The Truth About Nebraska bill LB320 - Resilience & Relationships - Stephanie Olson, Rebecca Saunders, Dylan Yeomans

This episode explores Nebraska's human trafficking bill LB320, its implications for hotels, and the importance of effective training and education in combating human trafficking. The hosts discuss the bill's provisions, challenges in implementation, and broader issues in policy and community engagement.

Key  Topics
Nebraska bill LB320 details and implications
Effectiveness of posters and training in human trafficking prevention
Liability and legal responsibilities of hotel staff
Challenges in implementing anti-human trafficking policies
Community and legislative engagement in human trafficking issues

Sound  Bites
"Training must be done regularly and often."
"Videos quickly become outdated and ineffective."
"Dynamic, real-time training solutions are needed."

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Human Trafficking Legislation
02:45 Understanding Bill LB320 and Its Implications
05:20 The Role of Training in Human Trafficking Prevention
07:48 Challenges with Current Training Methods
10:13 Accountability and Liability in the Hotel Industry
12:41 The Importance of Effective Communication and Education
15:22 Future Considerations for Human Trafficking Training
20:05 The Evolving Nature of Human Trafficking Awareness
23:55 Collaboration and Expertise in Nonprofit Training
25:13 The Role of Money and Motivation in Nonprofits
26:44 Legislation and Effective Training for Human Trafficking
28:26 The Importance of Tailored Training and Certification
29:26 Bridging the Gap: Politicians and Community Engagement
29:45 The Knowledge Gap: Students vs. Politicians
33:42 Listening to the Community: Cultural Humility in Action
35:16 R&R Outro.mp4
35:23 YouTube End Card.png

Transcript

Stephanie Olson (00:23)
Hello and welcome to resilience and relationships. I'm Stephanie Olson and I'm here with

Rebecca Saunders (00:30)
Rebecca Saunders.

Stephanie Olson (00:31)
And yay. Okay. So Dylan, I will let you start this episode out.

Dylan Yeomans (00:32)
Dylan Yeomans.

So the other day, Stephanie and I actually had come across some information for bill number LB320. Because that means a lot to everybody, right?

Stephanie Olson (00:49)
Yeah, LB3- yes,

okay, so everybody knows what that bill is, right? Absolutely.

Rebecca Saunders (00:51)
I'm a little bit a rock.

Dylan Yeomans (00:54)
Yeah, yeah, so

I can just move right past this. I don't need to explain any further than you guys already know. It's fantastic. So I feel like that's sometimes how our system works. Like, yeah, you guys already know it's it's LB 3-0. It's fine.

Stephanie Olson (00:58)
Yeah, we're good.

Yes, exactly.

Dylan Yeomans (01:06)
But what this bill is, and I will read it quickly here so we don't take too much time on it. This is a specific to Nebraska bill, and I figured this conversation could start here, but kind of balloon out since we are.

Stephanie Olson (01:10)
specific to Nebraska, correct?

Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (01:18)
across multiple states here. But on this bill, is a human trafficking bill, lawmakers passed in February 20th of this year to help combat human trafficking at Nebraska hotels and motels. Sounds great, right? Okay, so let's dive into what this bill actually allows and doesn't allow. So this bill adds that hotels and other lodging establishments

Stephanie Olson (01:32)
Sounds great.

Dylan Yeomans (01:44)
to the list of public spaces required to display posters that include the Nebraska Human Trafficking Hotline number and other information. Still sounds pretty good so far, right?

Stephanie Olson (01:55)
have thoughts on that, but go

Dylan Yeomans (01:57)
also allows for optional training for employees on human trafficking issues specific to the lodging industry, which may be developed and provided through collaboration between the State Attorney General, the State Department of Labor, and lodging establishments.

We'll touch more on that one. The last bit of this. As an owner, operator or employee of a hotel or similar public lodging establishment who implements the training and other policies would not be liable for any act or omission related to human trafficking committed by a third party at the establishment unless they knowingly assist

Rebecca Saunders (02:16)
You

Dylan Yeomans (02:41)
such action or fail to act in a reasonable manner.

