Dear John,
I am so glad that you are a part of the WTP community. Our team has been busy responding to the needs within our community and partnering with local agencies and tribes to help prevent exploitation throughout the region. The schools that we partner with are reporting significant changes within students this year. One teacher shared with us:
"I've been a teacher for over 25 years and never in my entire year have we had a school year like this." -High School Teacher in Pierce County
She shared that students throughout every district are struggling being back in school. There is increased fighting, bullying, mental health impacts, and decreased interest in school. Like her, we are worried about young people in our community.
We have increased our outreach to schools in the South Puget Sound and are looking forward to getting back into classrooms to connect with students and give them tools to cope with stress and increase connection with safe people.
Earlier this month, The National Center on Sexual Exploitation released their annual dirty dozen list. This is a list of corporations who are actively or passively allowing sexual exploitation to take place on their platforms or within their companies. This year's list includes companies you are familiar with like: Kik, Discord, Etsy, Google, Kanakuk Kamps, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), Netflix, OnlyFans, Reddit, Twitter, Verisign, and Visa.
This speaks to an overwhelming need for WTP to continue to offer in and out of school programming to young people in middle and high school to prevent exploitation. Grooming and trafficking is running rampant on every major platform that kids access. One of the actions you can take is to call for accountability from the companies who made this years list. The other is to help spread the word about the programs we offer in the community.
Thank you for your continued commitment to our mission,
Kyra Doubek
Executive Director & Survivor Leader |
