation that was so difficult to have just bridged it because they just saw the truth. They're not going to listen to their parent, right?

And so when they get into a space where they actually might be open to listen and you do it in a way that they're going to understand and listen and give them real stories. The best thing is to have, like if you guys even have survivors where they can give their own story, if they're willing to, that's powerful. It's powerful because it makes it relatable and it makes it true to them. Social media is, we don't even do social media other than we target people on

there, but it's a bad place. They're enabling it. They're also promoting so many things.

Imagine when you were a kid or when I was a kid, I'm sorry, like the most illicit thing was like this sports illustrated swimsuit issue you know and if there and there was always like this thing is like hey what's that back room and blockbuster dad you know it's not like that anymore or how about hey don't take candy from the stranger or who's the creepy dude at the playground well guess where the playground is not outdoors it's in their bedroom behind a closed door and the stranger that

they're taking candy from is on their phone and they're communicating with them and they're pretending to be a child most of the time. And then they're going to, and you guys probably heard all the stories of what they're doing, but you got to educate them to let them know that that 14 year old boy named Nick, who thinks you're really cute, isn't Nick. And he's not 14 and probably doesn't live in the United States.

And then when you start sending innocent pictures of you in your bikini at the swimming pool, because of course you go in public in your bikini, those pictures are now being sold and you're out on the internet at 12 years old. And then it'd be kind of progresses from there. I But it's. Prominent. That's why, I guess maybe even talking to this gentleman's point, it's so important, even for prosecution.

Somebody was mentioning some stats earlier, but I would challenge the stats and I'm not going to repeat them because I don't know if I can trust that source, but, law enforcement and prosecutors need to be trained on how to build these online evidence-based cases so that they can prosecute them and put them away because it's all digital. Most all this evidence that's being gathered is digital evidence now. And it's happening on those sites.

It really is. And I don't know how much work you did, but all your cases is being built on like a Snapchat. Or you move them over to, I won't say these names of these things, but you move them to these different platforms from one to another or whatever, and you're building those evidence cases, all media. Think about how often you actually have a face-to-face conversation with your family members versus a phone conversation with your family members.

It's the same way, but worse because they feel safe behind a screen, right? And they have a fake name. And some of these accounts, they don't even verify you. It's not even a real, you're not even, you can just make stuff up. There's no verification. And you can say you're 19 and click the box. I'm 19 and I swear I'm 19 and you're on these sites. So it's prevalent. It's one of the, I think, downfalls of our society.

I don't know what to do about it, but hunt them for those that are using them, go after them and use some of the techniques that they're using against our kids and go after them with the same technology. So they've boxed me into two minutes. And so I'm just going to make a couple of statements. The most dangerous place for a child to be today in America is alone in their bedroom with a digital device.

We look at it from three gateways, social media, which is both synchronous, asynchronous, and no synchronous. So social media apps, which we all put together little apps you should watch out for, but they evolve so quickly that that's almost dangerous to do. And then gaming systems. Most people don't realize gaming systems is a wide open gateway into your child's bedroom as well. So just being aware of that.

My last point to you is I had an opportunity, and I won't share exactly, but I had an opportunity to see military-grade AI. Law enforcement has a tendency to look in three. There's three levels that we tend to look at. Close proximity, what's right in front of us, how do we attack that, what's on the horizon, what do we see coming. not quite here yet, but it's coming. What's over the horizon?

This AI, which is kind of on the horizon, but also over the horizon, when I saw what they can do, and then was the statement was made that in three to five years, that will become commercial grade, scared me too. And I'm not scared easily, but that was scary to realize what they're about to unleash on our kids. To Nate's point, to Sarah's point, to Monica's point, and I won't make it nearly as eloquently, but if we're depending on tech to solve this problem, we've already lost.

What each one of us need to do today is once again, go back and build that relationship with our kids and a relationship with each other. And we need to go back to talking to each other, loving each other, because tech, no matter how good it is. You can talk about bark, protect young eyes, net nanny. You can go through all of those and I'm for all of it. I'm for all the above.