Stephanie Olson (02:45)
Okay, so read that one part again because it said act or omission, meaning that if we omit information, right, which seems intentional to me.

Dylan Yeomans (02:55)
Yep, as in.

Yep, that's that's exactly it. So I think we're going to break this down going from what we just heard and I'll bounce us back up to the top.

Stephanie Olson (03:05)
Okay.

Dylan Yeomans (03:05)
So

it does say, as an owner, operator, or an employee of a hotel or similar public lodging establishment who implements the training and other policies would not be liable for any act or omission related to human trafficking committed by a third party at the establishment unless they knowingly assist such action or fail to act

Stephanie Olson (03:30)
Okay, there's so much there. Okay, so this passed on a vote of 46 to 1.

Dylan Yeomans (03:32)
There's so much there.

One.

Stephanie Olson (03:39)
And I think that there's something very interesting about this because

it.

I wish that I would have known about this ahead of time so I could have been there to really hear more of the comment because it sounds great. This goes back to the importance of politicians being trained in human trafficking period, but also human trafficking prevention, human trafficking intervention, and all of those things because

First of all, posters, yeah, OK. Yes, I think it's good to have the Nebraska Human Trafficking Hotline posted. My problem is that sometimes posters aren't really helpful if there's not information. I think it's important to have the ability to report something. But how do you report?

when you really have no idea what human trafficking looks like or I don't know that might be a whole other thing. Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (04:40)
There's a lot there.

Dylan Yeomans (04:41)
I think you're on to it, right? Because even I had said that too. It's like, okay, so what would the poster look like? Is it just a phone number that says the human trafficking prevention hotline? And that's it? Or is this like, you see a picture of somebody being forced or you see like a weird, just static photo image that they look like they grabbed from Microsoft clips, you know, it's like, what does this poster really look like? Yeah, exactly. So

Stephanie Olson (04:46)
Right.

Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (05:03)
Not all posters are green anymore.

Dylan Yeomans (05:08)
I love that we kind of brought that to light too. Like what does that truly look like? It's a good idea or thought process, but you know, the pictures worth a thousand words is a saying for a reason too. Now, I'm a little tripped up here by that last bit though that basically says, if you implement the training,

Stephanie Olson (05:20)
Right?

Dylan Yeomans (05:29)
and other policies for anti-human trafficking, it makes you not liable. But not only not liable for something that happens to the establishment or at the establishment, but you're not liable if you fail, quote unquote, to act in a reasonable manner. What does that mean? That is so broad. What is reasonable by that definition?

Rebecca Saunders (05:46)
What is it?

Stephanie Olson (05:49)
So here is the poster. And yeah. OK. So.

Rebecca Saunders (05:54)
So can you describe it for maybe someone who's just listening to audio we're looking at?

Stephanie Olson (05:57)
Yes, great,

great, great idea. ⁓ So it is a face or two faces with a line in between with a bunch of faces on the faces. That's really hard to describe. I would not be good at.

Dylan Yeomans (06:14)
Imagine your old yearbook

photos just like transparent over your face.

Stephanie Olson (06:18)
Yeah, that's actually a great way to describe it. And then it says, end human trafficking in Nebraska. See it, report it. To report, and it gives the number. And for help, it gives the National Human Trafficking Hotline number ⁓ and a QR code. So that's the poster. My problem with this is it gives no information on what human trafficking is or looks like.

Rebecca Saunders (06:20)
Yeah.

Stephanie Olson (06:46)
The average Joe or Jolene would look at human trafficking and think, again, like, this is going to be someone, if I see somebody who is like being monitored by somebody constantly and walking around and maybe they're, I don't know, there's, I just don't know if the average person is going to look at this and say, ⁓ my gosh.

that's human trafficking, I'm gonna report. I don't know.

Rebecca Saunders (07:15)
It's not intuitive

because there's not been enough education broadly.

Stephanie Olson (07:18)
Right,

right. And that is my problem with posters.

