YouTube transcript (unedited)

we're gonna go ahead and get started we have a lot of people in the room today it is wonderful to see everybody here
right after a holiday I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving um we've got a lot packed in for today if you haven't
gotten food please feel free to continue getting your food um and we will just
jump into things so we're gonna start with some
announcements first of all I want to do a big shout out to catering to love
who's provided the food for the past
year they go above and beyond and always come
with the servants heart so they are
amazing secondly we have a spotlight agency and it is
Unbound and I'm going to have them come up front and tell you a little bit about who they
are hello everyone how are we doing today all right we got some Spirit okay well
my name is paa Chavez I'm the community outreach coordinator for Unbound now in north Texas I'm going to share a little
bit about what we do at Unbound we support survivors and resource our community to fight human trafficking and
we do that through three lanes of effort the first one is our youth prevention where we equip with youth uh prevention
education for Youth and juvenile detention School staff and different schools to equip everybody surrounding
that child with information about human trafficking and how to keep them safe from it and then we have our survivor
Services which is our 247 crisis and non-crisis response for all ages all
genders and all types of trafficking so both labor and sex trafficking and our Advocates our wonderful Advocates that
are back there they walk alongside through every step of that Journey for that surviv with that Survivor and so
from the moment of recovery through every step that that uh person may take um they are there for the Long Haul we
know that we have boundaries for you know dfps has certain areas law enforcement has certain areas even
providers have certain areas but our Advocates are really there along that along that Journey that constant person
in their life the other uh Survivor services that we have is our 247 Drop in
Center for Youth this is a safe place for them to rest shower receive clothing
and get access to various services available in our community and we also have the Reagan which is our uh
long-term facility yes as well for youth as for girls experiencing sex trafficking um and then lastly is our
Outreach and training so we are reaching out to populations who may be at risk to
experiencing trafficking as well as equipping those professionals around them of identifying and responding to
trafficking so our services kind of work in a Continuum in which we are training people equipping students equipping uh
those professionals like healthcare professionals or service providers and then equipping them to then refer them
to our survivor advocacy and our Drop in Center as well um so that is all that
was a whole lot so if you have any questions about anything please let me know I will be at the table there to
answer any of them and then lastly our survivor our director he gonna share a little bit
more yeah hey y'all my name is Vanessa hey my name is Vanessa I'm the director of Survivor advocacy brand bound there's
wlur um but um he's having good time of his
life oh man okay well I'm up here just to kind of talk to you guys about the Amazon
gift cards that five Stones has always been able to like provide for survivors and why that's important and so um yeah
we've been so lucky to be and thankful just to be a part of that process um as one of the service providers that get
some of the gift cards that fight Stones provides for us and so um really like it's truly been just a huge blessing for
our teams um because they really afford US the opportunity to serve survivors um
and really support them like you said it's part of the people who just walk alongside them um every single gift card
that goes towards helping kind of just meet some basic needs for our clients so that can be toiletries or clothing like
a warm coat or some new pants something they need for an interview um or really it also helps us because our goal is to
really help celebrate well with them um we want to be able to help celebrate like baby showers and Christmas and
birthdays and things like that so these gift cards really help us do that um really helping them support them get
like things that they're wanting and things that they really need and so we're just really grateful um so yeah the gift of those gift cards really are
um yeah we really it's an opportunity for us to continue to show support and have let them know like the community
supports them um yeah and we really get to stelf share with them that they're seen and loved and just one way that we
get to do that so we really appreciated it and excited and thankful that you guys get to continue to do
that
yes and so our deadline is November 30th for the gift cards so this is one of your last opportunities um feel free to
follow the QR code and also in the previous emails I've sent out there should be a link uh which you can use to
purchase them all right do we have any agency announcements this
month all right then we will go ahead and go into our law enforcement
updates and we'll start with the Fort Worth Police Department detective
Oran Good morning so um just a few things so as of today we um we received
four new cases this morning when we came into work so um we haven't gone through them but just to let you know that's how
our day started uh we assisted tarent County with an Ops um a few weeks ago
and out of that we have one case that's being investigated for possible human trafficking from one of the uh
victims we had a 14 year-old who was a runaway she made an outcry of being
sexually assaulted by her father and um there was a witness who had come forward
who saw some text messages on the dad's phone that it appears she is also possibly being trafficked um so that
currently is under investigation at this time uh we have another case another
runaway 16 years old she was um she made an outcry to being sexually assaulted by
two different males um but we've also received evidence from a hotel in the
area where she was seen um at the hotel with two different adult males that are
not the two that she is saying sexually assaulted her um we have uh she has been
interviewed but she's not made an outcry to being trafficked but we still are looking into it just because of the
evidence that we've received and some of the information um so we're still looking into that so um that's still an
ongoing investigation and then we have
um a major case that'll be that's currently um going on there have been uh
five people currently charged and they're looking at three more they've located over or over 20 victims have
been identified with these suspects um five of them are being cooperative at
this time and one of them is going to the grand jury next week um this case also led into um led to A disruption of
a large fentanyl um ring that's been that was going or that is going on here
in Fort Worth too so um you know it's not just the you know the
trafficking that also includes you know the drugs and then like I said some of our cases are they'll start off as a
sexual assault and then when we investigate it you know it becomes you know it's more than a sexual assault so
our cases are so um take very time consuming it takes all
of us in this room though to make that happen because once we do identify those Vic victims and um they're recovered
then you know we are so thankful for our nonprofit groups who work with us because we're able to take them as far
as we can on in the Police role and then pass them on to our nonprofit groups who
