How will my donation to Child Rescue be used?
100% of donations go to officer scholarships; there are no hidden fees, overhead, or other expenses.
Where are your trainings held?
Primarily at local departments across the country, occasionally at central locations for training multiple departments at once.
Can I choose to sponsor an officer I already know?
Yes! If they want to attend a Child Rescue training, just give us their contact info and one of our team members will call them and to set them up with your scholarship.
Can I sponsor a whole department and bring the training to my town or precinct?
Absolutely. If a department wants to complete one or both of Child Rescue’s trainings, just give us their contact info (or the department chief’s contact info) and one of our team members will call them and set it up. If you’re sponsoring the training, you can submit your information at the same time and we’ll organize the rest!
I’d like to host my own fundraising event. How can I arrange for a tactical team member to attend? Can I get Stephanie to come share her story in person?
Probably, depending on the type of event. You would need to cover the travel expenses Stephanie or the tactical team member, but as long as the event is successful, you can be reimbursed for those costs.
We can also help reach out to vice officers at your local department to see if one of them could come present about the problems in your city.
What happens to the rescued kids after your teams get them out?
They are placed in local aftercare facilities.
Part of the police trainings is to introduce officers, prosecutors, and judges to local aftercare recovery and resource centers in their area and help them build relationships with those organizations.
Because our non-profit rescue teams work in foreign countries, the country and local governments often won’t allow us to stay involved, so they take over placing the rescued children in aftercare. We are currently working to establish increasing trust with these governments so they will let us help choose qualified facilities.
What are you doing to prevent sex trafficking in the first place?
We have found that the best way to get society to talk about this issue – and to make it a priority for politicians to change the laws – is to have our partner teams do real rescues and then tell the news & media about it. The media are more than happy to cover these stories, because the stories are dramatic, sound like something out of a movie, and get lots of viewers. Previous news outlets that have covered Child Rescue tactical rescue campaigns: CBS, Katie Couric, Glenn Beck, Glamour Magazine, Rolling Stone, and dozens of local news channels and papers.
We also run a youth prevention campaign called Backyard Broadcast, which focuses on advocacy, prevention education, and which will start sponsoring officers in their hometowns in 2015! These programs are run by local high school students, who are required to work with their local law enforcement officers to keep their “station” running, so it’s a natural fit to have them help with officer sponsorship. www.BackyardBroadcast.org
Questions about Child Rescue
What is Child Rescue's mission?
Mission: Our mission is to rescue all 2 million children from sex trafficking and exploitation, one at a time. Description: In addition to sponsoring direct action missions, we train, prepare, and equip law enforcement to combat child exploitation. Tactics: Through sponsorship, we provide the highest level of training for both law enforcement and non-profit rescue teams.}
Tactics:
Staring at home, we help local governments, through their Law Enforcement, to rescue all 2 million exploited children, one at a time.
We then follow up by giving local governments and law enforcement teams awards and international media recognition for the good job they are doing. We want to create voter support and help them establish a reputation of protecting children that they will want to maintain.
How does Child Rescue function?
Child Rescue is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit, which means your donation is tax deductible!
We’re currently operating with very few staff (currently 3 part time employees) and lots of great volunteers.
Who is behind Child Rescue?
Hundreds of regular citizens who care about ending child exploitation. It was started by the Larsen family 5 years ago because of their family story (details: http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2012/07/the-secret-my-family-kept-for-100-years-glamour-exclusive-august-2012 ), recived a large donation early on from billionaire chairman of Viacom, Sumner Redstone, and has grown to a diverse group of committed and caring people that push it forward.
What events does Child Rescue hold?
We have done things including music festivals with survivors and police and attorney generals as speakers, and celebrity events with the owner of the Lakers and CEO’s of CBS, etc.
Our current focus is mostly on law enforcement trainings and youth prevention campaign events.
How can I be involved with Child Rescue's mission?
You can be the reason there is a law enforcement rescue team in your hometown; help us give scholarships to more officers.
You can also help organize a Backyard Broadcast station to help local high school and junior high students raise awareness about trafficking and funds for local law enforcement trainings.
How does Child Rescue differ from other similar organizations?
Most organizations focus primarily on awareness, we try to be involved in direct action to rescue exploited children and improve law enforcement trainings.
Is it possible to end trafficking for good?
Absolutely. Just as black slavery on cotton plantations and in other areas has ended, we believe we can work together to end modern-day slavery.
Do trafficking victims get put in jail?
Unfortunately, in some states with old laws, they still do get put into “juvenile detention facilities” or in some cases charged as adults as willing criminal participants. Other states like NY are catching up to countries like Sweden and have adopted “safe harbor” laws, requiring that the children and teenagers get properly treated as the victims they are, instead of criminals.
Are the rescue teams run by Child Rescue? What’s the relationship between the teams and CR?
We financially sponsor the teams, but their day-to-day operations and rescue missions are currently run by experienced professionals who have elite tactical, intelligence, and other training that uniquely qualifies them to perform rescue missions.
Do your team go out on the rescue missions?
Yes, but undercover.
How do tactical teams know where to do their missions?
The teams have years of experience doing this kind of work for the government. Sadly, sometimes it only takes them half an hour when they get to a new city to locate kids they can rescue. Because this crime requires that there’s a client or demand, i.e., someone for traffickers to “rent” the kids to, our operatives can just go to a strip club, start asking cab drivers where to find girls, or get on backpage.com and similar sites. Traffickers will try to rent them a child or teenager as long as they don’t think our guy is a cop.
For harder situations, like corrupt police or closed loop “circuit houses”, they have intelligence sources that can find the kids or get our team members in contact with the traffickers (e.g., http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article5342709.html )
What role do local authorities play in the rescue missions?
In rescue operations abroad, our non-profit rescue team partners pose as dirtbags trying to rent kids, and lead local authorities, the “arrest authority partner,” to the traffickers in elaborate sting operations; our partner team members actually get arrested and then released by the local authorities to the traffickers don’t suspect them and spread the word to other local traffickers.
US law-enforcement rescue teams perform the entire operation, from gathering intelligence, to performing the rescue, to coordinating the aftercare for victims.
Can I go on a rescue mission with a tactical team?
That depends entirely on your prior training. If you have the skills to help or create a tactical team to partner with Child Rescue, please contact jess@childrescueassociation.org.