Dylan Yeomans (07:19)
No, if-

Yeah, to me this looks like the milk carton thing. Like, while it's a good idea in theory and you have the right idea and intention, it doesn't execute the way it should or needs to to express what it needs to express. And I think that's potentially why you have that issue with posters as well. It will never portray the full explanation or the full thing to look for, things like that. So.

Stephanie Olson (07:26)
Hmm.

Right.

because there isn't an explanation. And I think that's one of the things I struggle with with some things that go on. Like back in the day with the College World series, people used to just pass out flyers. Like if you see it, say something. Well, without education, there is no, if you see what, it's just not trauma-informed. And I struggle with those kinds of things when you don't have education.

Dylan Yeomans (07:50)
Exactly.

Stephanie Olson (08:15)
behind it. okay, so go back to your last statement though, Dylan.

Dylan Yeomans (08:21)
Yeah, I thought this last part of the bill that just basically says if you implement the training or policies about human trafficking prevention or what to look for in those things, that you are now not liable.

for any act or omission related to human trafficking committed by a third party at the establishment. Meaning if the hotel itself isn't doing it, they don't get in any trouble unless they knowingly assist such an action or fail to act in a reasonable manner. Well, that's where I get confused on this one now. So, okay, how do I fail to act in a reasonable manner or how are you going to say that I'm assisting it if

it's left wide open like this to where you got to directly prove like this person as part of the hotel was doing this. And yeah, exactly. How are you going to prove that part of things without like going through tapes and tapes and tapes of video surveillance footage? And that's that's a job in itself. So it just seems like it is so. I don't I don't want to say this super negatively, but open to wiggle out of.

Stephanie Olson (09:04)
How do you prove that?

Dylan Yeomans (09:23)
Like it feels like it's very much, I can get out of this if something happens to my hotel.

Stephanie Olson (09:27)
if you're complicit, let's say I'm an owner of a hotel and somebody slides me money to turn the other way. I think it would be extremely hard to prove that I was complicit. And so then I you get busted. It gets busted and I'm out. The the laws that I have seen that are relatively effective with

corporations is more punitive where you hold the hotel liable for trafficking on your premises if it gets busted and that gives the hotel much more incentive to stop human trafficking.

I don't know. The other thing that they've not said on this little, the little one sheet of the bill is that the bill actually says that you have to train your staff within, right, six months of their employment. Six months?

Dylan Yeomans (10:29)
Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (10:30)
Correct.

Which

turnover is so high in that industry.

Dylan Yeomans (10:38)
Exactly, and

the only thing that I can think of that why it was phrased that specific timeline was because of the fast turnover and also, well that only makes it so I have to do it twice a year. I can hold a big company one because I just hired in all these people around the same time.

Stephanie Olson (10:50)
Yes.

And it should be done at every onboarding and repeated on a regular basis.

Rebecca Saunders (11:01)
Well, and I think too, just like not all posters are the same. Not all training is the same. Training, yeah. This can be, okay, here's a little video that no one's paying attention to that's running in the background. That could count as training, but that's not really effective.

Dylan Yeomans (11:02)
Yeah.

Stephanie Olson (11:07)
Thank

Dylan Yeomans (11:09)
Yeah.

Stephanie Olson (11:17)
Well, in fact, I won't name any names here, but we know big hotel chains that have training and good on you, right, for having training. That's a positive thing. Right, right. They've made the effort. But we have had those hotels reach out to us and say, our training is terrible. That is required by corporate.

Rebecca Saunders (11:32)
Except things better than nothing for sure.

Dylan Yeomans (11:34)
they

made the effort.

Stephanie Olson (11:45)
and we really want to be trained. And that indicates to me that the training from corporate, which is, we know just a video, is not effective training. And there's reasons behind that. That's why training has to be done from a pedagogy standpoint. It has to be done for the learners and the information

needs to change based on the learners. That's so important.

Dylan Yeomans (12:16)
100 % I have always kind of felt that way even about schools in general. It's too much of a one-size-fits-all shoehorn yourself into this mold thing. It's like it doesn't really work that way. Life doesn't work that way. So I love that you brought that up because that I think can kind of help us tackle this middle part of the bill where it's optional training for employees on human trafficking issue.