can then walk with them the rest of the way to give them those resources that they need and then along with our um you
know the da who can prosecute those cases for us so it truly does take all of us in this room and I appreciate
every single one of you who come every month for all of those new ones that are here this month um you know it does take
our whole Community to look for these red flags and to notify our agencies of
um what you see even if it's a tip we're going to look into it um because we'd rather look into it and it be nothing
then sweep it under the rug and something uh something come of it later down the line so thank
y'all all right and next we'll hear from the tarant county sheriff's office and Sergeant
Rodriguez good morning this is a lot of people post
Thanksgiving uh well um as detective Aran said uh the tan County Sheriff's
Office did lead a multi-agency two-day victim Outreach one-day demand
suppression um during the month of November um that operation was a truly a
collaborative effort between multiple agencies and we're grateful for everybody's partnership and assisting Us
in that um as a result of that we also got 26
contacts with um of which 22 actually sought victim Services which happen to
be Unbound that assisted Us in that manner um of those 22 that were uh
sought Services six of them actually provided information for existing cases that we already had or uh provided
additional uh leads to other suspects that we had not yet known about so those
leads are currently being followed um and see if we can progress those investigations further as a result of
the wday demand suppression we did get eight arrest um out of that
operation um which as y'all know if we can Cur the demand then we can probably
actually make a bigger effort on both fronts from the BC Outreach as well as the demand
suppression uh we do have iak investigations that are pretty much wrapping up uh there's an out of state
adult mail that reached out to a 10 year-old through social media uh the mother contacted our agency and made a
report our investigator was able to assume control of the account and as a result of the interactions with that
mail um he was able to secure two warrants for this individual's arrest
for online solicitation of a minor as well as possession with the intention to distribute CP um the investigator is in
the process of collaborating with the out of state agency to uh get this person under arrest um and continue that
investigation um another uh key note is
that when we do search warrants for individuals that we suspect of uh having
CP we then take those if they're in Cooperative we take the electronic devices and submit them uh with search
warrants to be forensically forensically uh examined we did receive results for some computer devices that
were for for forensic analysis and the results we we uh received on that
particular case came back with over 30,000 images and 400 videos of Cam
material were recovered with some of the victims being as young as two and three years of age um this individual was
arrested and uh for a possession with intent to distribute CP um so that's
going to go to be going to case here pretty soon and uh that's all I have on that I do want to touch up on there was
an incident last night uh evening with we had a deputy that was shot I want to
extend our gratitude and thanks for the community support uh prayers he is on
the men he did have a successful surgery um so he's going to be good we're hoping
with Continued Care and Rehabilitation also want to thank the forward Police Department for helping us uh get that
guy in custody as quick as they did their response out there and helping us uh it was pretty quick turnaround
honestly from the time that it happened to the time that they pretty much laid him down to where he was at so want to
thank the community for your thoughts and prayers and support and the forward Police Department for helping us in that
regard but he's great he's going to be uh he's goingon to be okay and just going to need continued care for a
little bit and it'll be good but
thanks all right so every November uh we just look
at a little bit of a year-end review and uh talk a little bit about
where we've come from and uh the progress that we've made as a task force
so some of you have heard this before and some of you are new um but the idea
of five Stones really originated back in
2007 um I was working with a different department in the city and we were
focused on reducing infant mortality and they gave me permission to do a special
project which was health related and so I decided to look at the health impact
of prostitution in my mind that's adult
prostitution it never occurred to me that there were children
prostituting and that was my first introduction to trafficking from there um in
2014 I moved over to the police department and had the opportunity to talk talk to the chief at that time and
I said look we really need to have a a community conversation about this and
that's how it started it was just an informal conversation just a few people in a room and it started to grow by Word
of Mouth more and more people wanted to be part of that conversation more and more people cared about fighting
trafficking in Taran County in 2016 um the chief then Chief fit Gerald
uh officially sanctioned us as an arm of the Fort Worth Police Department and then today we have an online audience as
well as an inperson audience and we average about 70 to 90 people per
meeting we have 18 partner agencies and we also now have the five Stones
Foundation which you'll hear a little bit more about in a
bit as far as the human trafficking unit is uh that's part of the for Worth Police Department in 2014 we had one
detective it was not even a unit it was one person but the department saw that this
was a need and so in 2019 we were actually given a sergeant we had two
detectives two officers and myself and today we've grown even more
we are now uh shared with the iak unit um and so the department sees that this
is a problem of course we still need more um but we are
growing so everybody asked about stats so this is kind of what our stats look like right now um the difference between
cases and trafficking cases we get a lot of tips that come in and we will work them and discover that it's not actually
trafficking sometimes it's something related to trafficking maybe it's promotion of prostitution ution or
possession of child pornography or anything like that so we have a lot of cases um that don't end up being an
actual trafficing
case so here's a graph this is sort of what it looks like on a graph as far as our cases and tips
we hit a peak last year this year where down a little bit um but we still have
quite a few cases coming in again why is it down we're not really sure it could
be people aren't reporting it as much um who knows but it may look like that's
not a lot of cases but our cases tend to look like this where we
have multiple victims multiple suspects it spider webs out into very complex
cases um so these are not just your normal
domestic violence you've got one perpetrator and one victim so each one of our cases can turn into this at any
point in time and speaking of cases um I'm going
to have Lindy borar come up and she's going to tell you a little bit about what's going on as far as state
dispositions of our
cases morning I'm Lindy borchart I'm the human trafficking prosecutor for the tent County criminal District Attorney's
Office uh we've had a great success this year uh in Prosecuting cases and I say
we because I can only aggressively prosecute and seek Justice on behalf of
victims with a good thorough investigation from law enforcement and help from our nonprofit agencies like
