Listening then Doing

Brittany Dunn is a nationally recognized leader in the fight against human trafficking, leveraging extensive expertise in both the public and private sectors to advance survivor-centered solutions. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English from Wellesley College and earned her MBA with distinction from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Before co-founding Safe House Project, Dunn spent a decade in mergers and acquisitions, leading CareerBuilder.com's international business development across Europe and Southeast Asia. Her corporate experience sharpened her skills in strategic planning, as well as fostering both cross-sector and cross-cultural collaboration - expertise that now drives her impactful work in combating human trafficking.

In 2017, Dunn co-founded Safe House Project, a nonprofit organization that has redefined the national response to human trafficking, addressing both sex and labor trafficking. Under her leadership, the organization has built a pioneering network of safe housing and holistic care services for survivors while driving systemic change at the local, state, and federal levels.

 Recognized for her expertise, she was appointed by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to serve on the Governor’s Commission on Human Trafficking Prevention and Survivor Support. In this role, Dunn has shaped forward-thinking policy frameworks, enhanced protections for survivors, and championed increased accountability for traffickers. Her advocacy has also influenced legislation and fostered partnerships between government and industry, emphasizing scalable and sustainable solutions. At the federal level, Dunn collaborates with policymakers to design responsive, data-driven initiatives that improve survivor identification and access to care.

 As a military spouse and wife of a commanding officer in the U.S. Navy, Dunn embodies the values of service, resilience, and leadership. These principles inform her work in creating impactful collaborations between the public and private sectors, driving innovative solutions to complex challenges and inspiring systemic change. Her ability to bridge the gaps between advocacy, policy, and survivor care has positioned Safe House Project as a trusted partner for governments, businesses and communities across the country. 

 Dunn's influence extends to the national stage, where she has been featured in Forbes, The Hill, and CBN for her insights into combating human trafficking. In 2024, she coauthored Eradicating Human Trafficking: A Transformative Approach through Collective Impact, a seminal work offering practical strategies to unite diverse sectors in addressing trafficking. Her leadership has inspired systemic change, from building safe housing infrastructure to mobilizing communities and influencing policy.

 An active member of Beta Gamma Sigma, Pi Sigma Alpha, and the Wellesley Alumnae Association, Dunn exemplifies a life of service and action. As a proud mother of two, she finds daily inspiration in her children's character and potential. Their resilience and curiosity drive her vision for a world where all children can grow up free from the threat of exploitation. Balancing her personal and professional commitments, Dunn channels her dedication to protecting the vulnerable into meaningful, systemic change. Her career reflects a deep understanding of both government and corporate systems, making her a driving force in advancing sustainable solutions to combat trafficking.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Eight Principles Voices. Conversations with those who are making a difference. I'm your host, Larry Johnson, founder of the Eight Principles. Now join me as I welcome this week's guest as they invite us to come along on their journey. Hello, everyone. It's Larry Johnson, your host of Eight Principles Voices, and I am really thrilled to have a lady by the name of Brittany Dunn here with me. And she's going to keep you informed and maybe a little bit entertained. You know, I'm not that much. But she's the chief operating officer of Safe House Project. Did I get that right, Britney?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

You did, sir.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

And this is not your typical um, I decided I wanted to change the world story, and I'd like her to tell us a little bit more about it. Because she doesn't come out of the nonprofit environment, neither does her co-founder, who is the chief executive officer. But they um they sort of responded to God's calling and said, okay, we're just gonna go into this and see what happens. And they've been in it now eight years, I think. And uh they're and she's gonna explain. I hope she'll tell us a little bit about the struggle in the early days. That's what I really want to hear. But um, so without further ado, Brittany, it's a pleasure to have you with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Well, thank you, Larry. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

