Want to help eradicate human / sex trafficking from the Annapolis Valley? 

Click HERE to sigh up for future conference dates and our follow-up networking events.

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We offer extensive training for our staff and volunteers to provide care for exploited persons and survivors of sex trafficking as it pertains to our work in the community. If you would like to join our team and receive our training, please contact us at info@asafeplaceforme.com.

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Traffickers target those with addictions, mental health struggles but also children with a cell phone as young as 12. Therefore, our community and churches must step up to love the vulnerable. We have to become more pro-active in befriending and loving our neighbors. This means more than "programs." We really need to get our in our community and volunteer and visit one another and just plain love one another. Local authorities in the Annapolis Valley say that a child carrying a cell phone today is as powerful as carrying a gun. Parents must monitor all their child's social media activity and know all passwords to all their child's accounts. (Thanks to Crime Stoppers for much of the information on this page.)

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Who to Contact (even anonymously) 
If you are or have been trafficked or believe someone you know is being trafficked, the RCMP has created a TIP LINE for citizens to call or text: 902-449-2425. The phone will be monitored 24 hours a day by a member of the Federal Serious & Organized Crime Section. All calls are confidential. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you can also contact Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or text TIP202 + your message to “CRIMES” (274637) or submit tips by Secure Web Tips at www.crimestoppers.ns.ca. Calls to Crime Stoppers are not taped or traced and if police make an arrest and lay charges based on a tip, callers qualify for a cash reward.

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The Halifax website recommends,
If you witness suspicious activity you think may be linked to human trafficking, you should:

• Not intervene. You may put yourself and others at risk if you try to intervene. You could also inadvertently interfere with an ongoing investigation.

• Record all relevant information, including: 

  • names

  • descriptions of people

  • locations and addresses of possible suspicious activity

  • vehicle license plates and makes and models of vehicles

  • description of suspicious activity
     

Report it:

• 911 to report a situation where someone’s life is at risk or they require immediate assistance

• Call or text 902-449-2425 (RCMP tip line for citizens who are or have been trafficked or if you believe someone you know is being trafficked.)

• 1.800.222.8477 to make an anonymous tip to Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers.

• 1.833.900.1010 to reach the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline. The Hotline Response Advocates will connect callers to support and services and will also take tips, answer questions and forward information, when appropriate, to law enforcement.

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** Save these above numbers on your phone.

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What can you do now? Do not participate in the cause. The demand of consumers for pornography and buyers for the online sexual exploitation of children, men, and women drives trafficking behaviors. (UNICEF, 2017)

Keep up to date with that is happening in Nova Scotia human trafficking by creating a Google Alert for something like, "human trafficking Nova Scotia" that will send you notices when there is news in our province.

Get a group of people together to do a community assessment.

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Ways you can become active in your community to help end human trafficking:

• Public awareness and education

• Help organize a March for Freedom in our community to raise awareness

• Policy development and systemic change 

• Regional task forces

• Prevention and community strengthening

• Volunteer with first responders and law enforcement

• Volunteer with rescue operations

• Help with reintegration support and opportunities for survivors

• Work with shelters and safe homes

(Thanks to AFRJ for much of the information on this page. We partner with AFRJ)

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Our take on how to fight human trafficking? What's the core issue here? (If you want to learn what our perspective is, including our religious, Christian perspective, please read the following sentences.) It's a call for each one of us individually to take responsibility to return to God's plan for our lives, including our sexual behavior, and to love one another. In regard to our sexual behavior, we can't fight sex trafficking and be a consumer of porn or buying sex at the same time. We've had the sexual revolution where "free sex" (free from the confines of marriage) was celebrated. We can now see the horizon of where that will take us: disease, abuse, using one another, pain, heartache, guilt, shame, hopelessness, despair, depression and suicide. But you and I do not need to stay on that path, no matter how far we have traveled on it. There is a Power greater than all of these things; a Person who has the power to Redeem us (buy us back) from slavery to these wrong and damaging choices, forgive us and wash us clean and transform us so that what we have come to despise - the source of our pain and shame - can be transformed into a power to help rescue others. No matter what you've done or what's been done to you or what videos there are out there of you doing whatever, or whatever threats there are against those you love, the awesome news is that your heart and mind and life can be redeemed - made brand new. We know. It's happened to us. That's why we're here.

