Leading Anti-Human Trafficking Campaigner in Super Bowl City to Launch National Lifeline Initiative; Available for National and Local Interviews

  HOUSTON, TX - 01/26/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

Leading anti-human trafficking campaigner Nita Belles will be available in this Super Bowl City ahead of the big game, this week, to discuss another kick-off—the launch of a nationwide campaign offering a lifeline of hope to those caught in sex trafficking.

Belles’ action and advocacy group In Our Backyard (IOB, http://inourbackyard.org/) has partnered with convenience store operators in the Houston area to provide Freedom Stickers for bathroom stalls that feature toll-free and text numbers for the National Human Trafficking Hotline, as well as a booklet featuring missing children who may be at risk for human trafficking, to make help available for trafficking victims.

Big events like the Super Bowl are commonly accompanied by a spike in sex trafficking activity in the host area.

Convenience stores are high-traffic businesses in every city and town in America, frequented by both locals and travelers. Traffickers often bring their victims to convenience stores to purchase fuel, cigarettes, alcohol and condoms, and use the bathrooms to clean up between sex buyers.

Now IOB is rolling out its Convenience Stores Against Trafficking (CSAT) initiative across the country. In addition to providing Freedom Stickers, and missing children books, IOB has produced a video which will be available to convenience stores, spotlighting some of the signs that someone might be a trafficking victim and advising how to safely contact the authorities to report a concern.

“Thousands of women, children, and even some men across the country are caught up in the horrors of sex trafficking, convinced that there is no way out, and convenience stores can be a first line of help for these victims,” said Belles. “Businesses like these can be heroes in this fight; we’re so glad for their support.”

Since founding IOB in 2006, Belles has become widely recognized as a leading voice in the fight against human trafficking. A frequent speaker to law enforcement, medical, civic and community groups, she has also been an adviser on anti-trafficking legislation to legislators in several states and authored the authoritative book “In Our Backyard: Human Trafficking in America and What We Can Do to Stop It.”

While in Houston to announce the launch of CSAT, Belles will also be involved in three other key events:

• She will be keynote speaker at “Vulnerable: A Conference on the Issues of Gender, Race, Poverty & Human Trafficking,” at South Main Baptist Church on Jan. 28, which will be the launch event for the CSAT program. Volunteers are being recruited (http://inourbackyard.org/super-bowl) for the event to help canvas convenience stores in the area.

• She will be working with law enforcement and other groups responding to the anticipated increased sex trade activity in the Houston area.

• She will be announcing a major social media drive aiming to boost awareness of human trafficking during the big game. IOB hopes for a quarter of a million shares of its new video, “Link Arms Across America,” during the first quarter. The short awareness message features former victims holding signs of things they were told by their traffickers, including, “I wish a trick would hurry up and kill you.”

 “Human trafficking happens 24/7, 365 days a year, in every zip code in America,” says Belles. “But working together, we can bring an end to this atrocity.”

To schedule an interview with Nita Belles, contact Rhonda Funk, (541) 848-0958, rhonda@bringitoncommunications.com.