We're gonna have fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

So I covered a little bit of that now. Now what is it that you're trying to address? I mean, I mean, I should say, what is it that caught your heart that moved you in this direction? What was it about, you know, what you're doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Yeah, so our organization, Safe House Project, really responds to the most critical needs of victims of human trafficking as they exit out of that exploitation and help get them into safe house programs. But long before obviously I understood that issue, God really started to work on my heart around just even the prevalence of this. When I started to learn about it, it was the early 2000s, had just moved to Atlanta and um was hearing that there were 300 girls being trafficked on the streets of Atlanta every night. And I couldn't.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Now, when you say when you say trafficked, you mean street prostitutes is what we're talking about here.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Child victims of human, yes, of sex trafficking. So these children were being sold for commercial sex on the streets of Atlanta every single night. And that that broke my heart. And but at that point, you know, I was early on starting out my career. I was in um technology, doing international business, develop mergers and acquisitions, really didn't necessarily see that as my career path. So over the next 10 years, God just took me on a learning journey. I ended up marrying a USA Navy, naval aviator. And so with that life, we got to move all over the US.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

And so I started to invest- Now, see some people see that as a downer, but you saw it as an upper moving.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Oh, what I mean, yeah, a top gun pilot. What can you get wrong there? So um, no, we got to move and we got to see different communities. And that meant that I got to learn about what human trafficking and specifically child sex trafficking was looking like in all of these different communities. And so the last duty station we had before we moved to Hampton Roads, Virginia, which is where Safe House Project launched out of, was outside of Reno, Nevada, where the brothels are still active. And so I had a madam of a brothel who lived up the street from me, and she was legally allowed to recruit the kids right out of our high school into the brothels because they were a taxpaying business.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Now, where is this?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Outside of Reno, Nevada. And Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Nevada's where prostitutions legal. I was like, so where is this? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

I know, but it's so shocking because you hear about this, but and I would had seen it in other communities.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

And these were underage kids.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Yes, they were being recruited right at 17, right when they would turn 18, which would then become legal age. But they were so vulnerable and they were being recruited, and it was just a um really eye-opening experience to see how this was playing out if it wasn't an illegal industry in other communities. And so really got up, started to really open my eyes to how this was happening at a very brass tax level. So, fast forward, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where I met my co-founder through Bible study. And both of us uh had been on our own journeys to understanding what human trafficking looked like. We were both reading the book Circle Maker by Pastor Mark Batterson at a national community church, which is all about just standing in the circle until God tells you kind of what's next and trying to figure out what he wanted us to do on this issue. Um it was not the most ideal time to launch a nonprofit. I mean, I was on maternity leave with my second. I had a two-year-old. Uh, Christy had two twin, uh, seven-year-old boys and a five-year-old daughter. So between us, there were five kids, and her husband deployed. My husband gets three days' notice, he deploys. My daughter is five weeks old on the kitchen table.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And that's how you hired a nanny between the two of you? Is that what you did?

SPEAKER_02 5:11

We no, we became each other's nanny. We did not did it together. So, baby on the table, kids playing around us, and God said go. And he cast such a large vision in those first three months that we knew that the vision that he gave us, he would have to provision.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So, who else did you seek out for help? I mean, there's some legal issues, there's some other stuff. I mean, who other who other people came around you to kind of get this thing going?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

It's the most beautiful piece of that whole story. We had one of our visionaries early on was a Christian hip-hop artist who had worked a lot with marginalized populations, kids in fatherless homes, kind of seeing a lot of the vulnerabilities. We had the head of a large um trade school and education system. And at that point, we were focused a lot on identification training and helping people understand the problem. Um, in addition, we had some really great early board members who had been, you know, the past president of the International Franchise Association, other ones from the intelligence community.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So, how did you how did you acquire these people? I mean, usually when someone forms a nonprofit, their first board is what's called family fools and friends. I mean, the people they can acquire. So were these prior association, or you were introduced to these people? How did it happen?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

A lot of them were prior association, but there were a few that became through as introductions and just as we started talking about the issue of human trafficking, I think it was new on a lot of people's radar. And we had people leaning in saying, okay, if this is really happening in our community, I want to be part of finding those solutions that are actually working. And so I think we saw people drawn to just the complexity. It's not a it's not a single issue. It is a very complex criminal enterprise that thrives at the intersection of legal and illegal industry. And at the heart of it are kids, on average 12 years old, that are being sold. And so when you think about those numbers, it just can't help but compel people to be, want to be part of the redemption story.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

I think it's something that you said that I think should be emphasized. It is a complex criminal enterprise. This is not just people snatching people off the street. Okay, it's it's it's a lot more complicated, it's a lot more lucrative. There are very strong forces behind this. Um, and maybe you don't want to tell me, but have you ever been threatened? You felt threatened in any of your work?

