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EP # 224 Transformative Advocacy: Amber Christopher's Impactful Journey Against Human Trafficking
Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Amber Christopher from Restoring Oaks, as she shares her transformative journey and the vital work being done to combat human trafficking in Charlotte County. Discover how Amber transitioned from a church group in Las Vegas to spearheading initiatives that educate and empower local communities. The episode sheds light on Restoring Oaks' impactful efforts, such as training businesses, supporting jail ministries, and ambitiously working towards a safe residential space for trafficking victims. Amber passionately discusses the hurdles these victims face, including the critical need for programs like TILA that can help them rebuild their lives.
We also tackle some of the most pervasive myths surrounding human trafficking, revealing how it often takes place unnoticed in our own neighborhoods. Understanding the signs and knowing how to react can be life-changing for those affected. This episode is not just a call to awareness; it's an invitation to participate in creating a safer, more informed community. Listen in for crucial insights, essential contact information for Restoring Oaks, and learn how each of us can contribute to positive change in the face of such a pressing issue.
Restoring Oaks
Amber Christopher
(941) 421-0474
info@restoringoaks.org
restoringoaks.org
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 224 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Amber Christopher from Restoring Oaks Welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you, glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm excited to learn a little bit more about what you guys do over at Restoring Oaks. Welcome, thank you. Glad to be here. Yes, I'm excited to learn a little bit more about what you guys do over at Restoring Oaks. I think you were referred over to us, so it's a pleasure having you on the show. So, without further ado, let's just share a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 3:Okay. So we are a faith-based non-profit here in Charlotte County and what we do is strive to prevent and end human trafficking. So we do this by education, advocacy and care. So in Charlotte County we are currently training businesses and community organizations about human trafficking. We do this in person or on Zoom or webinars. We also hold a jail ministry in the Charlotte County jails and we go in there and we talk to women about their trauma, and so we've been doing that for a while now and it's such a blessing for them and for us. And then our goal this year really is to open a residential house for victims of human trafficking, because right now they have to go. If they want a residential program, they have to go to Bradenton, sarasota or Fort Myers. So we really just want to fill that gap and open a residential program here in Charlotte County.
Speaker 2:That would be wonderful, that would be great. So let's back up your story a little bit. How did you become involved in all of this?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I'm from Las Vegas, nevada, and so I started working with a group in my church called Purchased, and they worked with the Metro, the sheriff's department down there, to work with the ladies that are on the strip working, as you know, as call girls or most of them have, are trafficked, so their pimps are there watching while we communicate with these ladies, but we would go with undercover and then they would, you know, hide and just so they could see us and protect us.
Speaker 3:But then we would go with the ladies on the strip and and give them resources if ever they ever wanted to get out of the game. And so I started doing that and I just absolutely loved it. And then I moved to Florida and then I noticed that there wasn't anything out here in Charlotte County for human trafficking. So I started volunteering with Sale of Freedom for a couple of years and then I met Thomas Freedom for a couple of years, and then I met Thomas, which is the founder of the organization, and he started a anti-trafficking organization out here in Charlotte County. So I got involved right away and I've been there for about three years now.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that is great. So look, normally I ask about challenges along your journey, but maybe we should spend that a little bit and, you know, focus on the challenges of the people that might be getting trafficked correctly.
Speaker 3:Yes. So one of the challenges that they have is we don't we're currently working on this, but we don't have a TILA program, which means Turn your Life Around program, and it's almost like Drug Court, but it's for the ladies that have been trafficked. They get sent to a residential program by the court system and then if they graduate that program, all their charges are dropped. So then they can go back into the community and get a job and they don't have the felony charges and all this on their record and it really helps them to be, you know, back in the community, doing, working and providing for themselves and being independent.
Speaker 2:Very good, so let's talk about some of the myths or misconceptions surrounding the whole trafficking industry.
Speaker 3:Sure. So one of the most, I think, misconceptions is that trafficking happens like we see in the movies. So a girl is walking down the street and a white man pulls up, snatches her, traffics her to another country and literally that happens less than 1% of the time country and literally that happens less than 1% of the time. So how it's happening now is in our neighborhoods, in our parks, where we send our children, in social media, in big sport events or concerts that you attend, things like that. That's really where the trafficking is happening. It could be happening in your neighborhood and you wouldn't even know it. So we just like to educate the community on when we go to you know businesses and stuff. We educate them on the signs to see it, to notice. And then what do you do if you do notice something like that in your neighborhood? It could be saving a life.
Speaker 2:So yeah, cause it was like you had mentioned. Some of these people, they become, I want to say, very brazen, but they're, they're out in the open, they're out in public, right? They're not hiding.