Unbound a prime example Otis Lang I tried to a jury about a year ago
Otis Lang uh had already been convicted in Las Vegas about a decade before for
child pandering uh through our investigators we were able to locate that victim from
a decade ago and she testified in the case in the trial of Otis Lang the only
reason she was able to find the strength to testify was because of Unbound and
The Advocate that spent countless amount of time to support her and to be there
with her and also to babysit her four young children while she was testifying
afterwards the juror said that they would not have convicted him but for her
testimony uh and why is that well the victim in that case had committed uh had overdosed and died uh probably about two
months before the trial so I had to restructure that type of prosecution uh to go forward with it and so when I say
it's a team effort it is a true team effort some other successes this year we
had another uh defendant trial sex trafficker and it's to 25 years in the
penitent another young uh probably 22 23 year old defendant sentenc to 20 years
in the peniten for child sex trafficking and then cases that would have been in
my opinion dismissed before there was a uh I had the privilege of being a
specialized prosecutor in child sex trafficking building the cases without the testimony necessarily of the victim
those cases would have been uh dismissed or pleed down uh because there wasn't a
prosecutor that had the time to um to structure these prosecutions and work
closely with law enforcement and nonprofits and so for the majority of the cases this year they were all
sentenced uh to varying lengths of uh time in the penitentiary these cases are though
complex as Felicia just said and um many of my cases I'm Prosecuting the main
child sex trafficker I'm also Prosecuting the bottom and in the bottoms those those are the most
challenging cases to me because my job as a prosecutor is to seek Justice and
what does that look like when you're Prosecuting the bottom who's also been victimized but who's also recruiting and
then the next level would be the Johns I've worked closely with the a USA's
office with the feds this year uh in several of the cases they we did a joint
prosecution of the child sex trafficker uh they got fed Federal time on him and
I also got State Penitentiary time on them I prosecuted the John's in that
case the feds did not take those cases and I was able to get Penitentiary time and sentence into the pen on those cases
another case the feds did a great job Prosecuting me and Anum I got great life
sentences and I'm Prosecuting the bottom in that case and I appreciate the rice
program because that's a type of option that I need for bottoms to recognize
they're defendants but they're also victims and The Rise program gives me a
a just a great option to have them in a specialized probation program um and
that's had a lot of success one example this year toana lust I indied her when
she was 17 years old because she was an excellent recruiter putting her foster
care sisters out on Lancaster I put her in the rice program and fortunately she
was not successful in that program on probation last year HSI recovered a
child that was being trafficked by tracking her with uh through her sex ads she was recovered in
Miss and guess she
was with herana L and but I feel good that we had
given her those opportunities through the Rise program and through probation so it's been um it's been an exciting
year we've had great successes but there have been disappointments and you know it's interesting it's that the cases
that are the disappointments stay with you far longer than you know the successes do uh one case which I wish we
would have been able to get better time on uh two victims one of the victims hunger self uh and committed suicide
shortly before the trial and we had to restructure that prosecution I wish we would have been more successful um in in
that case but um that's a recap for this year I have uh specific cases if anybody
would like to uh ask me about him or need more information but again uh just
a big team effort in this fight to uh end uh human trafficking and uh we're
we're we're making some progress here so thank you very much Felicia
thank all right at this point I'm gonna ask all of our agencies I wanted to share agency wins to come to the
front and we'll let you guys just line up at the side and then one at a time we'll
have you come up here Natasha we'll have you come
first thank you my name is Latasha Jackson McDougall I'm the founder of Cheryl's voice real quickly if you don't
know who Cheryl's voice is Cheryl was my mother I actually lost serve to domestic violence and so I've spent my life
approaching domestic violence educating nationally at this point in my career about Teen Dating Violence overcoming
childhood trauma and what that looks like um some of our agency wins because actually when Felicia uh told me I need
to do this um I was able to make some arrangements but I was like I haven't had any wins I said wait a minute I
guess I have um we one of the things uh
Amazon actually heard me speak um some years ago and they said we want to support you and I'm like okay they
started donating products items from hygiene products to laptops cell phones
ring cameras and all this and I said what I'm gonna do with this stuff so I set up a store um where people could
come and get free items reach out to uh all of the agencies many of them are
here and I say send your survivors and so this year we were able to
provide um need items for free um to over 2,000 people this year that is
1,000 more that is 1,000 more than last year
and I looked I was like oh my God I didn't realize that many people you know shut up we we've had two giveaways and when they show up to the giveaway of
course there's a bait switch they get educated on what domestic violence is they also have to listen to Unbound they
have to listen to the net and they have to listen to every anybody else that wanted to provide education so you know everybody comes for free stuff but it's
really good to be able to educate the community and also be able to give these survivors uh ring cameras and we've been
getting a lot of feedback on how those ring cameras are helping them give information to the DA's office when
their abuser comes back or if they show up they're able to show the police that footage on the ring cameras we also have
been able to um educate at least a thousand more than last year uh people
nationally on uh domestic violence so those are Show's voice wins thank
you hey good morning I'm Karen wisman I'm
the executive director of the five Stones Foundation the foundation was formed in
2020 um as a direct result of a need identified by the task force steering
committee to provide funding for some of the task force activities so since the
Inception we've made 10 grants totaling over
$175,000 we were able to increase the grants this year we started with four grants last year this year we made six
grants um anybody who donates to um the food the lunches you're donating
directly to the foundation and we thank you so thank you we appreciate
everybody's involvement
here uh hello my name is Luke I'm the Survivor advocacy director at Bob's House of Hope which is a subset of ranch
rescue um just a list of some of the things focusing on Bob's House of Hope uh we successfully launched and expanded
our version of the billboard campaign in Times Square New York City um the first of its kind in Time Square that ran for
four weeks um we're still waiting on some of the numbers of The Impressions but from that whole billboard campaign we've been able to attract at least 700