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Um, we said that you said that, like I said, I'm gonna walk out the street. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Oh, absolutely. No, I mean, we have, and you know, we've had to take a lot of security measures to protect ourselves as you know leaders of this organization and our team. But at the end of the day, we believe that God called us to this. And if you are operating under his anointing, then you are operating in his will and he's gonna protect you. So, although, yes, my family has been swatted um for about 12 weeks this summer by um trafficking rings, we've had death threats. I've had my kids' images sent to me. Yes, we go up against some of the worst parts of humanity, but in that we see the greatest parts of humanity because we see miracle and miracle happen for the least of these. And when you get to step into somebody's restorative journey and see God move in ways that most of us don't understand, it doesn't help like you are you are compelled because you're seeing the light literally push back the darkness.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah. See, this gives me um, you know, I hear this stuff all the time. I mean, I listen to the news, I read, I read the Wall Street Journal, blah, blah, blah. Uh, you're and I suspected these things, but when you tell me, it's very compelling. Uh, it comes across uh three-dimensional, not two-dimensional.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

So um, so then you've had to live with the realities of increased security, of forging ahead, of doing these things. Um it I take it this has not dissuaded you in any way.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

No, it just fires me up any more, even more because I'm that Satan's gonna put that many people on you to try to dissuade you from going after your God-called vision and mission. I think that tells you you're in the going in the right direction. And I have no problem pissing off Satan if I know that I'm operating within God's will.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Well, uh, one of the tests of knowing you're having an impact is having real enemies, regardless of what you're doing. And I think that's certainly been validation for you as well. Um, now I know that you don't have a house of your own, meaning a place of your own that you that you have for these children. Now you just do boys or girls, or just girls, or how do you do it? Is it all women or victims?

SPEAKER_02 10:18

All victims of human trafficking.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

All victims. Okay. Um, so um since you don't have a uh a facility and yet I look at your website and you're like pretty much all over the country, how do you handle that?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yeah, so our team is really at that critical place when somebody has 10 seconds of insane courage to exit a trafficking situation, we're getting those calls. And at that moment, our team is coordinating the extraction from that trafficking experience. We're coordinating the crisis management of what's going to happen in that safety planning for the next, you know, 72 hours to a week to keep somebody safe before we identify the right safe house program somewhere in the country where they can really go and heal for up to two years. Those safe house programs are our partners. They do incredible work around education and therapy and medical treatment. But where we sit is at that pivotal moment when somebody is exiting that trafficking experience and needing that lifeline of support.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Let's break that let's let's break that work down for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

How does some how does someone exit this? You make it sound like I'm getting off an airplane. Let's let's be a little more detailed. How do you if I'm if I'm 12 years old, I know that's a stretch, but if if if if I'm 12 years old and I'm trapped in this, how would I ever exit it? I mean, no one's coming to rescue me, I don't think. How does it work?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

They it really actually can look very different depending on the situation. So recently we had a survivor who was able to get herself to an emergency department. And so she got in there, she disclosed to the nurse what is happening to her.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

You mean an ER in a hospital.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Exactly. Up to there, was able to speak with a nurse and was translating what was happening to her. Her trafficker was a long-haul truck driver. He was literally circling the hospital waiting for her to exit to snatch her up again. They called our team. We worked alongside the hospital staff to identify a tunnel that went underneath the main hospital to an administrative building somewhere else on site. We were able to transport the victim through that tunnel and have an extraction team meet her on the other side. From there, we had chaperones and people along the way that got her to the airport. We were able to maintain um law enforcement support, got her on that first plane, and then had when she touched down in the city where we had an emergency program waiting for her, there were victim advocates waiting to receive and take her into care.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Let me let me ask you a question. In a situation like that, why wouldn't the why wouldn't the hospital just call the police?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

