The Empower Youth Program: A Gift to Youth
My name is Erin; I’m a director at UnBound — an anti-trafficking organization in Seattle, WA — and I have the privilege of directing our prevention programs with youth. Our targeted age groups are juvenile detention centers and middle schools because of the risk factors faced by those groups. Youth in systems like juvenile detention…
MyFreedomDay
Recently, iEmpathize joined Cherry Creek High School in Denver, Colorado for Global Awareness Day, an event established by the school to connect students to human rights issues around the globe and organizations working on solutions. As you can see in the photo above, we thought this was a great opportunity to invite students to get involved in…
Advocacy Workshops: Success in Collaboration
People often want to know how iEmpathize manages to get exploitation prevention programming in front of youth at schools and other youth-serving environments. It’s true that in less than two years, The Empower Youth Program – exploitation prevention resource – has been ordered for use in nineteen states. That’s one hundred orders serving more than 8,000 youth in schools, juvenile…
We’ve got some exciting news!
We are proud to announce two new resources to bring exploitation prevention to youth. Spanish-Language Prevention We are adapting The Empower Youth Program, our exploitation prevention program for youth, into Spanish. This new curricular tool will be used throughout Mexico and the United States. Look for this tool to be officially released in 2017! The Empower Youth…
Empowering Homeless Youth
~by guest writer Aubony Chalfant Upon learning about iEmpathize, we knew that The Empower Youth Program was something we needed to be teaching at HALO. HALO is a non-profit organization that provides housing, healing, and education to homeless and at-risk youth around the world. Although HALO is based in Kansas City, Missouri, we work…
CNN’s Feature on The Empower Youth Program
Today, CNN has featured The Empower Youth Program, telling the story of the program’s use at the Male Leadership Academy in Long Beach Schools. Lionel Gonzalez, the Program Director of the Academy, said this about his experience using our exploitation prevention resource with the youth he serves: “The LBUSD MALE Leadership Academy highly values character development…
One of the best lessons I’ve ever taught
~by Cherilyn Walker Empathy…a foreign word to most of the students in my Male Academy class. Every day is focused around getting to and from school safely without the gang members across the street verbally and physically assaulting them. “Thick skinned.” “Indifferent.” “Cold.” These were words used to describe the young men…
The Game-Changer for Vulnerable Youth
“The Empower Youth Program was a game-changer for many of our kids.” -High School Counselor, Denver CO The Empower Youth Program is a game-changer because it captures the conversations that we all need to have with kids but don’t know how to. This exploitation prevention program is effective because it features youth sharing advice with youth….
A change of mind and a change of heart
Having been familiar with the work of iEmpathize, I talked to my principal about bringing The Empower Youth Program to our middle school. When the program was approved this year it was exciting to present the Empower Youth Program to our 8th graders. I enjoy working at my middle school because, as I often describe…
“They can overcome. They can still dream of a future.”
In February of 2016, the Walter and Andrew Young Family YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia began using The Empower Youth Program with students who are part of the Maya Angelou Teen Center. As a former teacher, counselor, and assistant superintendent, I really enjoyed teaching The Empower Youth Program to the youth there. The goal of The…
iEmpathize Offers Free Webinar to Educate Community Leaders About the Need to Educate Children and Arm Them with Protection
BOULDER, Co. – (March 10, 2016) – iEmpathize, a non-profit organization that uses empathy and education in an effort to eradicate child exploitation, announced a free webinar for adults through its Empower Youth Program. Scheduled for Thursday, March 17 at 12pm MT., the Empowering Students to Battle Exploitation webinar is designed to help adults better…
iEmpathize Introduces Free Webinar to Arm Educators with the Information Needed to Reduce Child Exploitation in Schools
PRESS RELEASE iEmpathize, a non-profit organization that uses empathy and education in an effort to eradicate child exploitation, today announced the launch of a free webinar through its Empower Youth Program. As part of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January, the webinar is designed to help middle and high school educators and administrators better…
#WalkWithEmpathy
What does it mean to #WalkWithEmpathy? iEmpathize partners with youth and adults to eradicate child exploitation. Walking with empathy leads to freedom and successful futures for vulnerable youth. Teachers, artists, counselors, government leaders, social workers, and more walk with iEmpathize daily to prevent child exploitation and ensure the recovery of survivors and the prosecution of perpetrators….