But if we're depending on tech, we've already lost. The only way we're going to win this is to do what Jesus told us to do.

And that's to love one another, to build that relationship. And that's it for me.

Alan are you going to be sticking around after the breakout at least for a short bit okay nate's speaking later this afternoon as well so he'll be around sarah and monica both have tables in the other building so if you guys have specific questions we don't have time for q a here today but if you guys have questions for any one of these individuals specifically find them in the other building after this breakout session but we got two minutes left guys.

I'm going to give each of you 30 seconds call to action. What can they do leaving here with the things we've talked about? Monica, call to action. I'm going to pray. Father God, I pray for each person in this room.

And I thank you that the words that we have spoken and the words that they hear today are seeds and that Lord, you would watch over those seeds and water them and make them come to fruition, that you would put a fire in their heart and they would be drawn to what makes them burn and that one thing they will run after and they will fulfill their race. I thank you that as they step out, you will part waters and you will equip them.

I ask you today that each person here will leave with their running shoes on and they will not look away again. I thank you for giving them strength to do it. And anyone here who is a part of that percentage, who is a survivor of assault or even trafficking, or if something may be triggering.

I pray for you to heal their heart right now. I pray a cleansing prayer, a covering prayer over their spirit, over their mind, their emotions, their heart, that you would heal them and that you would take memories and traumas away and you would use those to your glory. Let your precious love fall on them now and equip and encourage them in Jesus' name. Amen. And if you don't know Jesus, say, Jesus be my Lord.

Amen. end. I have to follow that. It's like following Alan every time. It seems like the end. Okay. Very briefly, I would say, yeah, obviously a preacher. I would say, continue your education. Let this just be the beginning of learning about this stuff and don't let it be the end. There's tons of resources on all of our websites. Monica said you could Google things. There's tons of documentaries that you can watch, but start now and start having the conversations with your kids when

you go home today. Just bridge the gap. Don't run full force into it. I wouldn't do that. But just start the conversation today and then do it again tomorrow and then do it again the next day and do it a little bit more the next day.

Yeah. And I'd say even to follow up with that, after you get educated and you know how to speak very well on certain things, if you do know law enforcement or you have those relationships, start talking to them, just like you're talking about with the department that doesn't know, maybe there's ways for you to help. Because I understand, but it's not to their own fault, you know, so maybe just helping to educate your community in all aspects. And that would be kind of my suggestion.

Remember, I'm Tomas from United Abolitionists. Don't just look at the field. Put your hand on the plow. Awesome. Thank you. Guys, give it up for our amazing panel of experts here today. Thank you for taking your time out here with us over this hour. Two things for me as we wrap it up. I always share these when I get a chance to speak at events like this. I mentioned at the beginning, I run an organization called Rebuilt Recovery. We help guys that are struggling with pornography addiction.

I also host the Superman Life podcast. podcast and we've been having conversations around this topic for the last five years. About a year ago, I had a gentleman on my podcast, Alan White. He wrote a book called men. Alan Smith wrote a book called men fight for me. And during the interview, I asked Alan, what was the inspiration behind writing this book? I mentioned it was great to see so many men in the audience here today.

And also on this panel up here today, when I asked Alan that question, he said he was sitting in an event just like you guys are here today. And at that event was a victim, a victim that had been trafficked her entire life, over 10 years of her life. She had been a victim of human trafficking. She was going on and on and talking about her experiences. And she said, every guy I came into contact with during my time being trafficked was a man. Every person that purchased me for sex was a man.

Every person that was exploiting me and was trafficking me was a man. So I have a heart for men. That's what I do for a living is I coach men. I help them find better purpose in their life. I help them level up and become their men they're called to be. She said, I'd reached a point in my journey where I looked out and all I wanted was a man to fight for me. And that moved Alan, it moved him to leave his full-time job, join an organization called Saving Innocence, and write this book.