million impressions from that billboard campaign um educating others about the sex trafficking of young males and we
provided services to 50 male survivors across the country including those that that we brought in house um formalized a
formal partnership with Nick Mick um we had our ignite hope gala this year as
well worked with DPS law enforcement to enhance their introdiction training um
passed our first ever single audit and our yearly independent audit um with no significant findings and we finally
broke ground on our 40 acre expansion um that we'll be moving into next year to house up to 40 m survivors um a couple
more moments to celebrate and bring honor to the WIS of the clients we serve um specifically I'm a resident who's
doing well at un I'm excitedly told me this week that he will be the first time he will pass all the classes he's ever
been enrolled in in his life um another test another U resident that is returning to un this spring um three of
our residents have obtained their High School diplomas um one who said are they going to call my name when I walk across the stage um two of residents heading in
a posit direction to obtain their visas um so some of these things that we might Overlook but they're so important it's
the work that we do that that that allows our clients to have these wins not just our organization um but it
doesn't just stop with task accomplishments we have clients experiencing healing via actively removing tattoos branded by their
traffickers we've seen clients working through shame and finding Freedom being via outcries um with law enforcement as
well as in safe vulnerability and trust with support um from staff and with each other um clients are learning what
healthy communication looks like with each other and their other influences in their lives um they're displaying what
healthy trust and healthy boundaries look like via honest conversations um that come up
in their experience in the program um and clients are finally starting to see and believe in the worth and potential
that they have for Life far beyond abuse neglect and exploitation um all of these
are worth celebrating and Bob's house hope is thankful to celebrate alongside friends and Fighters like you all happy
holidays and keep up good
work hello my name is Sarah Phillips and I'm the executive director of rescue her
uh we provide crisis response and long-term advocacy for adult victims of sex trafficking here in DFW I am excited
to be here today I don't normally get to come to these I normally have uh my mom hat on on Tuesdays so I stay home with
my kids on Tuesday so that's why you will never normally see me but um Ellie our director of community and donor
relations normally represents us but I'm excited to be with you guys today to share just two wins from the last year
so first of all we had our first five graduates um from our long-term Empower
program graduate in the span of 2023 so what that means is that each of these
five women uh we encountered back in 2018 and 2019 so they've been with us
for that long we encountered them when they were in crisis so some were still being exploited whenever we first began
working with them others had just recently within the last 30 days uh left their trafficker and so in that span of
three to four years uh what graduation looks like for the five of those women
is first of all um stable living so safe independent housing a a a good paying
job um that is secure um and a and living in a safe community and then also
what that looks like for graduation is you know we're not naive enough to think that once they leave our program they're
never going to encounter anything hard again right and so our goal while they're in our program is not to
eliminate every single future obstacle for them but in fact to actually give them the tools necessary so that they
know how to navigate normal life obstacles once they leave our program and so for those five graduates that's
looks like um you know building a foundation of um you know emotional health emotional regulation um getting
into a safe community of friends um reestablishing relationships with safe
family members getting their own network of Community Support so that they know how to nav naig at life's challenges
once they've graduated it's one of our favorite things honestly um when someone when when these women have graduated
over the last um you know several months um we actually like not hearing from
them we like when they don't return our texts oftentimes we are the ones that have a lot of you know unread texts on
their end because it's and and then we'll hear from them and they'll say oh this thing happened last month but I reached out to her to her to her you
know to my church to my school to whoever and they helped support me in this so we love seeing our survivors be
planted and truly a part of the community in which they're in and seeing them Thrive so that's been a huge win um
the second win has to do with one of those graduates so early in January yeah which seems like eons ago honestly um
but January of 2023 um her trafficker was convicted was sentenced to 25 years
in federal P prison with no parole so this was a huge win because this had
been um a multi-year investigation going on um she was looped in in 2020 she was
one of the key Witnesses in that case um and so this is a win for three reasons
uh first I wrote These down or else I'll talk for ages about this actually okay so wi for three reasons first of all it
remove victims from further exploitation so this trafficker he was a prolific trafficker in the DFW area he had been
operating a Human Trafficking Organization nationally for over 20 years and so he had victimized over
hundred over a hundred um uh known victims right so who knows how many unknown victims so um with his uh
sentencing it removed victims from further exploitation it also validated the violence that those victims suffered
by holding their trafficer accountable right and then lastly it was a win because the Survivor that we were
serving throughout the lengthy legal process she actually came out on the other side even more empowered and more
healed which as you guys might might know if you've walked through the legal process with anybody that doesn't always
happen right and it's because of what others have said before me it's because of the collaborative efforts from all
facets involved from not only our organization that provided advocacy for her for those three years but also the
the legal entities and the those working in the prosecution side of things together collaboratively to um obtain
Justice on behalf of those victims who included so those are two big ones thank you guys
hey I'm Kayla I'm the program director for Freedom Shield foundation so I like numbers so that's what we're going to
talk about uh we were able to serve eight girls within our Safe House program and got got seven of them
successfully placed into long-term care we were able to do two additional safe transports with our security team we
were able to work eight cases with additional girls to get them placed into long-term care we also started serving
satanic ritualistic abuse victims this year and we were actually able to baptize one of them so that was a huge win for us
uh yes we trained two long long-term care programs that serve uh sex
trafficking victims with our program so one will be opening in Midland actually serve minors which we're super stoked
about and in our three years we have been able to serve 56 women through our Safe House program that's
it morning everyone my name is Ty Bowen I'm the associate director at the net um so through our Outreach advocacy and
enrichment programs this year we served over 170 survivors here in tent County