That one was she was over the age of 18, and not every survivor wants um the wants law enforcement involved. Kids can look a lot of different ways on how they're identified. Um when we talk about kids, over 50% are first trafficked by a family member.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And so it's the people that they let's say that let's let me hit put that by me again slowly, Brittany.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

How much, how many fifty percent of kids are first trafficked by a family member.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Okay. Let's let that sink in for a minute. All right. Well, aside from it being appalling, um that makes my skin crawl, Brittany.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yep, mine too. It's what got me into this. My first survivor that we served had been trafficked from the age of six by her uncle and sold for $300 per buyer over eight times every single night.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Eight times in a 24-hour period.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Oh, this is disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Correct. And when you see that and you see somebody's resilience to escape that and tell somebody what's going on and have that courage, you have no choice but to find solutions for people.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

See, this is where um I think um, you know, all the sanitized objective language doesn't really begin to describe what the situation really is. This is why I'm pushing you to get more details here. This is what people need to hear and need to understand. Um I'm so, and I know you you're not really involved in this piece of the puzzle, but I'm wondering uh what sort of long-term uh psychological damage these children have after they're rescued.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Um, we work very closely alongside. So even as they go into the safe house programs, we're working with the program and the survivor through their journey because it it's long term. I mean, I have survivors that we have walked alongside for the past seven years, and it's because of the long-term psychological damage. Um, on average, someone will have 10 and a half psychological um disorders. A lot of that is, you know, complex PTSD, uh, dissociative disorders. Some have dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality historically.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

We support schizophrenia.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Uh schizophrenia is different than dissociative identity disorder, but now both borderline personality, bipolar. So we are dealing with some of the most complex mental health referrals in the country every single day, which is what makes it so imperative that our team be able to do that deep assessment to identify that individual's unique needs and help place them in a program that meets that because you're dealing with mental health, but you can also, I mean, we've had girls as young as 13 years old exiting pregnant. So they're not just coming out having to think about their own mental health. They're also having to consider that they're about ready to bring a baby into this world, and often one that was conceived at the hands of either their trafficker or a buyer of them. And so we are dealing with people at the most raw, vulnerable, horrific pieces of how our society operates. And it's our privilege to walk alongside them. But that's why we always tell people that first week is so critical because we're setting the tone for somebody to trust us and trust the resources that we're bringing alongside them to truly transform their life.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Um, I'm trying to let this sink in here. I'm I'm still with you. Um this is um so are you? I know you were the chief operating officer now. So do you still get in uh you still have contact with with with patients with your with your charges? You still have contact? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

We think it's important to stay proximate to the issue. It doesn't mean I get to do it every day, but we want to make sure that we never feel disconnected from the people that we serve.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Okay, all right. So how many uh how many states are you in off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_02 17:19

All 50.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

All 50. Okay. And you've been around for eight years.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Okay. But you're just I get the impression though, you're just scratching the surface of this thing. It's such a big behemoth sitting out there.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

It's the second largest criminal enterprise, and we are only at a 1% identification rate.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Now, I I heard I heard it's uh a a fact or a factoid someplace, and you can either confirm or or correct me on this, that the US is actually the biggest market for trafficking in the world. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

We're in the top three with Mexico and the Philippines, apart according to the Department of State. And a huge part of that is because we have the largest demand for commercial sex in the world.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Okay, well, that's sort of it must have been where I I heard that. And um so um um this is scary, but it's wonderful and it's redeeming, and it's all those things wrapped into one, Brittany. So how are you see yourself doing this for a while, then I take it. You're not ready to move on to anything else.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Nope. We have an audacious belief that God is going to start moving this country to really respond to this issue at scale and watching people become part of the fabric of the solution, not be part of the problem. And so I am here to see this thing taken all the way.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

So then um uh from what I know of your model uh that you use, it's imminently scalable. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Correct. So we have staff all around the country and we have incredible survivors of human trafficking that are now on staff being able to support individuals as they exit. Um, you know, we have incredible licensed clinical social workers, you know, there's just this entire group of people who are truly called with unique gifts to serve individuals in so many different capacities. And so we have one of the best teams in the field.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

You um uh how many of your field sites have you personally visited?

