youthSpark presents General Sam Olens with his award
On Monday, May 13th, youthSpark hosted its annual Town Hall Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast at North Avenue Presbyterian Church. Special thanks to Attorney General Sam Olens and our panelists Senator Renee Unterman, Representative Ed Lindsey, and Sharon Hill of Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. WABE’s Rose Scott moderated the panel discussion and highlighted the 2013 legislation, as well as the importance of ongoing research and evaluation.
Inaugural Kaffie McCullough Advocacy Award
We were honored to present Attorney General Sam Olens with a special award for his leadership of the “Georgia’s Not Buying It” Campaign and his commitment to stopping the demand for prostituted children in the state of Georgia.
We were thrilled to present Kaffie McCullough with the Inaugural Kaffie McCullough Advocacy Award for her outstanding contributions to keep all children safe. This award will be presented annually at our Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast.
Thanks to everyone who attended this special event. We appreciate North Avenue Presbyterian Church for hosting us!
In order to help youthSpark in its fight against child sex trafficking, Wheeler High School students Cameron Harris and Karina Perez are organizing a “Breaking the Shackles” benefit concert.
Organized by the students, the concert will raise awareness and money for victims of child sex trafficking in the Atlanta area. All proceeds from the concert will go to youthSpark’s campaign A Future. Not a Past. that fights to stop the prostitution of children.
Headlining the concert is The Museum, a contemporary Christian rock band. Other performers are Against the Downpour, a local praise and worship band; Made Whole, a local band; and the Wheeler Funk Ensemble.
We are extremely proud to have a student, especially a male student, who wants to use his platform to raise awareness about child sex trafficking. The more young people are aware, the better they can protect themselves from predators that seek to exploit them.
“Breaking the Shackles” Benefit Concert
May 18, 2012
7:00-9:30 PM
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church
955 Johnson Road in Marietta, Georgia
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance via www.itickets.com. Cash and checks will be accepted.
For more information on the event, read Cameron and Karina’s belief in the cause by clicking here.
This past Tuesday youthSpark hosted a Town Hall Breakfast Meeting at the North Avenue Presbyterian Church. The meeting was a legislative wrap-up panel discussion focused on past and upcoming proposed legislation that will aim toward ending and protecting the victims of child sex trafficking.
The panel included an expert filled discussion with some of the most influential people in Georgia and consisted of:
Renee Unterman, Georgia State Senator
Jay Neal, Georgia State Representative
Kirsten Widner, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Emory’s Barton Child Law Clinic
Kaffie McCullough, Deputy Direct, youthSpark
Rose Scott, Producer/Reporter, WABE
At the end of the event Senator Renee Unterman took the time to give us some of her thoughts on how generating awareness on the issue has helped in the fight against child sex trafficking. Her thoughts have been recorded and shared in the video below.
youthSpark’s campaign A Future. Not a Past. is designed to stop the prostitution of girls in Georgia. In support of its efforts, a 90-day initiative to raise funds for the campaign has been launched. It is our hope to spark a grassroots movement among citizens and community leaders to help us shed light on those that help fuel this lucrative business so that all traffickers, pimps and buyers, are held accountable and receive the stiffest penalties for buying or selling our children.
Through a multitude of mediums and content types, including videos, letters from survivors to their buyers, and national petitions, youthSpark is working to increase awareness about commercial sexual exploitation of young girls and to help stop buyers who perpetuate this crime.
On May 15, 2012 A Future. Not a Past. released the official Public Service Announcement (PSA) that sheds light on this issue and features Keisha Head, survivor of commercial sexual exploitation.
Please watch, share, and donate to help youthSpark put an end to this crime once and for all!
In order to help youthSpark in its fight against child sex trafficking, Wheeler High School students Cameron Harris and Karina Perez are organizing a “Breaking the Shackles” benefit concert.
Organized by the students, the concert will raise awareness and money for victims of child sex trafficking in the Atlanta area. All proceeds from the concert will go to youthSpark’s campaign A Future. Not a Past. that fights to stop the prostitution of children.
Headlining the concert is The Museum, a contemporary Christian rock band. Other performers are Against the Downpour, a local praise and worship band; Made Whole, a local band; and the Wheeler Funk Ensemble.
