Wow, what a beautiful year of offering healing services for trafficking survivors and their families! Thank you so much for going on this wild ride with us and being part of what is happening at Love Powered Life through your friendship, volunteer hours and donations. You make it possible for us to provide healing support, recovery resources and opportunities for a more empowered future to many individuals and families.

Without further ado, check out your support with Love Powered Life’s top 6 highlights of 2019:

#1: Clarified Role as Biofeedback, Neurofeedback, and Trauma Recovery Coaching Professionals

In 2019, we experienced great clarity about who we are and what our puzzle piece is in serving survivors of human trafficking and their families. While our desire is for folx to have access to housing, educational services, child care and so much more, this is best accomplished in community, rather than by spreading ourselves thin.

Love Powered Life’s role is specifically in the area of recovery and healing services. We are thankful that we can provide HRV biofeedback, trauma recovery coaching and neurofeedback services to our clients, while we partner with others who specialize in housing, education, child care, healthcare, midwifery and more. Together we go far!

#2: HRV Biofeedback Certification

We are thankful for the opportunity to become certified in HRV Biofeedback in 2019. In the spring, our founder attended their HMIP course to learn the ins and outs of HRV biofeedback, as well as several techniques to use with clients coping with PTSD, anxiety, depression, stress, anger and more.

After taking the summer to complete the required HeartMath case study and report, our founder received this formal certification. Since then, Love Powered Life has enjoyed serving clients with HRV biofeedback and equipping them with lifelong tools for healing, health and thriving.

#3: Nonprofit Education Courses

Throughout the first quarter of 2019, Love Powered Life continued courses on nonprofit organization and functioning. We put together a carefully considered nonprofit plan, including:

• Nonprofit Overview
• Funding Plan
• Donor Care Plan
• Fundraising Plans
• Board Job Descriptions for 11 Positions

#4: Othmer Neurofeedback Certification Course

Thanks to a generous award from Birchbox’s Future Starts Now Fund, our founder was able to fly to California to attend the introductory course in Othmer method neurofeedback in December of 2019. During the five day course, Anne became proficient in using Sue Othmer’s protocol guide to help clients train their brains with neurofeedback. They attended with special concern for clients coping with C-PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and sleep related concerns.

#5: Human Trafficking Consultant Certification

2019 was a big huge year for certifications as we strive to serve our clients and the community with the very best in trauma informed services. During the late summer of 2019, our founder worked with the National Survivor Network to become certified as a consultant who is equipped to provide training, keynote speaking and community speaking services to the community.

If you are looking for a speaker for Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January of 2020 or anytime throughout the year, contact us to check on Anne’s availability to come to your church, office, community group or small group.

#6: Holiday Blessings Abound

Each year around the holidays, Love Powered Life provides blessing  bags and gifts to our clients and their families. This year, we are very thankful for a friend and donor who collected blessing bag items for her birthday in September and provided most of what was needed for 25 blessing bags! Additional donations made it possible to distribute those items and more to our clients and their families for the holidays this year. Thank you to everyone who has been part of sharing the hope of Christmas with survivors and their families!

On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day,  our hearts are with the many women and children we are blessed to love: the warriors, survivors, thrivers and overcomers who have beat the odds and are processing trauma. They are growing in a sense of self-agency and healing more and more everyday. While we don’t share their individual stories in order to protect privacy and the healing process, we can share general information about human trafficking, what it is and why it matters.

According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, human trafficking is:

1. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age, or
2. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Contrary to popular belief, human trafficking has nothing to do with travel or crossing borders- that is human smuggling, which is an entirely different crime. The most important part to remember about the definition for human trafficking is that it uses force, fraud and/or coercion in order to exploit people for sex, services or labor.

Human trafficking statistics vary based on whose data you are considering. Here are some stats for you:

• The Global Slavery Index estimates that over 40 million people are enslaved worldwide.
• According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 300,000 or more children could be trafficked in the United States each year.
• The average age a person is first trafficked is 11-13 years of age.
• The average life expectancy after being trafficked is only 7 years.
• Of the 25,000 missing children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2017, it is estimated that 1 in 7 were victims of human trafficking. Most cases are never reported. Of those reported, 88 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing.
• Worldwide, human trafficking is a $150-billion industry and is the third largest criminal enterprise in the world. Of that $150-billion, roughly $100-billion is from sex trafficking.
• It is often said that people who sell drugs only make a profit one time, but a trafficker who sells a person for sex can sell her or him over and over again. The average profits from each person a trafficker exploits is over $100,000 per year and many traffickers exploit several people at the same time.
• Human trafficking is incredibly underreported with only 14,894 prosecutions and 9,071 convictions for trafficking globally in 2016, according to the Trafficking in Persons report.

When something like human trafficking is this horrendous and widespread, how can we afford to look the other way? Stats would indicate that whether we are aware of it or not, most of us are friends with or know someone who is a survivor of human trafficking. Millions of people worldwide are recovering from human trafficking, and while we cannot build a personal relationship or friendship with each one, all of us can reach out to connect with one or two people in some way.

The adults and children who are exploited through human trafficking have varied stories, but one common thread remains: they have vulnerabilities (like we all do) that were exploited by human traffickers who had the motive of harming them and making a profit.

If the magnitude of the problem seems so big you don’t know where to start, consider this:

• We have the power to simply love and form relationships.
• We have the power to show up, however imperfectly.
• We have the power to learn about human trafficking.
• We have the power to contribute financially to solutions.
• We have the power to influence legislation.
• We have the power to speak up and spread awareness.
• We have the power to simply be the change, each of us in our own corner of the world, doing what we are already doing each day.

Today, on National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, we thank you for joining us in creating loving community with people who have lived experience of human trafficking and their families. We look forward to connecting with you and serving you through education and opportunities to partner with what is happening at Love Powered Life.