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I have gone to probably 15 now. We um and we also did a few years ago, Christy and I actually did a drive from the east coast to Colorado and visited a lot of partners along that. So there were a lot more in there in that scene than you and I thought of when you said that.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Okay. You know the movie Thelma and Louise, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Oh, we are like Thelma and Louise.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

That's the first thing I thought of.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Oh, 100%. Except that we put all five kids in the trunk, not in the trunk, but in the backseat.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Oh, I heard that. I heard that. You everyone, you heard what you said.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

But so we brought all five kids along for this adventure and showed them what it looks like to truly serve people in different communities and really showcase it. But collectively, our team has set foot into over 120 um organizations over the past 18 months.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Okay. Well, I hope when you took that uh coast to coast trip that you gave your kids some entertainment, some of the sides on the way.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

We saw the largest ball of twine, which fulfilled my childhood dream. I wanted to see the largest ball of twine since I was six years old. It took a two-hour detour to Cocker City, Kansas, and I called the docent who's in charge of it, and she let me add twine to the ball.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Ooh, well, you are a special person, Brittany.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

I just need you know, if you don't take away anything today, just know that you can go to Cocker City, Kansas and add twine to the largest ball.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Oh, I will keep that on my list. Now, when I moved out from uh western New York, I'm in Idaho now. I don't know if you knew that or not, but I am. And uh we were going through the upper Midwest, and and I have three daughters, and they were into Laurel Ingalls Wild, as you might imagine. So we had to take that detour. It was about 90 minutes up to her home and then back again. Yes. I I I've done similar things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Okay. Um I I um what what is it? What message would you like our listeners to get from you today? What would you like them to remember about this interview?

SPEAKER_02 21:41

I think the most important thing is that this is a complex issue, but it takes every single one of us understanding what human trafficking looks like in our community, being able to report it. We just launched a brand new AI tool and mobile app called Simply Report that you can download. Download out of the Google or Apple Play Store, go on and report suspected trafficking that will route to our law enforcement partners within five seconds or route somebody to our survivor support team if they need services. But that real-time intelligence is what is going to allow us to increase identification above 1%. And then we get more survivors that we get to serve and watch them exit exploitation. And so my call to action today is that you don't have to understand all the complexities of human trafficking. We just need you to care and lean into a hard issue.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

So if I were going to do this, and this is the first thing that comes to me, um do if I report something, do I put a target on my back using this app?

SPEAKER_02 22:46

No, that's the great part is it's an anonymous real-time, and you can decide as the reporter if you provide your information or you can do it completely anonymously, and it allows that information to be relayed to law enforcement. And then if we start to see where maybe something doesn't have a ton of um actionable insights in the very first report, but let's say you report something, then a few days later I report something and somebody else does. We're able to draw those um cases or those tips together to help start painting a picture for law enforcement where something might be going on. And so it's more about the collective movement than it is about the one.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Oh, okay. So these things are amalgamated using an algorithm so that they can be identified and prioritized. Well, that's pretty clever, Brittany. Um, so whose bright idea was that?

SPEAKER_02 23:37

We had an incredible team who came up with this, but it really was led by um a gentleman who was known for one being one of the first five founding members of Department of Homeland and creating how we predict in the United States when somebody's moving from extremist to terrorist. We redid those algorithms with behavioral indicators of human trafficking and developed our own proprietary system for evaluating and analyzing the data coming in. And through that, we knew that we needed every community member to be seeing and saying something. And so Simply Report is simply that. It's simply report your suspicions. You don't have to be completely confident. You just need to be, you just need to care. And so that's where Simply Report is the power of the people coming together to see uh human trafficking truly tackled in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Another question. Okay, I've reported something, and and you're you've taken it seriously. I mean, I'm not some crank out there. I may be a crank, but not a crank with this. And what would be the next course of action? Would it be uh I guess it depends on the situation, but uh alerting law enforcement, alerting so alerting someone else? And I I mean, how does it how I'm trying to figure out how this happens and I'm I'm putting it together. Can you break it down a little bit for me?