Stephanie Olson (12:38)
Wait, wait,

I missed that. It's option.

Dylan Yeomans (12:41)
This is the point.

The bill also allows for optional training for employees on human trafficking issues specific to the lodging industry. Not just a human trafficking learning segment, specific to the lodging industry, which may be developed and provided through collaboration between the state attorney general, the Department of Labor, and lodging establishments. So it's saying that you have to basically use

whatever they provide you from the state attorney general, the department of labor, and lodging

That's it. Whatever you guys, those three organizations can come up with, that's what you have to use, is how that middle part reads. So that's kind of like a, if their training is not up to par and they try to get outside help, these guys could be punished for trying to be better.

Stephanie Olson (13:18)
Wow.

Rebecca Saunders (13:19)
out.

Right. Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, but so the training is optional, but the caveat is so if you do the optional training, then you have no liability. So I guess I'm just a little nervous there, right? Like what is the actual motivation for taking the training then?

Dylan Yeomans (13:39)
it doesn't make sense.

Stephanie Olson (13:44)
And what does the training truly look like? I have heard that this training is a video. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong. But if the training is a video, where is the accountability to hotels and motels on achieving and accomplishing the training?

So for example, and I'm going to talk about our online course really quick. This isn't a commercial about our online courses. No, but I think it's important because our training is very specific. So we do training. All we do is training and curriculum. We don't do anything else, which means that what we do, we do with excellence and we do it really well. And so because we come from that pedagogy standpoint,

Dylan Yeomans (14:12)
Not a shameless plug. Not a shameless plug.

Stephanie Olson (14:32)
Our training isn't one size fits all. It is industry specific, age appropriate, developmentally appropriate, all those things, which is why we have 30 plus pieces of training So with our online training, it's gamified. And so it is engaging. You actually have to in order to get through the training,

You actually have to manipulate things during the training to get to the next level. And then there's a quiz that you take and that you have to pass. And then you get a certificate. But our recommendation is that you're taking that during onboarding, but then you're also doing it regularly and often. Otherwise, no one remembers.

Rebecca Saunders (15:06)
that you have to pad.

Stephanie Olson (15:22)
Where is that accountability of popping a video in front of people and saying, OK, learn about human trafficking? Because I can watch it. I mean, I do all the time. I'm constantly working, and I'll have something on YouTube next to me, and I'm half paying attention, half not. That's not learning.

Rebecca Saunders (15:33)
getting wet.

No. And...

Dylan Yeomans (15:43)
Yeah, but you know what?

It's that nice little box on my clipboard there. I get to check it off.

Stephanie Olson (15:48)
Yeah. Yep.

Rebecca Saunders (15:48)
That's exactly

what it is. And the thing is, maybe the video, maybe let's give it the benefit of the doubt, right? Like let's say this video has all the best information, you still can't guarantee people are paying attention to it, but also your information is going to be outdated very soon. And so...

Dylan Yeomans (15:50)
That's all it is.

Stephanie Olson (15:56)
Best video ever-

Dylan Yeomans (16:05)
Yeah, because technology doesn't

Stephanie Olson (16:05)
100%.

Dylan Yeomans (16:06)
advance every six months to a year either.

Rebecca Saunders (16:08)
Right.

Stephanie Olson (16:09)
Yeah, okay.

Well, look at the hotel industry. I mean, how much the hotel industry is changing. And so if you've got a video that you have to redo every time it, the industry changes, you're just wasting money. Whereas our online course, again, not a plug, but I'm really proud of our stuff. Our online course, we can actually change.

Dylan Yeomans (16:12)
That too.

Rebecca Saunders (16:28)
Please.

Stephanie Olson (16:31)
the time. I mean, we can update it consistently and it's not and we do. Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (16:35)
And we do.

Dylan Yeomans (16:37)
And we do.