Major Motion Picture ‘Spotlight’ Brings Awareness to Child Molestation; iEmpathize Empowers Youth to Stay Safe from Exploitation
[This image is taken from The Empower Youth Program, which teaches youth strategies to identify those who can genuinely help them from those who might take advantage of them.] The major motion picture movie Spotlight is scheduled for wide release on Nov. 6, putting the subject of child molestation front and center. iEmpathize (www.iEmpathize.org)…
Officially Amazing
Bastidas Named Guinness World Record Holder for Longest Triathlon Watch Norma’s reaction and support the project at www.GoNorma.org Norma Bastidas, a 47-year-old mother of two, extreme athlete and tireless advocate for exploited and abused women and children, has been named the world record holder for the longest triathlon by Guinness World Records. Last year, between…
6 Steps to Prioritize for Youth Trafficking Prevention
There is an exciting movement to prioritize human trafficking prevention in our nation’s communities. Schools, youth service programs, juvenile corrections services, group homes,faith communities, and other youth-oriented spaces are recognizing their great potential to empower youth to stay safe from exploitation, including sex trafficking. At the start of this new school year, you may be thinking about how to…
Should Schools Teach Exploitation Prevention?
iEmpathize is pleased to bring you this blog post from Aubrey Terry-Lloyd, a licensed therapist and survivor of human trafficking. Aubrey provides clinical support for several residential programs for survivors including Sarah’s Home in Colorado. She specializes in trauma specific counseling and professional and inter-personal development for those that have been exploited. She also runs a program called…
Disguises
The Five Disguises When we teach prevention strategies to youth, we help them learn how to identify the five disguises of an exploitative person. Adults, too, should know how to recognize the practice of these deceptively coercive techniques used by traffickers to manipulate and control people. In the film above, Avery – an advocate and a…
Demand
“It’s just a matter of time before supply meets the demand.” – Avery Day, trafficking survivor In March, iEmpathize representative Mark Brende hosted a meeting in Greeley, Colorado for community representatives who were curious about how the issue of child sex trafficking might be relevant to Greeley’s oil boom. Avery Day, a survivor of human trafficking, started…
Adding to the Voices of Empathy
The voice of PJ, who wrote this original poem to be featured in the Empower Youth Program. At a critical moment in the civil rights movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jr raised his voice and said, “There is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is…
Proving that Empathy=Ending It
In 2015, you joined us in the choice to #WalkWithEmpathy and #GiveWithEmpathy. Please watch the video above to learn how, together, we are empowering vulnerable and victimized kids and the adults who work with them. Together, we are proving that Empathy = Ending it.
Social Media Safety: A Parent’s Guide
“Who’s the girl? So aware, yet so confused.” These words are taken from a poem written by Samantha, a sixteen-year-old who was trafficked for sex. It is a poem of heartbreak, strength, and lessons learned – regretfully – the hard way. Samantha was just sixteen when her thirteen-year-old friend, Megan, introduced her to a guy…
The Impact of One Person’s Empathy
This month, iEmpathize and Truckers Against Trafficking traveled to Carlsbad, New Mexico, a small town on the verge of an oil boom. We partnered with educators, oil and trucking industry leaders, and community and political leaders using BOOM, the new trucking trailer, and open forums to plan action steps and exploitation-free protocols to ensure Carlsbad remains…
FAQs about the Empower Youth Program
What age group is the Empower Youth Program intended to serve? The Empower Youth Program was designed for youth in seventh grade and up, or starting at about the age of twelve. In addition, keep in mind that the Empower Youth Program is also a great resource for adults who want to learn about issues…
Announcing the Nationwide Launch of NEST
In the fall of 2014, iEmpathize’s prevention program for teens, The Empower Youth Program, will be available for nation-wide distribution. This multi-media program empowers students to develop empathy and avoid exploitation. We are pleased to announce that today marks the launch of NEST, National Educators to Stop Trafficking. NEST’s mission is to equip educators to…
Day 60: The Final Stretch
Norma Bastidas, survivor of sexual violence, abuse and attempted human trafficking, is currently on the last leg of her record-breaking triathlon. She began this journey of 3,700 miles swimming, biking and running through Mexico and the U.S. on March 1 in Cancun. Her goal is to prove that anything is possible and to inspire and…
The Final Relentless Stretch Lies Ahead!
After 122 miles of swimming the gulf of Mexico and 2800 miles of cycling from Cancun to Georgia, Norma Bastidas will now run over 700 miles to Washington, D.C. Please join us in following Norma as she completes the final leg of this record-breaking triathlon! As Norma crosses into our nation’s capital, her journey to unite…
Ready to Believe?