um through our outreach program we visited over a hundred women in jail this year and more than 10 women um came
to our weekly support group each week uh Lindy mentioned the Rise program we provide Advocates to all the women in
that program uh we had six women graduate from that program this year it's
amazing we had almost 40 ladies enroll in our enrichment program program um where they're able to attend life skills
classes like GED prep um and financial literacy as well as receive personalized case management um so the ladies
participated in almost 400 hours of case management where they are creating plans that focus on their own goals um as part
of their recovery so things like getting their GED or holding a job or uh one of the ones that we're celebrating recently
is one of our women wanted to uh pay off her car in under a year which is awesome because she just completed that yeah uh
really big win um and then through that we also have incentives and benchmarks as well as a savings match program and
so through those things Our Ladies earned over $116,000 um in program marks in
savings matches which is amazing through worthy Co which is our social Enterprise job training program
um this year we're going to provide over 3,000 hours of dignified dignified employment to five survivors uh and
those ladies during that time are going to produce over 3500 candles over 2,000 pieces of jewelry and they also will
receive over 300 hours of individual care and case management in that program uh and then last through our minant
sexual exploitation program um which addresses the demand for commercial sexual exploitation uh we had over 250
man hours of sex buyer engagement and disruption there were 1500 contact points with Buyers through our online
patrols and our in-person support of law enforcement operations uh we also had over 200 individual men attend Our
Community Education breakfasts um where we work on helping men understand the issue and figuring out ways that they
can be part of the solution thank
you hey guys all right so obviously I'm with Unbound now um and just wanting to share
just a couple different stories with you guys um I think like what we get to do doesn't always equate to numbers and so
I love all the stats and I I don't have them for you but what I do have are the reality pieces of like what are
survivors are doing like how they've been able to thrive over the last year and so we have a phenomenal team of Advocates who really are there to walk
alongside our survivors whatever that looks like and so we serve people of all ages so that's as young as you can think
of to um no age limit and then all types of trafficking both sex and labor trafficking and so we get to yeah just
really support them on their Journey whatever that Journey looks like for them and so a couple of things part of what um baa mentioned earlier was our
youth Drop in Center that serves ages 10 to 22 and so um they've had a familial
trafficking victim at the dropin center and so she had been at um different
local placements um had been coming to day Services there several different times
and um what they were able to do with work with her was like doing safety planning teaching her how can you keep
yourself safe um teaching her new skills like conflict resolution which is
something was brand new for her um teaching different coping skills to really help learn how do I regulate
myself so that I can handle hard things and so with all of that she is now has
independent living in her own place she's a she's able to find a job she's going to interviews like she's doing
really really well and so sometimes those numbers don't really reflect the full um or aren't the only ways that we
see the growth over a person but we really get to see like their emotional growth over time and so a couple other
things um we've had clients who have made outcries to Fort Ruth PD and other local law enforcement agencies and again
they she was one who was out of placement earlier this year and um is now um has been there and has been
working the program has been really like feet on the grounds like getting her feet underneath her and has been able to
now attend trainings for for work is now going to counseling she's learned
consistency because of the people who have consistently shown up in her world and um really has created the room for
her to grow as a person and really has created the room for her to grow emotionally and so um yeah and create
those mentally safe spaces for her and so a couple other just general wins because I'm just gonna keep bragging
about my people um but we have um others who have had or now like have sorry have
had um rapid housing assistant they've been able to connect to like the Texas Workforce Solutions they have um been
able to get assisted with getting connected to different vocational schools um they're working on their education they're finishing GED programs
they're finishing their High School diplomas um they're working at jobs and doing well some for the first time um
they've been able to build rapport and have trust built out of a healthy relationship for some of them for the
first time where they've said you know I've never had a relationship that I know I could actually trust and talk to you and so like that's what our
Advocates get to provide so that's one of the biggest wins that they've been able to build trust with this person and
so um and not only that we're able to speak back into their lives and help them grow in confidence and so
graduations from programs um in school kids becoming adults over the last year
um which is a huge trans life transition um getting a car for the first time
watching them build community and really supporting them just to have hope for the future and so we are just yeah
really proud of what we've gotten we've gotten who the people we've been able to serve over the last year and um just the
last little bit like I think Lindy mentioned a case that we've had but also we've had other cases this year we've supported in trial and um one of which
ended up Landing um with a conviction of that trafficker who was sentenced to life in prison and so one of of all the
really great ones over the last year so thank
you hello uh my name is Lindsay speed I'm the executive director over at
traffic 911 and I love hearing these wins because I know a lot of times people are
so uh kind of fascinated with like the rescue or those recovery numbers but what we get to hear today is that long
Hall trajectory of what's happened you know since then and so at tra i91 uh
this last year October to October we've served 322 survivors all child sex trafficking
survivors across the DFW area and that included this this past year 89 crisis
responses where our team responded within 60 minutes and one of our full-time Advocates went out to usually
the police station or somewhere across the DF DFW area where that child was
originally recovered or um where she is now and gets to do that crisis work um but I think one of the most fun things
to talk about is not just these numbers but like what happened to you know what was the success I like to use the word
progress because let's be honest like how many of us have a true success we're always on this trajectory toward
progress and so progress for us we really like to measure goals and Tai
mentioned goals um it's one thing that you can let the Survivor have their own choice on like what what does that goal
look like for them so so what we do with The Advocates and the survivors we work with is kind of look at everything kind
of in that idea of how many goal or what goals they want to set for themselves and then help them achieve those and so
this last year uh a, 254 goals were set by the survivors and