Yeah, I think that's going to be one of those things that I hope and this is where like you got to throw little faith into the air. It's like I hope that they receive feedback that instructs them to say, you know what, maybe that isn't the smartest or best idea here. And they change that hopefully sooner rather than later. ⁓

Stephanie Olson (17:00)
Do you mean like the feedback

they received during the legislation and the bill hearings? Like that kind of feedback? I'm sorry.

Dylan Yeomans (17:09)
You know, it's

exactly that kind of feedback. But this time they got to turn their hearing aid But I, because you're, think what's going to be the reality is you're right.

Stephanie Olson (17:11)
okay.

Rebecca Saunders (17:12)
I'm sorry.

Dylan Yeomans (17:17)
and it's gonna be, not to mention any names, but big box retail stores are notorious for the 10 to 15 year old training video of how to in your store and that's what's gonna end up happening five to 10 years down the road. It's still gonna be the same video of how to prevent human trafficking in your world and it's not gonna hold up anymore because it has no relevance anymore.

Stephanie Olson (17:42)
Right. Right.

Rebecca Saunders (17:43)
And let's be

real, I mean, as soon as you hear that voice, you see the footage, like it all looks the same and your brain is immediately like, yeah, I'm not paying attention to this.

Dylan Yeomans (17:51)
Yep, because usually there's like a little jaunty little tune to start like, let's check in with Joey. Joey's over here playing at the school grounds. Hey there, Joey. Hi. And like, you can see it all in your head. As cheesy as I'm sounding it, you can see it because we've all seen those videos. And that is the worry that I have about it is that this now becomes a spoof where this is one topic that

Stephanie Olson (17:51)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (18:17)
should not and is extraordinarily tough to do it if you can't even do it to spoof on because it's such a prevalent issue that there there really is no end in sight at the moment we've got to do better so it comes down to i think our ears open i think you kind of said it best are they listening to the people on the ground

Stephanie Olson (18:29)
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Saunders (18:35)
I have another question too because it says and other policies. Do we have any clue what those other policies are?

Dylan Yeomans (18:40)
Nope, I think that's hotel policies. So it'd be like, well, it's mixed in with our anti-counterfeit and money laundering policy. There's an anti-human trafficking disclosure in the bottom saying you won't do that.

That'd be my guess as to the policy.

Rebecca Saunders (18:54)
More than likely, I feel like it's probably that way too.

Dylan Yeomans (18:56)
But again, where's the accountability on that? Because, okay, it's this tiny word print this big at the very bottom of a 38 page employment application fill out. Okay, cool, I really read through that. We all know that a lot of people just skim right past that. Hate to burst the employee, hate to burst corporate's bubble if they really thought people were reading those. But that's kind of where...

Stephanie Olson (18:56)
That's fascinating.

Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (19:19)
I think that's the disconnect is because there's so much of that the employees now lose any sort of semblance of what they're really reading and signing and doing and training and like turning on a video maybe it's a hey we're gonna watch this 10 minute video and after that video we're gonna do this thing afterwards and that's the program. Alright we did that every six months.

Stephanie Olson (19:40)
Right?

Dylan Yeomans (19:42)
Maybe the leadership team will remember that by year two. Maybe. Yeah, maybe, but it's going to be the same information. Yeah, if they're still around, plus it's the same info, so it's already outdated. And they don't know any better. So now it becomes the telephone game.

Stephanie Olson (19:45)
by year two, right? If they're still around.

You know,

the other thing that I think is really important too is

there needs to be an opportunity to ask questions and so

think about with our online course, there is the opportunity to get things wrong and then it'll talk about why this is not the right information. But then we do give an opportunity to reach out to us if there are any very specific questions or things like that.

And I understand that people are kind of moving away from a lot of in-person training. Obviously, I think in-person training is the best way to do it, but it's not feasible to train every single person in the world in person. And so this is a great substitute, but it's got to be done correctly. Again, videos just don't cut it with training options. They just don't.

Rebecca Saunders (21:23)
Thank you.

