Welcome To Our Community Awareness Roadmap!
Exploring the facts and Hearing their stories.
We are so glad you are here.
We hope you find this a safe and supportive place to start exploring the causes we are so passionate about. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions (connect@life4real.org).
Take your time working through each of the sections as we know it can be a lot of content to digest. However, we do feel if you work through this Roadmap it will give you a great foundation to build on!
Disclaimer: We do not claim to have all the information about these causes, but we do stand by years of getting to know our communities, collaborating with our Partners, and most importantly, listening to survivors. We’ve gathered helpful information for you to start with, and our hope is that it will make it easier to understand these complex topics and breakdown some of the mis-information you may have about them. The more we can “see” someone, the closer we will move in understanding their situation and the better equipped we will be to help locate the resources in needed.
AWARENESS
Below you will find our three causes and under each one we have introduced information in steps that will take you on a path in what we hope is encouraging, enlightening, and eye opening.
To change a community, it takes us all doing our part! We are so glad you are taking this step.
Sexual Exploitation
Human trafficking occurs when a perpetrator, often referred to as a trafficker, takes an Action (induces, recruits, harbors, transports, provides), and then employs the Means of force, fraud or coercion for the Purpose of compelling the victim to provide commercial sex acts (sex trafficking) or labor/services (labor trafficking). At a minimum, one element from each area must be present to establish a potential situation of human trafficking.
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#1: Polaris: www.polarisproject.org
Watch this short video on why trafficking does not look like the movies: https://polarisproject.org/listen-to-survivors/
#2: OnWatch www.iamonwatch.org
Sign up for the Free OnWatch training. We LOVE these videos and they provide incredible insight to how exploitation can be right in your own home/community. Chose 1 or all of them to get started, work at your own pace!
This will be the longest part of the training as this certificate will take some time but SO worth it. Short 6-9 minute video clips of HT situations. You can come and go with it!
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In 2020, 42% of trafficking victims were brought into trafficking by a member of their own families and 39% were recruited via an intimate partner or a marriage proposition.
Sex traffickers carefully and methodically work to gain their victims’ trust, create a degree of dependence, and subtly promote the idea that selling sexual services is normal, acceptable and necessary. Ultimately, successful grooming results in vulnerable people cooperating in their own exploitation and abuse and believing they have made the choice to do so independently.
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Myth:
Human Trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.
Fact:
The most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
(polarisproject.org)
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Myth
Traffickers target victims they don’t know
Fact
Traffickers are friends, boyfriends, family members, internet trollers, and strangers, male or female. Traffickers are looking for one main thing that they can exploit: Vulnerability. Traffickers often target children, youths and teens with a history low self-esteem, minimal social support, family dysfunction, mental illness, sexual abuse, dating violence, lack of personal safety, isolation, emotional distress, substance abuse…Why do traffickers look for these vulnerabilities in children and teens? Because these factors cause a young person to look for a “savior” or a way out. Traffickers are skilled in appearing like a savior, or a “way out” to a vulnerable teen and convincing the victim that they would be better off with their trafficker (usually seen as a boyfriend, mentor, savior).
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Myth
People in active trafficking situations always want help getting out.
Fact
Every trafficking situation is unique and self-identification as a trafficking victim or survivor happens along a continuum. Fear, isolation, guilt, shame, misplaced loyalty and expert manipulation are among the many factors that may keep a person from seeking help or identifying as a victim even if they are, in fact, being actively trafficked.
(polarisproject.org)
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Instagram and/or Facebook
#1: polarisproject (Polaris Project)
#2: Iamonwatch (I am On Watch)
#3: A21 (A21.org)
#4: dhsbluecampaign (DHS Blue Campaign)
#5: wearelife4real (Life4Real)
#6: Love146 (love146.org)
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#1: Polaris (Not) Love Stories
https://polarisproject.org/love-and-trafficking/
Check out at least 3 of these short stories. How these women were exploited will surprise you!
#2: OnWatch www.iamonwatch.org
Sign up for the Free OnWatch training. We LOVE these videos and they provide incredible insight to how exploitation can be right in your own home/community. Chose 1 or all of them to get started.
Homelessness
Why are people homeless in America? People become homeless when their wages and income are not enough to cover rent or a mortgage and other necessities like food, medicine, health care, transportation, and child care. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough affordable housing in the U.S. There are many circumstances that impact how people become homeless, who becomes homeless, and for how long. The challenges that must be overcome to gain and maintain stability takes us all working together.
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#1: Invisible People: https://invisiblepeople.tv/category/learn-more/homelessness/
Check out this basic but really great explanation of “Why People are Homeless?”
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People become homeless when their wages and income are not enough to cover rent or a mortgage and other necessities like food, medicine, health care, transportation, and child care.
Circumstances and life-altering events that cause a person to become homeless include:
Low-paying jobs
Lay-offs
Serious illnesses or accident
Lack of income
Loss of a loved one or divorce
Lack of support networks
Evictions
Foreclosures
Poverty
Natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes, floods)
Fires
Lack of resources when re-acclimating to the community (veterans, released for jail, discharged from hospital)
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Across Virginia, there is a shortage of rental homes affordable and available to extremely low income households (ELI), whose incomes are at or below the poverty guideline. The state of VA is short 174, 187 affordable and available rental home for extremely low income renters. $51,690 is the Annual household income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home at HUD's Fair Market Rent! Many of these households are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing. Severely cost burdened poor households are more likely than other renters to sacrifice other necessities like healthy food and healthcare to pay the rent, and to experience unstable housing situations like evictions.
https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/virginia
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When you become homeless, you lose so much. You no longer have a place to sleep, store food, cook, and eat. There is nowhere to keep your clothes, or go to the bathroom and take a bath or shower. Giving up your pets, furniture, belongings, and mementos is likely. You may need to leave your neighbors and neighborhood and may have a harder time getting to school or work. Many homeless people have limited contact with family and friends. Homelessness leads to increased feelings of uncertainty, vulnerability, and isolation.