897 of those goals were met which is really exciting about 72% of goals were
met I don't know about you but I don't know if I met 72% of my goals past year
um but for a Survivor a Child Survivor who's experienced a lot of trauma it's a really big deal um and so I like to we
like to think of those as like small wins I like to think of maybe like uh what is it Dave Ramsey who talks about
the snowball it feels so good once you accomplish one win and then you get more and so that's what these young people
get to experience a couple stories uh one of the girls this actually you may have seen this in in the news earlier
this year this was a 12-year-old who was recovered in ceville at a hotel there
there um just a lot a lot of trauma earlier this year and one of her big
goals was around education and so she really wanted to get back on on track in
school and so her goal was to go to summer school and to take uh tutoring
and just excited to say that she met that goal she went to summer school all summer and did tutoring and has gotten
back on track with school which is really awesome um another one this was an interesting case it was a girl who
was recovered and she is is a a part of a tribe uh part of a Native American tribe up in Wyoming was trafficked
originally by her mom um was taken away from her parents and ended up being trafficked again landed her in the DFW
area was recovered and our team responded and this girl was a kind of
what you know is like a chronic Runner like she was just kind of talking about like I'm not staying here I'm not GNA
put well um CPS got involved because the the state where she was um wasn't coming
to get her and she ended up at a shelter and she just kept telling her advocate
with us his name is j and she just kept telling J like I'm not staying here I'm not staying here um but through we we
talk about the 72h hour mark as being a really important time if we can if we can really be consistent within those
first three days after recovery we a lot of times see a lot of success and so Jac was like at a you know loving on her and
getting her support and emotional support and I'm excited to say that not only did she stay she got accepted into
I think it's called The Morris home at a and is like working toward her GED like she's doing so well and it's really sad
because really the systems all failed her we worked with what was it the Indian Car Care welfare act who was
supposed to come get her they never came and got her um the state where she was from they were supposed to come get her they never came and got her and so this
girl was just like feeling abandoned you know by systems but she's doing a lot better now and we're really proud of her
and the last one I'll share with you is a girl who we've been serving for a longer amount of time she's been served
by one of our advocates for three years and she was one of those who was in and
out of trafficking a lot like for several years in a row just in and out of the life and we just consistently
kept showing up with with her even if she was back in the live for going back and forth and uh she's one who didn't
she chose not to testify her trafficker went to trial this year um but there were a lot of other girls who were a
part of that trafficking situation who did testify and but she was like I don't want to testify I don't want to be a
part of it I don't want to talk about it again but he ended up getting life in prison back in October as a federal case
and um even though she didn't testify that has made such a big difference in her life and she's been super consistent
has her own apartment now has got her GED and is working um a good a really
good job and a side hustle we got her one of those crickets and she's been selling like t-shirts and tumblers and
like she's just an entrepreneur and a lot of that happened because one she got pregnant and she decided I want
something better for my kid and so she got out of the life and two her trafficker was sentenced to uh life and
prison so we love these stories thank you guys for being a part of
this lastation so Tina James was safe in the S initially I had started out U doing
Essentials for youth over in the southeast part of Fort Worth uh but with great connection with Miss Karen wisman
Mrs krie Grace uh who've actually come over in the southeast side of Fort Worth and has been feeding the kids at D Bar
7th and age which is actually now uh Jack a Martin I've had the opportunity to actually learn different things as it
relates to human sex trafficking and realizing that over in the southeast part of Fort Worth half of the people didn't know a lot about it or they had a
wrong perception about what it was and how to experience it or whatever if someone actually experienced it in their
lives so I actually had the opportunity of taking miss Karen wisman and I forgot
his name right here but they actually came into a couple of schools over in the southeast part of Fort Worth and spoke with the principles and a lot of
the principles did not know anything about it as it relates to be proactive opposed to reactive helping our young
children to understand when they're being groomed or when they're touched the wrong way uh putting them in a position that would also uh eventually
make them become a part of human sex trafficking or maybe even put them in that position so as I've learned with
these great to leaders right here miss Karen wisan and Miss Carrie Grace who has been walking me through a whole lot
back and forth teaching me different things again like I said I started out with essential items for our youth in
the Southeast area part of Fort Worth but actually have learned more to help prevent some situations of children that
could have been put in the situation but they started talking to counselors and teachers and parents and letting them
know about uh one young lady who uncle had been touching her and she told her mom mom didn't listen and he started
posting photos on her about her on Facebook and trying to connect her with some of his homeboys because her uncle
was kind of young and he literally was trying to put her in that situation and she called me and I thank God that I was
able to walk her through and talk with her about different things as I also have been doing mental health and
wellness as well and so with that being said the training the knowledge the skills just coming here paying attention
and being able to be a part and listening has been an awesome eye opening for the southeast part of forwork and I thank y'all for having me
Miss
all right and one of our other wins is that we have 18 partner agencies now if you are here and you're part of an
agency and you want to become one of the five Stones agencies feel free to email me and I will get you the
application real briefly we talked about the foundation this is a QR code in case
anybody wants more information about that I'll give you just a second
and now I want to introduce somebody who is here um and I'm very grateful that
she's here to give us a few words um from the Department assistant chief singen has
been employed with the Fort Worth Police Department since 1995 she holds a Master peace officer license and a police
instructor's license from T she has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and is a graduate from the FBI National
Academy during her tenure with the court Worth Police Department her assignments have included Patrol gang Training
Academy school of liaison Internal Affairs criminal investigations special victim section Chief's office special
investigation tactical operations and operational command while on the department she's received multiple
Awards in recognition she is currently the assistant chief over the support Bureau which includes tactical command