Dylan Yeomans (21:24)
No, and

that's the thing is like you were kind of saying unless it's a video that is almost like an ongoing series or it's something that's streamed like every month or done ⁓ every week it comes out and you're able to pull in and vote and you see the outcome of what happens something like that would be awesome and the government should listen to me and do something like that I'd love to be your narrator we can help! we could help!

Stephanie Olson (21:31)
Yeah.

Choose your own adventure. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, we can help, right? We can help. We can help create it.

But it wouldn't be a video. It wouldn't just be a video. But yes, go ahead.

Dylan Yeomans (21:52)
We could do that.

Rebecca Saunders (21:54)
or not.

Dylan Yeomans (21:55)
Well yeah, doing something like that to where it was not a set in stone, here's your thing and it moves on and now we're done with the issue. Because as we've already stated, it changes too frequently. Technology changes too frequently.

Stephanie Olson (22:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (22:09)
It feels weird to say this, but people's behaviors and mannerisms change too frequently. So it's one of those that you can't have a set, here's the how-to video, because this isn't, you know, this isn't lifting a box knowing how to bend your knees in the proper angle. That doesn't change. But human trafficking and how we perceive it is constantly changing.

Stephanie Olson (22:15)
True.

Dylan Yeomans (22:32)
where if they did like a live series, think they'd be better off. They would do wonderful in that regard and hey, we would love to help you with such a thing. But again, is that feasible? Can they constantly make a week after week show or a month after month show updating everything every single time?

Stephanie Olson (22:40)
Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Or have their employees sit through it. Right. I mean, let's be realistic. I agree. and I also think that here's another thing, though. How many videos are going to be in multiple languages?

Dylan Yeomans (22:54)
Yeah.

And on that, I'll piggyback one more question on that. How many languages?

Stephanie Olson (23:05)
I don't know.

Rebecca Saunders (23:05)
Yeah.

Stephanie Olson (23:10)
Right. Because our Nebraska, if we're talking about Nebraska, our biggest public

the state, which is Omaha Public Schools, has 190 languages just in that public school district. 190 languages. So if you've got a video, and that's one of the beauties.

of the work we do is we can translate our stuff into multiple languages and it's, and that's amazing. But again, I think this is where, I mean, we could do a whole thing on nonprofits and we did like collaboration and, but I think there are so many people who want to build a kingdom or want to be the one-stop shop. What makes

anyone an expert at everything. No one is. No one is.

Dylan Yeomans (24:01)
Ignorance.

That's what makes you an expert on everything.

Stephanie Olson (24:04)
That's a good point. And so there are a lot of people who want to do trainings with

here's the reality. We actually created our training with hotel experts, with hotel executives, with hotel staff. We didn't just make a training on our own. We utilized key experts in that.

Rebecca Saunders (24:25)
and we continue to listen to them as we update because there are things that change.

Stephanie Olson (24:29)
Exactly. And I just think that, so just like we would not go into the work of law enforcement, so in other words, we're not going to be putting a case together and going to find the human traffickers and investigating, and we're not going to do that. Why then do other people want to do trainings?

that don't come from this perspective of...

Yep. Money. That was the, that was the money sign. I do think that's true. Yep. Yep.

Dylan Yeomans (24:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, I forget we have audio listeners. ⁓ money symboling

old manny man's L symbols if you would. ⁓ Because that's the sad truth of it, right? Is money makes the wheels turn.

Stephanie Olson (25:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, money and glory. I think there's a piece of that too, you know?

Dylan Yeomans (25:16)
Mmmmm.

⁓ the hero complex is such an interesting one to dive through.

Stephanie Olson (25:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (25:24)
it's

all over the place in nonprofits.

Stephanie Olson (25:26)
It really is. It really is. And it's. Yeah. Yeah. Because here's what we're never going to do. We're also never going to have a restoration house because that's not our strength. Right. We're never going to start a counseling arm of the set me free project because that's not our strength. We are all things curriculum, all things training. And we do that really well.

Dylan Yeomans (25:28)
Yep. Hero and Savior complexes are... They're out.

