Jessie’s Place director: ‘Human trafficking in Citrus County is not like the movies’
As of July 24, the movie “Sound of Freedom” has sold more than 8.9 million tickets and grossed just over $14.2 million on its opening weekend – and moviegoers are exiting the theaters with a passion to spread awareness on child trafficking.
Melissa Bowermaster, executive director of the Citrus County Children's Advocacy Center (“Jessie's Place”) in Lecanto, said they see child trafficking victims all the time and have for the past 20 years.
“Human trafficking is a hot topic, and with the movie it's getting a lot of attention and people want to do something about it,” she said. “But it's important to understand what trafficking really looks like, especially here in our community.”
So, he quits his job and travels to the jungles of Colombia, putting his life on the line to free the girl from the ruthless traffickers.
Does that happen in real life?
Bowermaster said yes, but those situations are the exception not the rule.
“The picture people have of a foreign national kidnapping your kid off the street is only a very small percentage of trafficking situations,” she said. “For the vast majority of trafficking victims, it's done by someone they know, someone they love and trust.
“It's a parent or caregiver turning a blind eye to their child's sexual abuse for them to gain financially. If you allow your child to be sexually abused, you are trafficking your own child.”
As examples, Bowermaster, said trafficking looks like a mom taking sexually explicit photos of her own child and selling or trading the photos for drugs. Or it could be turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by a live-in partner who pays the rent and the bills, and putting a stop to it could jeopardize the financial support.
“It could be an online ‘friend' your kid meets who wins your kid's trust and then starts in with sexual talk and then asks for sexual pictures and – boom! – they've got them,” she said.
In an effort to provide material that meets the state's requirement for trafficking education in the schools, Bowermaster said Jessie's Place has a community outreach specialist position funded through a grant from the Citrus County Community Charitable Foundation Inc. (CCCCF) to teach the Monique Burr Foundation's (MBF) Child and Teen Safety Matters curriculums to all Citrus County fourth-grade and middle-school classrooms.
The MBF curricula focus on age-appropriate education related to recognizing and preventing child abuse, bullying, exploitation and human trafficking.
CCCCF again awarded grant funds to Jessie's Place so they can continue to offer these educational programs this coming school year.
“If you think we don't have a (human) trafficking problem in Citrus County, you're wrong,” Bowermaster said. “But if you think trafficking looks like the movies, you're also wrong.”
To learn more about the MBF curriculum, go online to www.mbfpreventioneducation.org.
For more information about Jessie's Place, call 352-270-8814.
Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 352-564-2927 or by email at [email protected].
Melissa Bowermaster, executive director of the Citrus County Children's Advocacy Center (“Jessie's Place”) in Lecanto, said they see child trafficking victims all the time and have for the past 20 years.
This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.
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EYES ON TRAFFICKING
This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.
ABOUT PBJ LEARNING
PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.
More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.