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Okay, so you come onto the chat bot and you start saying, okay, I was at a hotel this weekend and I saw men coming and going from this hotel room regularly. They didn't seem to be staying the night, and then the next morning I saw a girl that looks 12 years old come out of the room. She looked exhausted and tired and disheveled and was dressed inappropriately for her age, or whatever your situation is that you see.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

And these are all obviously unrelated middle-aged men coming and going. Well, that's a that's a sign right there. Okay, keep going.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Right. So then you could come onto the app and be like, okay, this is what I saw. And then it's going to start based on the situation asking you additional things. It might ask you for general demographic information about either the child or the men coming and going. It could ask if you saw any markings on the individuals, if you saw a license plate, if you were, you know, had a car in view. And so it's working to draw out maybe some of those things that you didn't even necessarily remember that maybe you saw that can help build a more comprehensive picture for law enforcement. Once that tip is submitted, it is routed to our law enforcement partners and it goes through an analysis to determine the likelihood of trafficking and the actionability. If it is deemed immediately actionable or like a life risk or it's actively happening, then we deploy dispatch to that situation, or dispatch could deploy law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

This could be real time, is what you're telling me. So this isn't this doesn't go to some queue and somebody in the office gets to it next week.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

No, no, no, no. We can't, we these are people's lives. So it's well, I know that Brittany.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

You don't have to conclude.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

We use technology as a tool, but we have a human-centric response on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Okay, see, but but you know, and I know when you call some bank, I mean, I'm just trying, see, I'm trying to, I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself here. I appreciate you. So uh, but I mean because if it's one thing I can't stand, these damn AI bots, and I never get to speak to somebody new and they and they and I'm going, I'm in some sort of loop. Yes, but you're not that way, is what you're telling me.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

No, no, no, no. We want to make sure that that tip gets to a real person who can then triage the situation. So for some, they might get routed to our survivor support team if they need that um resource and referral into safe housing. If it's tips that are coming in and we are able to help somebody exit, then we want to get that into the hands of the right person as quickly as possible. It is really critical.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

So, and let's go back to the example you used, the the hotel example. And I'm sure there's a lot of that. That just sounds intimate, you know, very realistic. Um, so then the police would show up at the hotel. And so what would they tell the desk clerk or the manager? Who how how would they, do you know what they do? Say, hey, where's this room? And because they may not know the number of the room. Um Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

And that can be a complicating factor. Sometimes they will. So I mean, usually that would be a question that would be asked. Like if it's coming in from somebody who's in the room next door, okay, well, what room was this happening in? So they would have a room number, you they would work alongside the GM at the hotel or whoever is the highest ranking employee on site, or if they have a safety, depending on what level of hotel we're talking about, that can differ. Um, and then usually it starts with a door knock just to assess the safety, almost like a well check of a child if you were to request that from child protective services for somebody's home. And then from there, you know, we do a lot on victim-centered approach to law enforcement, helping train our law enforcement partners on how to go in and read a room to understand whether or not you have a victim of human trafficking. And so there's a lot of questioning that they use and different um just um techniques for helping discern what might be happening.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Okay. All right. And then if they assume if they really have a serious sense of something's going on, they can they can take custody of the minor.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Correct. So then at that point, if it's they would um remove the the victim, separate them from the trafficker, trafficker would be arrested, victim would be connected to a victim advocate, and then our team would be liaising alongside the victim advocate to start the process of finding a safe house program for that child or that individual.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Okay. All right. Well, when you were saying they have a certain way of questioning people, uh, a certain memory came to mind for me. You're like this. I I lived up in uh in the Buffalo area for a number of years. And, you know, if you know anything about the geography, you're right there on the Canadian border, and we'd go to and from Canada. You know, you go over to on the other side of the falls for the day and you come back. And that was before it was required to have a passport. I mean, you didn't just show a uh uh whatever. If you had uh US plates on your car and you had a uh a driver's license, you were you were good, you're good to go. Well, I had three daughters, as you know, and my middle daughter, she liked to be too cute for half. So we're coming back into the US, and the border agent is just asking my three parents, my three girls, and he asks my middle one, are these your parents? No, they're not. I don't know who these people are. Oh my god. I mean, I wanted to wring her neck. I mean, this was just too much. Okay, so we're hauled out of the car and into there, and yeah, it's like I mean, it was sorted out fairly quickly because these people are pretty smart and they could tell what this girl was up to. But it was like, how would you? I mean, talk about feeling like uh what is this? These aren't my parents.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