Stephanie Olson (25:52)
But because that's our focus,

can expand just that piece. But that takes a tremendous amount of research, a tremendous amount of time, a tremendous amount of review with experts in the field. I mean, I just, and commitment.

Dylan Yeomans (26:08)
and commitment. mean, especially if we've

got to get that to a different language. Now we've got to commit to finding a person who's an expert in that language and it's going to be translated correctly, proofread again, and there is so much pushing the boulder up the hill before it finally can roll over.

Stephanie Olson (26:17)
huh. huh.

Right.

Right. And that's for us, people who do this that have all of our staff focused on that. What if I don't have all my staff focused on that? I probably have two to five people focused on that, right? And then I can do the, I don't know. I just get so frustrated with that.

Dylan Yeomans (26:27)
Yeah.

But it's justifiable. because there's I'm all for, you know, multitask or like somebody that accepts a dual role kind of thing. I'm all for that kind of thing, right? In the right context. Because once you start applying it to everything, it doesn't work because it's just too much. That's how people take on way too much. And they're like, yeah, no, I'm good. I'm good. And panicking in the background.

Stephanie Olson (27:04)
Right.

100%. Yeah. And legislation is important. Things like this is important. I think it's great to get certain kinds of mandates in place for human trafficking training and things like that. But if you don't have the right legislation, if you don't have the correct wording, and you don't have the correct training, it literally doesn't do any good at all. In fact, it can also

Rebecca Saunders (27:28)
or 21-9.

Stephanie Olson (27:30)
It can make it worse. We worked with an organization that They would go in person. They would train one time. Didn't matter how many people they were training. And they would get a plaque, huge plaque that said, you have been trained. and I still see those plaques in some of the hotels. And I think, I wonder how many people in this hotel right now.

had that training.

Dylan Yeomans (27:55)
That'd be a really fun game of being like, hey, could you tell me about that plaque over there? It's so interesting. And just listen to him go, yeah, that was your way before I was.

Rebecca Saunders (27:56)
I'm...

I'm sorry.

Stephanie Olson (28:05)
no idea what that means, but it's pretty.

Rebecca Saunders (28:07)
Like we've given out certificates before and our certificates don't look like that. It's this specific person was trained on this specific day on this specific topic. Yes.

Stephanie Olson (28:12)
No.

And it expires. Those certificates

actually have an expiration date. So, yeah. I just think it's got to be done the right way.

Dylan Yeomans (28:26)
Yeah, I think there's a lot of things that need to be ironed out and I think for that to actually get uniform.

it needs to come back down to the people level. needs to have like the state legislators and senators and congress people to, you know what, maybe go partner up with a nonprofit and you go show a presentation with a nonprofit one day and you just kind of see the realism of what's being talked about, what people are seeing. And instead of making it this grand voice kind of deal, it's more, you know what, hey, I was out last week in this school district and

let me tell you what I heard. becomes a real piece of, hey, you're doing it back again for the community. You're doing it back for this state. You have that Senator and you're getting them in the right mindset. again, that just, again, broad detail of how to extrapolate the importance of we need these Congress and senators to understand what they're saying and proposing and passing for laws.

not sure the right steps to go about that because boy I'd just be like hey here's my email and let's go

Stephanie Olson (29:29)
Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (29:32)
you

Stephanie Olson (29:32)
Yeah. And you know, here's what's interesting.

We had a conversation about this bill with a couple of college students who were absolutely brilliant and

thing that is concerning is that these college students who have been, one of them is doing a capstone on human trafficking and we had the honor of being interviewed by her.

But the knowledge base that this college student had that seems to supersede so many people who want to do this work but don't research and study, I don't know, I just struggle with that a little bit.

Dylan Yeomans (30:12)
It was pretty enlightening what she had to share about that. Because it just seemed, first of all, her background was super interesting as well. We got to talking off camera there. I won't disclose too much there. But super interesting person and very like wow kind of background to her as well. And then to come over here and be passionate about a topic, doing your research about it, making it your capstone of your college career.