So my call to everybody here is to don't let this conversation end here today, but more specifically to the men in the audience, don't let this conversation leave you. You all have something, a gift, a skill set, resources, connections, whatever it is. Nate's organization, Sarah's organization, Monica's organization, Alan's organizations need help, whether it's design, writing, marketing, networking.

It doesn't always have to be about the money. The other resources can be some of your skill sets. And last bit, there was a quote by Albert Einstein that the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but those that sit back and pretend like it's not happening. God bless you guys. Thank you for joining us and enjoy the rest of the day. So we want to thank our special guest today, Frank Rich with RebuiltRecovery.com for being our Master of Ceremonies today.

Of course, we also want to thank Nate Lewis from TheInnocent.org who was also our main speaker in the conference. We also want to thank retired Sergeant Alan Wickett from StopHumantrafficking.com, Sarah Lachance from StopTheMovement.org, and finally, Monica Satcher with Acts of Love Ministries. Please feel free to contact them at their websites or through the emails that

we listed on screen. But before we leave, I want to introduce you to Tomas Larez, who was not able to make it to the conference. Tomas is the founder of StopHumanTrafficking.com, and he works closely with Sergeant Alan Wickett. They even have classes that are available about how you can get educated and involved. Hi, my name is Tomas Lars. I'm the founder and president of United Abolitionists to Stop Human Trafficking, and I'm here in downtown Orlando in our Thornton Park District.

This week is very special for me because I'm celebrating 19 years in the fight against human trafficking. It was July 2004 when I was in Washington, D.C., and at that time U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, then Governor, and then Ambassador Brownback, introduced me to the issue. I was beside myself because I couldn't believe that this atrocity, modern slavery, was occurring in our generation.

Five years later, my first office opened here at Thornton Park from the generosity of one of our local business men. At that time, Florida Abolitionists was birthed, now United Abolitionists. From the very beginning, we began as a first responder in the fight with our hotline, with care coordination and triage for those who are victimized, and also that vital training of how to identify and report. And so this week is epic because we continue to do what we've started.

Me as an advocate 19 years ago and United Abolitionists 14 years ago. This week we'll be training the Lake County Sheriff's Office along with Corporal Allen Wilkett and Dr. Marianne Thomas. Every single officer under Sheriff Grinnell in Lake County will be trained this week on human trafficking, not just the 101, on, but what are the trends in Lake County?

And so this is something that we believe that every first responder should learn training and trends because every community is going to look different. So this is all occurring because of our partners and our friends who have been with us from the beginning and our new friends and partners. And I just want to thank you because together we can fight human trafficking in our communities, we can stop this atrocity from happening into one more person. Thank you.

In 2024, we are really going to be seeing the development of our training and learning center. We have a learning management system now. We're going to be featuring Human Trafficking 101, 201, and 301, a variety of modules that people can pick, whether it's online safety, learning about how to care for those who are victimized, just a myriad of trainings that will be available to individuals, to corporations, and to the faith-based community.

So 2024 is going to be the year that we really develop really the learning and the training that the community has been requesting. Once again, we want to thank all of our speakers that were able to come to the conference. I encourage all of us to engage with them on their websites or by sending them an email. I also don't want to miss the opportunity to explain that the Internet system described by Nate Lewis is something we are actively trying to raise money for here in the Tampa Bay area.

In just 24 hours, Nate's system was able to identify 40-plus males in the Plant City, Florida area trying to solicit minors. This system can be purchased for as little as $15,000 and comes with the hardware, software, and training to equip our local law enforcement to be able to put these predators behind bars.

You can help us by simply clicking on the QR code on your screen to donate directly, or you can also contact Nate Lewis at TheInnocent.org to start a fundraiser to bring this remarkable system to your area.

As we wrap up this session, don't forget to join us for our next breakout session about how to stop the indoctrination of our children with the LGBTQ agenda, critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. I hope you can join us and may God bless you for standing up for his children.