I who are these people, I've never seen them before.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Just wait till we get you home, just wait till we get you home. Um, she was also the one who was uh we called her Houdini because she'd be in the in the car seat in the back. And this usually happened by the way, going to church on Sunday morning is when it usually happened. And we're riding along, we had to be on an interstate for a while, and I look up and she's like, what, two, three, maybe, and she's standing on the back seat, da-da, like this. Okay, and then by the time I can get over and get back to her, she's sitting in her seat, like, is there something wrong? I mean, you just want to wring her neck. She's but she's a delight, a delightful lady, not that she's all grown.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

But uh, it's like she's taking care of herself.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, very, very, a lot of personality, a lot of personality. Yeah, but uh, but I just had to share that with you. Like, oh well, you know, I I would like for us to do this again because next time I want to talk to you about some success stories. You can change the names, obviously, but uh, you've been in this eight years now. So I'm sure you have some some uh success stories that you can share with us. Um you do incredible work, Brittany. And I don't say that lightly, and I think you know me well enough already. I don't say that lightly. All right, and you're doing serious work. Um you you're sort of you're very disarming, you know. For those of you who's listening to this, she's Britney's very disarming and cheerful, and she looks like she just came off the golf course or at the country club for lunch, but she's a very serious woman, and when you start talking with her, you get a chance of oh, yeah, there's real depth there. Yeah. And that's the reason I kept bringing trying to bring you out during our interview here, because people I mean, people you hear this stuff on the news all day long. All right, it's you know, fodder. And yet, you know, what I'm trying to do, and you've done a very good job today, is make it human and put a very human face on it and the challenges that you faced to make this a reality. I mean, it's one thing to say, oh, well, God called me to do this. Well, you can kind of flip those words off. Anyone can say that. But then when you tell me about the challenges that are involved in being successful and your own personal challenges that you've endured because of, say, for instance, those who don't want this to happen, all right, who are your active, purposeful enemies, um, then it becomes very real, you see, and that there's a price to pay for doing this kind of thing. So um um uh I I've been I just want to say I've been very impressed. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Um, we're gonna do this again.

unknown 33:23

Great.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

And as I said, think about success. I'm gonna give you some time. Success stories is what I want to hear next time.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Oh, I have so many success stories for you and I can talk for days.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

All right. So, well, I'm gonna get it set up again in the not too distant future because I do want to continue this conversation. Um this has been delightful. Um, so is is are you sort of the front person, or does your CEO get involved? Or I'm just curious why you're on there and she's not, or I don't know how this all came to be.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

We both um just kind of take different engagements depending on kind of schedules and what time allows, but it's always we're both running in a million directions and love the opportunity to connect with people because we love to sorry, we love to share about our work and the survivors that we get to serve because they truly are the heartbeat of this organization and they are the reason we get up every day and run harder, run faster towards our mission.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

So this is safehouseproject.org. And um, if someone wanted to reach out to you personally, Brittany Dunn, how would they do that in a safe way?

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Um, they can email me at Brittany, B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y at safehouseproject.org, and I would love to connect.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

And you actually respond. It's not an AI bot, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Oh no, I like responding. That's the best way to meet people. That's the joy of this work is I have met more people from so many different industries and fields, and you just get to see how it really takes a collective impact approach to go after the world's hardest issues.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

So yeah. Well, I want to thank you for your time. Yeah, and I want to thank our viewers for their time, and I hope they've been as enlightened as I have been. Uh, I like learning new things, I like seeing what people are doing. Um, so uh we're gonna have another someone, I guess, in another week, but I'm we're gonna get back with Britney sooner rather than later because I do want to hear her success stories. And so thank you, Brittany, and thank you, listeners, very soon.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Thank you for listening today. Join us for our next episode when I'll have another thought-provoking leader as my guest. Guest comments and opinions are their own. The recording is copyright by the eight principles, all rights reserved.