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From Wall Street to Your Street: The Fight Against Human Trafficking
by
Q Ideas
and
Angela Raub
According to a 2005 FBI status report, the average age of a child entering prostitution is 11 to 14, with some as young as 9 years of age. Five months ago,
Angela Raub
left her established career in the hospitality industry to join
Wellspring Living,
the Atlanta, Ga.-based organization in supporting survivors of human trafficking. Today, she is the ministry’s chief development officer. Here, she talks about why she moved to the social sector, how her career prepared her for this position and how everyone can join the fight against sex trafficking.
Human trafficking is a complex and multi-faceted problem. Where do you focus?
Wellspring Living is an organization that, in the 12 years since its birth, has been involved in, and passionately seeking to help restore girls’ and women's lives who have been sexually exploited or trafficked. Children who have been sexually abused are 28 times more likely to be arrested for prostitution at some point in their lives. And considering that one in four women, by the time they're 18, have been sexually abused, we have a broken foundation for women which has led them to make themselves vulnerable. We are about full restoration, and Wellspring Living is about mind, body, spirit, soul—all-encompassing, as well as education.
I made the jump to go from corporate to a not-for-profit because I felt extremely compelled to get involved in the fight against human trafficking because of what Wellspring’s mission is, which is working toward full restoration for a girl or a woman, to see herself as we believe God intended her to be seen—which is beautiful.
How was your transition from working in the hospitality industry to a not-for-profit?
Five months ago, I was building hotels for a large hotel company, Hotel Equities. I was a vice president of business development, and I was building a hotel in South Beach when I did a volunteer training on pipeline development and management for Wellspring. There was a gentleman there, and ... following that event the gentleman followed me out and he asked me about my story. I'm a survivor—a one-in-four woman. I'm someone who, at the age of four, experienced personal trauma with a neighbor. So as I started sharing my story, the man looked at me and he said, “Angie, I know this is going to be completely random, but I feel like God is wanting you to fight human trafficking.” I stood with sunglasses on and a tear rolling down my cheek. I got in my car and I said,
What in the heck just happened?
A day later, Mary Frances [president and founder of Wellspring Living] called me and wanted to talk to me about a job at Wellspring. Within a seven-day period, I went from a total stranger telling me I should be in this fight, to accepting a job, to resigning my position where I was making a considerable amount more money. It has been a crazy process.
Why do you feel you were so prepared to launch into your role with Wellspring on such short notice?
I feel strongly that my entire career has prepared me for this position at Wellspring Living. My experience of working on Wall Street and raising private equity has provided me with a thick skin and the business acumen to help elevate our financial platform at Wellspring Living. More monies provides us with more facilities to serve more girls in the Southeast and eventually helping more survivors on a national level. This role is perfect because I get to use my skill set to help restore human lives. It is an honor for me to ask people for financial assistance for these girls. Making financial asks has never been a problem. I realized at an early age that hearing a "no" in sales was actually a great thing because it meant I would get to a “yes” much sooner. Now I have an easy ask to people. Who would not want to help restore young people's lives?
With a problem that is so extensive, often stretching back years to the initial sexual abuse that predisposes many women, how do you begin to combat human trafficking?
It really is a multiple-prong approach through the education process. How do you get into traditional schools and talk about identifying trauma in particular students? By going into our traditional school systems to reach and help identify the people who have been abused, we could slow down the numbers by which these girls are being pre-qualified to be trafficked by the pimps. Start training elementary teachers, start training the middle school teachers in the ways to identify if someone is going through trauma. Will we get all of them? Probably not. But we will probably have a very significant impact on the pool of people the predators are seeking. To continue to come out it from all different angles will be the only way to stop it.
Yet if you’re not a teacher or a guidance counselor looking for signs of trauma, what can you do to stop the trafficking happening in your neighborhood?
Simply put, anyone can open their eyes to the fact that it's happening. Opening those eyes and knowing this is a problem in the United States everywhere—whether you live in a normal area, whether you are in a metropolitan area and you think you live in a really nice neighborhood, the problem is there. Look for the panic, the fear, the dress, a very old phone, because that's what [the pimps] use. They get old phones and they switch out some cards so they can't be traced. Call the police, let them know you think you’ve seen a victim of human trafficking, let them know where, and get them there—they will do the best job.
Find out more about ways to identify trafficking in your community and how you can help at
WellspringLiving.org
and
@WellspringLivin
Editor's Note: Interview by Heather Croteau. Image by
Rachel Ramos
.
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