We are extremely proud to have a student, especially a male student, who wants to use his platform to raise awareness about child sex trafficking. The more young people are aware, the better they can protect themselves from predators that seek to exploit them.
“Breaking the Shackles” Benefit Concert
May 18, 2012
7:00-9:30 PM
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church
955 Johnson Road in Marietta, Georgia
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance via www.itickets.com. Cash and checks will be accepted.
For more information on the event, read Cameron and Karina’s belief in the cause by clicking here.
A Future. Not A Past. Community Ambassadors are community members who volunteer their time to raise awareness regarding the prostitution of children and keeping their friends and family informed. There is no time commitment so this is the perfect opportunity for full-time employees, students, and parents who want to be involved.
Become an official AFNAP Community Ambassador by attending a one-time 3 hour training session where you will be educated on the commercial sexual exploitation of children here in Georgia and the demand for those children, as well as learning the red flags to look for and services available for any child in need of help, or how to report this crime to law enforcement.
Community Ambassador Spotlight
A Future. Not A Past. would like congratulate some of our Community Ambassadors who have joined the fight to disable demand by raising awareness. They are off to a great start and have done amazing things in their community.
On March 25th a new group of Community Ambassadors, lead by Fiyah Oates, conducted an awareness forum on Human Trafficking, with a focus on child sex trafficking. These newly appointed ambassadors are members of an international group called WAVE (Women Against Trafficking Everywhere) and are eager to help spread the word about CSEC within the community. Thank you to WAVE and our new ambassadors.
If you are an ambassador and you have reached out in your community to share information about the commercial sexual exploitation of children, let us know. Email info@afuturenotapast.org and tell us about your experiences as an ambassador so we can spotlight you in our next update.
Billboards targeting child sex trafficking continue to appear throughout Metro Atlanta. Have you seen one?
The latest sighting of our Stop Demand Billboards was yesterday, Sunday, March 25th at Peachtree Industrial and Clairmont Road. This is a permanent billboard and so does not share any time electronically with an other ads.
If you have seen our billboard, let us know at marthaturner@juvenilejusticefund.org
Developed by our own Kaffie McCullough and Jennifer Swain (A Future. Not A Past.) the billboards are sweeping across the city to let people know about the consequences of purchasing sex from underage girls.
Space has been graciously donated by the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia. Thank you Ray Moyers.
Ga. officers addressing growing human trafficking problem
Rhonda Cook
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sally Yates, US Attorney
Too often, local police treat the “girls as willing prostitutes instead of
victims” when they unknowingly come across human sex trafficking, U.S.
Attorney Sally Yates said.
Next year, the FBI will begin collecting human trafficking statistics from local law enforcement in hopes of shedding light on a criminal operation that counts on the victims’ fear, shame and desperation to keep the enterprises hidden.
“I couldn’t escape,” said Keisha Head, who was forced into the prostitution by now-convicted pimp “Sir” Charles Pipkins. “I didn’t know how to get out. … I always did what it took not to get beaten.”
Keisha Head
Head, using her experiences after she found herself with no home at age 12, is talking to victims who come to the advocacy group A Future. Not a Past. And she was recently at the state Capitol, advocating for a pending resolution (House Resolution 1151) to study human trafficking and its victims. It passed the House but needs Senate approval.
It’s a crime that people don’t expect to see in Georgia, said Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford.
Senator Renee Unterman
People would say they saw the sex slave industry on “ministry trips to Haiti and to Thailand,” Unterman said, “and I would say, ‘Go with me to a bus station in downtown Atlanta.’ … We have studies that show the demand is in the suburbs where you have disposable incomes and access to the Internet and you can order up the 15-year-old blond-haired girl.”
youthSpark, Inc. is proud to partner with the Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens on his newest initiative “Georgia’s Not Buying It” to hold men who seek to purchase sex from minors accountable for their actions.As a result, youthSpark has been able to train several area hotels and official city Ambassadors on how to report suspicious activity. Check out this campaign’s official PSA with TNT Sportscaster Ernie Johnson and get the men in your life to sign the Georgia’s Not Buying it Pledge!
7200 men seek to purchase sex with adolescent girls in Georgia each month. Read more research here.