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Instagram and/or Facebook
#1: Invisiblepeople (Invisible People)
#2: Nationalhomeless (National Alliance to End Homelessness)
#3: Momentsofhopeoutreach (Moments of Hope)
#4: pacemshelter (PACEM)
#5: havencville (The Haven)
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Invisible People
https://invisiblepeople.tv/stories-from-homeless-people/
This organization has a passion about giving a face and voice to the homeless. Check out 1 or more of the stories!
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Myth:
People choose to be homeless.
Fact:
A variety of different factors can contribute to an individual’s experience of homelessness. Often, people experience homelessness when all other options have been exhausted, and/or they are dealing with circumstances that make it difficult to maintain housing. Some of the obstacles that may lead people to their experiences of homelessness include:
-Eviction
-The affordable housing crisis
-Coping with mental illnesses or addictions, which makes it difficult to maintain independent housing
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Myth:
People experiencing homelessness are lazy.
Fact:
In order to survive, many people who experience homelessness are constantly in search for the necessities of life, such as food, shelter and a source of income. Therefore, due to the barriers that they face, many people experiencing homelessness do not have the option of being stagnant or lazy. For example, searching for a job becomes even more challenging when an individual does not have access to a phone, computer, or fixed address on a regular basis.
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Myth:
People experiencing homelessness should just find a job.
Fact:
There are already people experiencing homelessness who are employed; however, it is much more difficult to find a job while experiencing homelessness. A number of different challenges, such as: lacking a permanent address, not having regular access to showers, barriers to transportation, and other difficulties like mental illness, make it difficult to obtain employment. Even when individuals experiencing homelessness find jobs, they are often part-time or minimum wage positions. This work fails to adequately meet their needs, due to expensive housing costs.
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Myth:
All people who experience homelessness are addicts.
Fact:
Many people who experience homelessness do not struggle with substance abuse problems or addictions. Just like in the general population, only a percentage of those who are experiencing homelessness deal with addictions. People experiencing homelessness may deal with other issues related to their experiences of homelessness, including trauma and mental illness, for example.
Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Violence
IPV/DV is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of intimate partner or domestic violence can vary dramatically; however, the one constant component is one partner’s consistent efforts to maintain power and control over the other.
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Love can be complicated. We highly recommend the organization called “Love is Respect”! Check out a few of the pages to get started.
#1: Healthy/Unhealthy/Abuse chart, The Relationship Spectrum:
https://www.loveisrespect.org/everyone-deserves-a-healthy-relationship/relationship-spectrum/
#2: How to set boundaries
https://www.loveisrespect.org/everyone-deserves-a-healthy-relationship/how-to-set-boundaries/
#3: Warning signs of abuse
https://www.loveisrespect.org/dating-basics-for-healthy-relationships/warning-signs-of-abuse/
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Bystander Intervention is recognizing a potentially harmful situation or interaction and choosing to respond in a way that could positively influence the outcome.
#1: Notice the Event
#2: Interpret it as a problem
#3: Assume personal responsiblity
#4: KNOW how to help.
#5: Implement help or Act.
Delegate/Distract/Direct; Learn more with a Real Conversation on safe ways to intervene.
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Instagram/Facebook
#1: loveisrespectofficial (Love is Respect)
#2: ncadv (national coalition against domestic violence)
#3: d2lorg (Darkness to light)
#4: safeharborva (Safe Harbor RVA)
#5: sheshelter (Shelter for help in emergency)
#6: hanoversafeplace (Hanover Safe Place)
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MYTH:
Domestic violence happens only in low-income families.
FACT:
Domestic violence happens in all kinds of families, rich and poor, urban, suburban and rural, in every part of the country, in every racial, religious and age group.
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MYTH:
Alcohol and drugs cause domestic violence.
FACT:
Alcohol and drugs do not cause domestic violence. Domestic violence is a choice. Many abusers will make sure they have alcohol or drugs on hand, in order to use them as an excuse for their actions. Abusers will also claim their actions resulted because they could not have the alcohol or drugs.
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MYTH:
Domestic violence is an anger control issue.
FACT:
Domestic violence has nothing to do with anger. Anger is a tool abusers use to get what they want. We know abusers are actually very much in control because they can stop when someone knocks on the door or the phone rings; they often direct punches and kicks to parts of the body where the bruises are less likely to show; and they are not abusing everyone who makes them “angry”, but wait until there are no witnesses and abuses then one they say they love.
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Way to go on completing the Awareness Phase of Team Blue, make sure you check out the Action area below for all of the ways you can plug in to the team! We would love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions.
Ready for Team Teal? Click on the box below…
ACTION
While we know “Awareness” is the first step to help inform us of these causes, to make it personal and continue to grow in a true understanding, it takes action.
We encourage you to join us for one or all of the opportunities we have created. Our Team Leaders have been educated on creating a safe space to help you feel welcome and immediately a part of our team.
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#1: Clean out your own closet to donate.
#2: Encourage family/friends to donate clothing.
#3: Join us for a sorting day! Details under Events tab.
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#1: Collect items for our care bags.
#2: Put together Care Bags with family/friends.
Check out the lists of what we suggest to put in the care bags
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Pass out resource cards for your community to your neighbors/co-workers/friends/family.
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Sign up to attend an in person or online Real Conversation. These are designed to help us answer questions, break down biases and prejudices surrounding our causes.
Topics Include: Human Trafficking Basics, Homelessness 101, Sexual Abuse Awareness, Pornography, and Digital Safety. Sign up in Events tab.