In case you missed the Anniversary Celebration, we wanted to share Shield NC's achievements in the past 5 years!  We could not have done any of this without your support and we THANK YOU!   

Empowerment
-Developed 30+ career based trainings. Trained hundreds of people  across the state on Human Trafficking, including state conferences, medical professionals, child care workers, apartment complexes, churches and civic groups.
-Used social media to dispel a number of myths and to teach accurate facts about the signs of Human Trafficking. 
-Led community outreach to hotels, trucking companies, and neighborhoods to empower them to know the signs of Human Trafficking.
-Led initiative with the Department of Justice to develop resource guides for service providers, parents and students during the pandemic.
-Hosted 19 podcasts, as well as highlight on numerous podcasts and news reports.
-Advocated for Town resolutions to bring awareness to Trafficking and vulnerable populations.

Prevention
-Founded the Service Group and Faith Alliance in partnership with Apex PD. The SGFA brings together law enforcement, town council members, ministry leaders and service groups to better shield vulnerable populations such as the those who are homeless, food insecure, battling substance and children in the foster care system.    
-Launched an online campaign with WRAL/Capitol Broadcasting to target individuals in two North Carolina counties who were searching for terms suggesting they are searching for explicit images of minors. This campaign sent out over 100,000 warnings to people who were searching for these explicit images .
-Co-founded the state’s first Demand Reduction Task Force to determine how to reduced the demand for commercialized sex and forced labor. 

Advocacy 
At the Local Level
-Successfully advocated for Apex to require all town employees be trained on Human Trafficking  identification. 
-Successfully advocated for a Resolution that passed for the Apex Purchasing Department to add a clause to all contracts to ensure that any services purchased by the town do not include Labor Trafficking. --Apex was the first in the state to do both of these. 

State
-Worked with Representative Bill Brawley to create legislation that strengthened Anti-Trafficking Law. This legislation made it possible for minors, who are trafficked, to receive aid from CPS.  Also, it changed to procedure in court that you can no longer ask about previous sexual history of rape victims.  
-Introduced legislation to ensure restitution for victims of child sexual abuse material, commonly known as child pornography.
-Successfully advocated with the State Bureau of Investigations for staffing SBI’s human trafficking unit.
-Hosted a cultural training to law enforcement and service providers which led to a change in the way operations to Asian illicit massage businesses were conducted to be more culturally competent and trauma informed.

Federal
-Advocated for a federal Executive Order for additional resources to combat Human Trafficking. Shield NC met with the President’s Assistant on Domestic Policy (for resources and restitution) as well as Legislators (for restitution for child victims of sexual abuse material).   
-Successfully advocated for more provisions for survivors and stronger Anti-Trafficking laws.