 

This Person who has this transforming power is your Creator who revealed Himself completely in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. You may have been abused in the name of God or in the name of Jesus. If so, we understand. Some of us have been, too. But please don't let those lies keep you from the truth. Please keep reading. You might feel small (and you are) but God reveals in Jesus that your single life has unspeakable value, worth and purpose. Jesus Himself was only one life. But with His one life He fed the hungry, defended the broken, freed the prisoner, silenced those in authority, healed the sick and even raised the dead. He spoke truth in love. But this world (everyone) rejected Him. In contrast to Hollywood's portrayal of Him, He was quite homely looking and appeared like a reject to everyone who saw Him, like someone cursed by God. His miracles and words offended the authorities and threatened the economy. So they conspired lies and traps to betray and finally crucify Him. He did not deserve to die. But the reality of Jesus' life was that He was God humbling Himself to enter into our pain and suffering and to lay down His own life, taking on Himself the penalty for all the wrongs we have ever done (and paying for all the wrongs others have ever done to us) so that we may receive forgiveness if we accept and rely upon His sacrifice on our behalf. On that tree where Jesus was stripped naked, his flesh torn off him and crucified, God Himself entered the torture, shame, humiliation and abuse you have experienced. He understands you. In that act, God revealed His love once and for all so that no matter what circumstances you face on this rotting earth, you can know God loves you, God is for you and there is hope for all who accept and trust Him.

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But He didn't just die in our place. He rose bodily from the dead declaring there is hope beyond this life. God offers to come and live in us, rising us from the ashes of our shame and pain if we walk away from all this world has to offer and surrender our lives to His love and grace and truth. This transforming power of God's love in Jesus is what we have experienced in our lives and it's why we are here for you. We understand that you may have experienced abuse by those who call themselves Christians, so we're not here to push anything on you. We offer all we have to you free and without any obligation. We tell you these things because we want you to know where we're coming from and we want to invite you to know this Powerful Love. Our hope is that He will reveal His love to you through us. You are precious and dearly loved.

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We are convinced that the only solution to the tragedy of sex trafficking is love, where we as neighbors love one another. There are not enough professionals to handle this crisis in our community. The answer is for each one of us to take responsibility for ourselves and for those around us. We must invest our hearts and lives in caring for our neighbors. It is often the vulnerable and disadvantaged and young and naive that are most often lured, manipulated and enslaved by this evil of sex trafficking. Only the love and compassion of God working through those who have accepted His love can change the heart deceived by sex trafficking (including the heart of the enslaved girl or boy, the trafficker and the users).

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Oh, and we don't pass judgment on you or anyone. We do, however, want to warn you of God's judgment. For He has declared that He will judge the living and the dead one day. For although He opposes the proud, He gives grace to the humble. What will He judge us for? One day each one of us will have our entire lives revealed before all to see. So it first starts in our hearts. You know in your heart how you wrestle with doing what you know is wrong (sin) and not doing what you know is right. You can know God's power to forgive and transform you to change what you already know is wrong within your own heart and life right now. In the past, you may have tried by yourself to be better, and failed. The Good News is that Jesus' love and truth can and will transform you. The journey He wants to take you on is a journey from lust (which destroys us) to Love (which defines Him). God is love (not lust). As you agree with God about your sin and turn away from what you know is wrong and turn to Him, trusting in His love shown to you in Jesus, and study His Word and engage with others who are doing the same, you will experience the wonder of His forgiveness and He will reveal to you the next steps. Don't take our word for it. Read it for yourself. We suggest you start in the Gospel of John, for it was written just for you. If we can help you in any way, please contact us. We are here for you. God bless you!  

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