Freedom Fashion show for a cause | Local News | gainesvilleregister.com

The Power Project is hosting a fashion show to raise support for victims of human trafficking.

“January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month,” said Brandi Voth, the owner of The Power Project. “We wanted to host a fashion show that highlights brands that are fighting human trafficking and are made by survivors of human trafficking.”

Freedom Fashion will host a show, set for Jan. 21 at 6 p.m., featuring a variety of brands and organizations devoted to stopping human trafficking.

“The fashion industry lends itself really easily to trafficking, both labor trafficking and sex trafficking, so we wanted to say that there are brands that are changing this,” said Voth. “They are using transparent supply chains, ethical sourcing, and paying a fair living wage. We're doing it at a little slower level, but with a bigger impact.”

Two of the businesses involved are Voth's, the Power Hat Co. and the Power Tee Co.

“We're an anti-trafficking brand, and we provide transitional employment to trafficking survivors,” said Voth. “Also, all of our shirts and sweatshirts are Fairtrade certified.”

Another business involved is Moss & Metal, which is at the same location as The Power Project Collective and is owned and operated by Bailee Tierce.

“She has a permeant bracelet business called ‘Let's Bond for Freedom,' and 10 percent of each one of those sales goes to support survivors of trafficking by providing gap income, business training and financial assistance,” said Voth.

Contributors

There is a new line at The Power Project that will be featured called The Last Word, which has anti-trafficking t-shirts, upcycled pieces and survivor-inspired hand-painted denim jackets.

Some other businesses that will be involved are Bungalow 123, Wild Pear Boutique and ABLE. All of these businesses work with Fairtrade certified artists and support the fight against human trafficking.

The proceeds from the fashion show will go to the Cooke County Hope Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit branch of the Power Project founded to meet needs not met currently in Cooke County.

“We've used it for Fix My ride in the past and we've used it for some people that need some financial assistance, and one of the areas in Cooke County that is not being met is survivor assistance,” said Voth. “I've done a lot of work in other counties, but we really wanted to plant something here where we can support survivors, so all the proceeds from this fashion show will go to the Cooke County Hope Alliance and we'll be using that to support survivors financially and with gap income.”

As part of the show, various groups will be present for people to learn more about what can be done.

“After the show, after we've had the conversation, there'll be multiple organizations represented and people can go talk and network and find organizations that they can plug into,” said Voth. “You may have a heart for child trafficking or labor trafficking or frontlines rescue or work with restoration: anywhere anybody wants to plug into the anti-trafficking movement, I can get them plugged in.”

The problem effects everyone.

“Any time that you have large gatherings of people, you're going to have traffickers bringing girls and boys and children and women in,” said Voth. “We are five miles from one of the largest trafficking hubs in the US annually, WinStar casino. They don't want to: they have a great team of investigators that are trained in anti-trafficking and victims' advocacy that are on the ground every day to keep it out of the casino, but the truth of the matter is traffickers are bringing girls from Dallas every day to the casino.”

Voth became aware of the issue in 2017 and started researching and learning more about what she could do.

“Once my eyes were open to it, I just knew that I needed to be involved with it,” Voth said.

Some fun

Freedom Fashion will be a show to bring awareness to this serious topic, but there should still be some fun.

“It's a heavy subject, but it's a conversation that we can have in a nice social setting,” said Voth. “We wanted to use it as a fun night, have a DJ, some drinks and food; have it be a night of fashion and advocacy, but also a great social event where we all raise awareness and funds and get to have the conversation.”

The show will be at the Power Project Collective at 114 W. Main St. in Gainesville. General admission tickets are $50 and include drink tickets. For more information, visit thepowerproject. com.