I don’t write many blog posts these days. Mostly, we communicate our work through film, photography and artifacts that tell the stories of ending and overcoming human exploitation. We focus on upstream prevention strategies and moving communities to empathize and engage. The video above is short but my post is not. Today, I have something…
Be Relentless Day 9
Norma breaks the 50 mile mark in her quest to complete the world’s longest triathlon to fight human trafficking. Hear what motivates Norma and one of her crew members as they battle a 122 mile open water swim in Cancun. We have raised almost half of what we need to get us to the finish…
How to impact your city, all from the comforts of your living room
You can make a lasting and significant impact in the lives of vulnerable and victimized kids in your city, and you can do it from the comforts of your own home. After all, our homes are the places where we spend so much of our time nurturing our families and getting to know our friends. From your home,…
Marisol
Marisol Garcia Bejarano spent seventeen years in prison for a crime she did not commit. A survivor of human trafficking in Mexico and in California, Marisol witnessed a murder committed by the man who bought her for $200 when she was just thirteen years old. After years of holding her as his domestic servant and…
The Impact of Empathy Week
The October 2013 Empathy Week was the fourth of its kind that I’ve experienced as a student at CU Boulder. When I think about my experience as a student on this campus, there is no single event that has so greatly shaped my time here besides Empathy Week. For this reason, it was a bittersweet…
Celebrate 2013; Support 2014
2013 was an exciting year for iEmpathize. Here, our team members share their fondest memories from the year. Each photograph and reflection demonstrates the heart of iEmpathize: to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable and victimized kids so that exploitation will exist no more. To begin, click the button below. Then click here…
How do you fight an “Invisible Crime?”
If you want statistics on the number of homeless served at a particular shelter, you can get that information easily. If you’d like to know how many families a local food bank served in a year, the numbers are readily available. If you’d like to know how many kids attended after-school programming providing meaningful alternatives…
Somos Uno!
CAMP SOMOS UNO This last summer (2013) we had the privilege of working with kids from age 11-17 years old for a three day camp piloting our prevention work in Mexico City. These kids were from a school in Chimalhuacán, one of the largest slums in Latin America. No strangers to sexual violence and poverty,…
Engaging & Inspiring 80,000 Truckers
Two Toledo teens are trafficked at truck stops, motels, and travel plazas. One trucker’s phone call saved their lives…Watch the film here. Few industries convene on such a massive level the way the trucking industry does. We just returned from the Mid America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY where 80,000 industry professionals from Germany, the…
2012 A Year in Pictures
To say it has been an incredible year is an understatement. 2012 was an amazing year expanding our work of addressing the needs of vulnerable and victimized kids and inspiring culture to empathize and engage. The year was all about empowering teens, investing in survivors’ futures, engaging truckers in the fight against child exploitation, developing…
At Risk Teens become Advocates and Abolitionists
Training At-Risk Teens to Recognize and Respond to Exploitive Situations “In the years that I have taught here, this is the first event we have ever done that students are actually talking about.” -Teacher at New America School Denver Campus We spent last week equipping an entire high school in Denver to recognize and respond…
Mexico Raids
There were three rooms decorated in Disney motifs and next to each bed was a stash of condoms, lubricant, and lingerie. A call to the new anti-trafficking hotline in Chiapas had given authorities a lead on three possible child trafficking victims. It was reported that the young teens were being forced to work as waitresses in…
Women in the World
Here’s the deal… I have always been surrounded by powerful women: my wife, daughters, mom and sis; resilient women/girls who experience diminishment and survive victimization; and relentless women advocates and leaders. iEmpathize was privileged to participate in Newsweek’s Women in the World Summit which honored some of the world’s most amazing women and leaders. The summit…
UofA Empathy Week
University of Arizona students participate in our anti-trafficking demonstrations. The UofA Union Gallery brought iEmpathize in to educate and engage their student body in the fight against child trafficking and sexual exploitation. Empathy Week is our outreach to universities. Events include our mixed media exhibit, an academic forum, a mattress vigil, and flash mob. The…
Experience: Immersive
The Empathy Experience is a large room installation of the mixed media Empathy Exhibit adding live art, music performances, talks, and idea exchanges. This event is immersive and interactive. Films, photography, and artifacts tell the specific stories from the exact locations of the kids we serve. The compelling mixed media narrative has child protection, intervention,…
US Artifacts
Historically media has been used to articulate the voice of justice movements and inspire involvement. During the transatlantic slave trade, actual slave artifacts and media of the day were key in awakening people to abolition. Since we can’t always bring you to the kids, we bring the kids to you. We use a mix of film, photography,…
Experience Scooter Hero
Scooter Hero was a mass awareness and fundraising event inspired by Yeng who is featured in a short film we produced by the same title. He rides a scooter to villages to protect kids from traffickers, we rode on behalf of the kids he protects.