and investigative and support command for a few words
she take that picture off of there gonna do that um thank you um as
she said I'm Julie um over the support Bureau I've been an assistant chief for a while now but I'm new to the support
Bureau um human trafficking and IAP falls under that along with the other investigative units um I kind of had a
speech prepared but all I can think of now is wow and and thank you I mean
sincerely I knew that the work was being done by our law enforcement partners and and the enforcement part but you never
think about Beyond what's happening after that and all the partners and the collaboration and the things that are
being done and it's not just to arrest and and bring justice but to these
victims I mean and again the only word I can think of is is wow and how impressed I am and how grateful I am to each and
every one of you each and every one of you play of such an important role hearing those wind stories it's kind of
corny but it made the hair on my arm stand so I can only imagine this is an impact of me someone new to this unit
and and the impact and experience but what it does to those victims to feel loved to feel cared for um and the
common words that I heard is is awareness you know um prevention strategies education but caring is the biggest
thing because these are humans these are victims that need to feel supported feel loved feel Worth right so gosh I mean
again I don't even remember what I was prepared to say I was gonna say something elaborate smart and funny but
all I can say is thank you I am I'm happy to be a part of the support Bureau now I hope that I can attend more
meetings um and to really learn and Tina you said it perfect about I'm like you I'm learning these things and the
partners and seeing all the people that are involved but a heartfelt thank you
thank you for what you're doing please continue to do what you're doing and we work together collaboration and the partnership and I would be demoted if I
didn't say Chief NOS wanted to be here today but he had a schedule conflict so
but man I tell you what when when I get back I'm going to tell them what what I experienced and what I heard here with all these phenomenal wins so again thank
you very much for what you do and thank you for being the partners you are thank
you
all right now the exciting part um I am going to read the
definition of uh each category and then I'm going to have somebody from our five
Stone steering committee come up and read the nomination summary uh for each
person um when uh the summary has been read if you are one of our winners
please come to the front at that time to accept your award the first category is
law enforcement Excellence this person has developed or improved human trafficking response
policies to become more effective they have shown a commitment to criminally investigating human trafficking cases
and charging traffickers and have partnered with non-law enforcement agencies and
collaborative efforts against human trafficking and to assist with Victim Advocacy I'll now have Kendall Reed come
up to the front to introduce our award
winner what a privilege to read the nomination for this year's award win winner for law enforcement
Excellence officer Meg Fifer has served in the human trafficking unit for the past year and brings an impressive
seven-year background as an officer with the Fort Worth Police Department for more than a year before being assigned
to the unit officer Fifer voluntarily worked with the human trafficking team on her days off to assist where needed
and gain experience she actively participated in team operations collaborated with
officers and detectives and made connections with other agencies her expertise in technology and
investigation has greatly benefited the unit since starting with the trafficking
unit she has hit the ground running taking a vested interest in the victim cas she works with like a Relentless
Blood Hound she tirelessly follows every Trail leaving no stone unturned there
was a case where All Leads come to a dead end but officer Fifer tenaciously
allowed to re allowed her to reopen it turning it into a federal case that is currently being
worked when officer feifer was assigned her first case it initially appeared to be an information report however upon
meeting with the victim she sensed there was was more to the case than simple fraud with her astute questioning and
ability to establish a strong Rapport she discovered that it was in fact a trafficking case her dedication
intuition and intuition were crucial in ensuring that this case moved forward
and that the victim received the Justice they deserved officer Fifer's determination
to find answers into unwavering and she will stop at nothing until she uncovers
the truth she she has made many connections within the department including with units that were
previously unconnected she has also established relationships with external agencies and
nonprofit organizations officer Fifer is currently undergoing the commissioning process for
the FBI task force where she will be entrusted with handling complex human trafficking
cases the trafficking unit is much better having officer feifer in it her knowledge willingness and perseverance
are such an asset any unit would be better to have her in it five Stones is
pleased to present the law enforcement excellent award to officer
Fifer um I'll just say quick thank you to everybody in the room
um I could not be the officer I am in this unit without everyone here um and also big thank you to my husband for
holding down the fort so that I can be the officer that I am in this unit um so
just thank you I appreciate everybody for being
here the next category is Victim Advocacy this person has been part of
the development and protection of human trafficking survivors they have partnered with the
community to provide resources and services to survivors and has been a leading Force to Champion the cause of
survivors long-term success I will now have Lance cashion come to introduce this award
winner receiving not one but four nominations for this award for her role
as case manager with freedom Shield Foundation Amy Ogden Works relentlessly
for the care of trafficking survivors a favorite Advocate among
survivors Amy speaks truth into their lives and loves them well her work is
not limited to serving in Freedom Shield's Safe House program Amy is
constantly advocating for survivors and building relationships with other organizations obtaining resources for
the those she serves Amy empowers survivors to make choices about their
own long-term care and long-term life goals she stands as a reminder all of
the hard work and heartache will be worth it those who have the privilege of
working with Amy find themselves inspired by her heart and her attitude toward each Survivor she demonstrates
authentic love and care by listening and valuing those she serves as they work
through trauma those who nominated a Amy for this award expressed their deep
gratitude for the privilege of working alongside her in addition they highlighted the lessons they learned
through working with her survivors trust Amy and are willing
to listen to her advice even when tough love is
necessary her heart dedication expertise strength
resilience and Relentless advocacy inspires others why because that's who
she is Amy provides a safe place for those in her care and teaches the community how to to better serve
survivors additionally she supports others in their efforts to learn and grow by training advocates in
trauma-informed care Amy Ogden continues to pursue deeper levels of Advocacy she
continues to cultivate her leadership gifts and spiritual gifts she currently trains law
