Each year Shine A Light donates funds gathered from its Grand Yoga event to a handful of organizations doing efficient and effective work to help end sex trafficking and to help its victims heal.
It’s common to think that sex trafficking doesn’t happen where we live, but it does. Preying on the vulnerable and the young, sex trafficking is easy to overlook or ignore. It’s so easy, that sex trafficking is a two billion-dollar-a-year industry in our nation.
Luckily, awareness of this crime is growing in law enforcement and in the general community. And resources to stop it are finally becoming more available. Still, I often get discouraged when I see how much the sex trafficking industry keeps growing.
It is only in speaking with Susan Moen, the director of Jackson County SART (Sexual Assault Response Team), that my discouragement turns to hope. Susan has given me a new understanding of the far-reaching changes our children are capable of and of a very different future they are learning to shape. She knows this because Jackson County SART runs a highly effective sexual violence prevention program in Rogue Valley schools that reaches more than 8,000 students. Starting in kindergarten, kids start learning what healthy relationships look like. They learn what healthy boundaries are and how to say “no” when they feel uncomfortable. Age-appropriate topics are introduced each year. By the time these children reach adulthood they recognize things like the dynamics of sexual assault and the ways predators choose and groom their victims. Just as crucially, they have had thirteen years’ practice in turning their knowledge into action, like building a healthier peer culture, looking out for friends in unhealthy situations, and calling out attitudes and behaviors that sexual violence and sex trafficking depend on. This awareness and empowerment in our youth is just what we need to change the amazingly high levels of sexual discrimination and violence that are still so prevalent – and still so accepted – in our society.
Help Shine A Light support Jackson County SART and the other organizations doing incredible, needed work to reduce the sexual violence foisted upon our children. Help them help our children to eliminate it in generations to come.
In addition to our yoga fundraising event, January 26th
Studio 151 is hosting an art gala to sponsor Shine A Light
Saturday, Dec 14th, 6-8 pm
Studio 151
151 North Pioneer St. Ashland
A percentage of artwork sales from Studio 151 go to Shine A Light and help fund our premier event in January 2020.
If you’d like to learn more about Shine a Light, we invite you to join us for a fun evening of art, wine, and community.
Shine A Light is a 501(c)(3). If you’d like to make a year-end tax-deductible donation to Shine A Light, go to our website or contact us at info@iwillshinealight.org