Stephanie Olson (30:20)
Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (30:36)
And just her interaction that she had with one of our state officials left her puzzled would probably be the right word to say there because I don't think she quite grasped like she didn't get an answer. Like it just, I think the lack of answer was just so, I don't want to say confusing, but maybe jarring that I don't know if she like caught that she didn't really ever get an answer by the sound of it.

Stephanie Olson (30:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

She would

ask questions and this person just didn't know the answer to respond, which says that there is not enough expertise in the field and the area. you know, yeah, go ahead.

Dylan Yeomans (31:09)
which I

do want to add just for our due diligence here. We understand that being a state representative is an extremely important, stressful, high-intensity job, and you can't be an expert in everything. But that's why you make committees, and that's why these committees have to have the right people in place. That's my two cents so they don't go writing angrily to their elected officials.

Stephanie Olson (31:19)
Yes. Yes.

And those committees can't just be politicians, right? Those on the ground doing the work. Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (31:34)
correct, that you could be the actual people.

Yeah, that's why

I have said for years, since I grew up in a very rural community, if you're going to have an agriculture board in the state, senator levels, however you want to make that, why isn't it farmers and ranchers that run that agriculture board then?

Stephanie Olson (31:53)
100%. That's exactly it. That's exactly it.

Rebecca Saunders (31:54)
Exactly.

Stephanie Olson (31:57)
is an example. I had a conversation with a group of people who were frustrated because they wanted to make sure that across the state there was a voice for

people of color in the anti-trafficking world and that survivors needed to be sitting at the table, which I don't disagree with, by the way. However, my question to these people were, because at the time I was the only person of color running an anti-trafficking organization and a survivor.

and yet never asked my opinion on what needed to go across the state you know. So it's like this lack of we want to do this and we want to do it well and we want to sound good, but we're not going to actually ask the people who this affects. I don't get it.

Dylan Yeomans (32:54)
Again, I think

that ties back to our hero-savior complex of, you know, I gotta make it the biggest thing in the world because I'm so passionate. And it's like, well, no, it's great to be passionate, but it's not you, it's what are you passionate about? That's the thing that you should care about.

Stephanie Olson (33:07)
Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (33:12)
And I think sometimes there's an element of like, you don't know what you need, but I do.

Stephanie Olson (33:12)
Absolutely.

Yeah. my gosh. We talk cultural humility. Like how often do we train on cultural humility? And that just because you have experienced something doesn't mean everyone has experienced that same thing. Or just because your culture says this doesn't mean that's the same for every culture. And one of the things we always

Dylan Yeomans (33:18)
Yeah.

Rebecca Saunders (33:20)
Yeah.

Stephanie Olson (33:42)
train people on that whole trauma and foreign to peace is that it's not about saying I know what you need, but what do you need? What would be helpful? Yeah.

Dylan Yeomans (33:53)
Yep.

But, you know, somewhere along the way we lost our listening cap and all we have is our discussion caps. We just we don't remember the listening part.

Rebecca Saunders (34:03)
So true.

Stephanie Olson (34:05)
It's

somebody much wiser than I, and I can't tell you who, but said, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So, there you go.

Dylan Yeomans (34:16)
Yeah, I think that's a perfect place to put a pin in it because, again, things that have happened in Nebraska, hey, if you didn't like what we were talking about or you wanted to learn a little bit more about it, do some research, reach out to your elected officials on the broader scope, talk to your elected officials anyway to make sure they're getting the right material in the right hands.

Stephanie Olson (34:33)
in all states, because every state has different mandates, every state has different, and this just happens to be Dylan in my state, not Rebecca's. But yeah, it's just, it was a good topic, came up, but yeah, I think you're right, Dylan. So thank you for bringing this up and good conversation.

Rebecca Saunders (34:52)
Yeah, thank you.

Dylan Yeomans (34:53)
No. Thanks

for going through it, because know politics don't worm their way too often onto the show here, but this one I felt was a good discussion to have.

Stephanie Olson (35:02)
Absolutely, and very much nonpartisan. So, I love it. That's right. Well, thank you for joining us and get some R &R. We'll see you next