enforcement HSI and national leaders on behalf of Freedom Shield Foundation five
Stones is pleased to present the victim advocacy award to Amy
ogan
um so truly humbling and this is something that's so passionate for me because it's
about relationship and these women victims men children boy it doesn't
matter they've never been able to have relationship and that's the most crucial um space if I can encourage anyone is
just to build rapport with these people sorry I didn't expect to get um and
working for Freedom Shield that's an organization that Fosters relationship
and it like you see it carry through from the staff caring and Kayla they've
believed in me when I've been not in great places but they've helped Build Me
Up which allows me to speak into to others so funny story to make it a
little bit lighter is it when I found found out that I was nominated I had a little argument with God about like I am
not going to speak because I don't like to be center of attention I hate it actually um I lost the argument clearly
um and I was on a walk and that's where I pray and I I get to hear from the Lord
about everything and the Lord said Amy it's not about you someone in that room
may need encouragement today so I just want to encourage you in Scripture talks
about the 999 leaving the 99 for the one and we can get caught up in wanting to
affect all the lives right but if leaving the 99 for the one was important
to God that should be our heart as well because that one can go out and multiply
and so I just want to encourage you just build that one relationship it's it's the most
beautiful space we don't always get to see the the fruit roots of the labor but
they're there they're there and I forgot the last part of my funny stories so
just thank you I appreciate you Carrie and Kayla thank you for believing in
me all right our last category is community impact this person has shown personal
commitment and investment to local anti-trafficking efforts they have mobilized a collective effort against
human trafficking in our community and has taken exemplary initiative to engage the community against human trafficking
I will now have Glenna Pendleton come and introduce this award a
start we are all familiar with the term unsung hero which refers to those indiv
individuals who often go unnoticed but make a significant impact these are the
individuals who Provide support behind the scenes or show acts of kindness
towards those in need going above and beyond their traditional roles without expecting any form of recognition or
reward our deserving Award winner this year perfectly embodies that description
this individual has dedicated their life to serving and improving communities providing invaluable support support to
local and international programs their track record includes overseeing health education and treatment programs in
Uganda and Thailand as well as coordinating emergency relief efforts in Haiti we are honored to have their
extensive experience and expertise in our fight against human trafficking he
first started his local invol involvement with Christ Chapel Bible Church more than a decade ago where he
played a crucial role in creating and executing strategic initiatives to reach out to the the community and to mobilize
volunteers when the issue of human trafficking emerged as a crisis in the area he fearlessly embraced the
challenge diving headlong into addressing the problem West toand has been an unwavering force on the Five
Stone steering committee for over five years consistently offering his time and expertise to ensure the organization
remains on course and that meetings and events run smoothly he operates behind the scenes at every Gathering providing
in valuable support for effective communication and handling meeting Logistics including our seamless Zoom
capability not only did he play a vital role in establishing the five Stones Foundation we heard about earlier but he
currently holds the position of treasure additionally he continually strives to engage the faith community
and Foster strong Partnerships between law enforcement local churches and F
Faith Outreach Ministries and initiatives he efforts juggles all these
responsibilities while still maintaining unwavering love and dedication to his beloved wife Bethany and their three
precious daughters F Stones is pleased to award the community impact W today to
West
tolet thank you so much everyone I realize we're over time but I just wanted to
share just a few words um just of appreciation to all of you um just thank you so much for this honor and
recognition um I'm just humbled and grateful uh to all of you today um in my role as local Outreach pastor at Christ
shoel I have the wonderful blessing of watching the Lord truly work in the hearts of his church uh to minister to
the community in jesus' name uh it's like having a front row seat to the movement of his Spirit leading his
people to serve in the darkest places of this world World um I get a front row seat to this uh we are bringing the
light all of us in this room we're bringing light into the darkest places to the broken and to the vulnerable uh
this is an immense joy for me in this role and I often wonder why the Lord has brought me into this place of connection
with so many wonderful people who have a heart to love and serve others I'm truly humbled and grateful I I first heard
about the horrors of human trafficking while serving overseas in Thailand um I heard about the Golden Triangle and I
caught a glimpse of of this horrible industry that's taking place in Thailand
and I had never understood that this evil was also taking place in my own backyard that is until meeting with a
sweet lady from our church miss Karen wisman she was involved with a growing
group of organizations and agencies who were stepping into this battle and who were collaborating together to find
Solutions the five Stones task force that was in May of 2016 my work worker co-worker at the
time Lance cashen and I talked about it we prayed about it and we realized the church has to be engaged in this uh we
could not look away since that time I've continued to be part of the task force to help however I can I consider it a
privilege to be part of such an amazing and dynamic team of individuals and organizations dedicated to ending the
scourge of trafficking in our city and I believe the greater Church Must continue to engage volunteers must couple a
passion for biblical Justice with trauma informed care for survivors it is imperative that we are as a task for
listen to each other and learn from one another just as we have throughout these many years we've been incredibly blessed
with unity and I pray that this Unity will continue far into the future as we approach Christmas I wanted to just
close with this verse from the Gospel of Luke I'm a pastor so I get to do that in this
context Jesus said this about himself as he read from the scroll of Isaiah it is
a great encouragement to me as this task force continues to bring hope help and healing into the darkest places of our
community and reads this Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he
has anointed me to Proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and recovering
of sight to the blind to set at Liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor may God bless you all thank you so much Merry
Christmas let's give one more round of applause to all three of our
winners all right I hope that today was encouraging for all of you um we will
not have a meeting in December and if I can have the three Award winners come up for a final picture before you leave we
will see everybody else in January have a good
Christmas