GCWJ: Safe Communities, Safe Kids
Human Trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children in our streets and online affects OC students in every neighborhood of the county: 36% of the sex trafficking victims found in Orange County, are minors. In order to combat this risk to our children and prevent this abuse, the Vanguard University Global Center for Women and Justice (GCWJ) has developed a program to recruit and train Vanguard University students as Peer-Educators, who then take critical prevention messages to middle and high school students through a youth-friendly, relatable, peer-to-peer approach, that is research-based and proven to be effective at changing health behaviors.
The pilot program, launched earlier this year, was successful in providing this free presentation and innovative curricula to more than 1,000 high school students, with just a team of 7 Vanguard Peer-Educators.
The peer-to-peer methodology was critical to success, as student participants shared: "I found it impactful that they care so much about students they don't even know" and "It made me feel a little surprise and like "woah" because they were explaining things so openly that not a lot of people share, but it also made me feel better knowing these things because they can help either me or people that are put in those situations."
This funding is critical to reaching our goal of educating 3,000 students in the 2024/25 school year.
How will the funds be used?
Funding is needed to hire, train, and deploy Vanguard University students to serve as the peer-to-peer mentors in the middle and high school sites, educating youth about human trafficking. Examples of funding activities:
- Support for recruitment and marketing capacity focused externally-developing partnerships with various middle/high schools for presentations, and internally expanding the pool of Vanguard University candidate peer-educators to present at the schools.
- Support for hiring and training process of Vanguard University peer-educators, including instructor assistance and providing and developing effective curriculum to ensure robust presentation quality at the schools.
- Support to retain and strengthen Vanguard University peer-educators including support for training and deployment, transportation costs, and engaging in community/team-building activities.
Student Impact
High School students who were part of the program reported: “What I found most impactful about this presentation was how they gave different ways to help in various situations. Usually there's one or two different ways to deal with something, but they gave many different ways to cope with it so people can have options and do what they feel most comfortable with. It really showed me a new way to deal with things if I'm ever put in a situation."
As one high school student in our program reported, "I felt seen… like I didn't feel like I was alone or that this was something to brush off." Our youth need to know they are not alone, exploitation is not okay, and there is help and support to end human trafficking.
Why are donations necessary?
The Global Center for Women and Justice (GCWJ) founded in 2003, is a Christian-based, non-profit organization housed within Vanguard University of Southern California, dedicated to research, education and prevention of human trafficking. For the past 15 years, the GCWJ has especially focused on empowering teachers and youth through two strategic programs: partnering with the Orange County Department of Education to offer our Ensure Justice two-day conference to teachers and school based professionals for free, and through the Live2Free program, which has educated more than 10,000 students through peer-to-peer presentations at high school, middle schools and afterschool programs.
We wish to expand our impact to reach more students throughout Orange County with a life-saving message about human trafficking prevention and online safety. Public schools currently lack quality curricula and the teacher training/understanding needed to prevent sexual exploitation and human trafficking of students.
Additionally, the topic of human trafficking, though required to be taught by California education standards, is linked to sexual education, an increasingly sensitive and controversial topic. Vanguard’s GCWJ is a trusted community partner which has built a reputation of expertise, wisdom, and courage to address human trafficking and child sexual abuse. Students from marginalized communities are particularly at risk and will benefit from peer-educators who can identify with their lived experiences; VU students, as a majority-minority school, are these role models.
By training Vanguard University students as peer-educators we accomplish three things: train, pay, and prepare the future workforce (VU students) for greater impact, deliver quality content to current students, and build the professional capacity of current teachers as they observe our peer-educators.