Speaker 3:Right, we say hiding in plain sight, right, so they are it's. I mean, if you don't know the signs to look for, then you wouldn't notice it, you wouldn't be able to pick that up.
Speaker 2:Now are there certain signs that some of the some of our listeners should be looking for or identifying.
Speaker 3:Definitely so, like some of the things we say, is if you see a girl walking in the same street or neighborhood over and over, like you keep spotting her in the same kind of neighborhood, walking the same path, that's a good indication that she's probably not there by her own choice. We have girls that if you're, let's say, your daughter comes home and you notice that she has new purses and new and maybe another phone and that you didn't buy those jewelry, makeup, you didn't buy that stuff for her. You don't know where this other phone came from, those are really good indications that she may be. She may call him her boyfriend, but he may be trying to. We call it a Romeo pimp, where they promise the girls the young girls are teenagers that they will take care of them and love them and they want to have a family with them and they shower them with gifts and this is all good until then. They want something back from the female.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. So you know, talking along those lines, you know, I want to talk about things that are maybe trendy, but maybe things that have evolved or changed over the last couple of years. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:So social media is a big one. So social media when we didn't have it, they days. You know Snapchat and TikTok and I mean just all the things. This is where this is happening. And even in game rooms where, like, where the boys and girls are playing just roadblocks, you know, the private chats happen. So, as parents, we always suggest that they either don't have that type of social media. As parents, we always suggest that they either don't have that type of social media or that you really check the chat or the private message rooms and see what are the messages that your child is sending back and what are these people saying to your child, Because this can be a really good indication that something is not healthy and that you should do something about it right away. But social media is really what's it's you know.
Speaker 2:It's really changed from back in the day, and now it's very dangerous. So we have to be aware of these things. Yeah, and like you had mentioned, you know kids nowadays are so much more vulnerable because the access to them is so much greater than it was when we were growing up.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Like they don't have to meet up at a park or whatever now to meet strangers. You know they meet strangers at the tip of their fingers every day.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I know you mentioned you came from Vegas, you know how and, forgive me, I don't know if you explained this or not but how did you get involved in this whole industry?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, so I was going to church and there was this organization called Purchase and it was like we're not bought or sold, we're purchased by the blood of Christ that's where the name came from and I really got involved. I started answering the national rape crisis hotline and I started meeting the women at the hospitals and being their advocate when they had to go through the rape kit and things like that. And then it evolved into working with the girls, the human trafficking victims on the strip and going up to them and talking to them and getting their stories and letting them know that we see them, we care about them, we're trying to do things for them and that we have resources if they ever decide that this isn't for them anymore and it's safe to get out. It's very dangerous, but if they ever have the opportunity, then of course they had the resources to call us right away and we would arrange with the police department, you know, pickup and things like that. And then I moved to Florida and then I got involved in Restoring Oaks.
Speaker 2:And it's great that you've brought that across country and here to Florida, because I think Forgive me if I'm wrong but Florida is one of the bigger trafficking states, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, it's number three in the nation.
Speaker 2:I was going to say a lot of people don't know that, A lot of people aren't aware of that.
Speaker 3:Because we have a lot of big cities like Tampa. It's just ports where they can come in and out of and not be noticed. We have big sports events here and then it trickles down from the big cities Like they always want to. Traffickers always want to keep moving so they don't get caught. So they end up traveling through our cities or even staying in our cities until there's big sport events. And then you have it, of course, just within the schools and you have it within you know social media as well here so is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about restoring notes that maybe they're not so familiar with?
Speaker 3:sure.
Speaker 3:Well, um, one thing is that we are, we're doing this um restoring safety campaign, and so we are really trying to raise money to build a residential program here in Charlotte County, and this would be probably up to eight beds, and then we would get referrals from the jail or we would get referrals from other agencies to house these women, and we don't just house them.
Speaker 3:So it's not going to be a shelter, it's going to be a residential program where we rest, we just house them. So it's not going to be a shelter, it's going to be a residential program where we rest, we restate them, and so it's all about restoring them back to who they used to be, or as close as we can get them. And we would. You know they would phase up and then we would have a transitional house where they would live in that house more independently, and then we would find them permanent housing. So it's really a step, you know, we would teach life skills and cooking and they would have trauma therapy and all their doctors covered and really just restore them back to health.
Speaker 2:So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to help or they had more questions?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. The website is www. restoringoaks. org, and then our phone number is 941-421-0474. And then our email is info@ restoringoaks. org. Yep. That's it.
Speaker 2:That's it, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:Very good, very good.
Speaker 2:Any last words for our listeners.
Speaker 3:No, I just am grateful that I was here, and I think that awareness is key and so more people that are aware of the actual problem in our community gets them involved, and that's great for us, it's great for the community.
Speaker 2:Yep, and absolutely a pleasure having you on, getting to know a little bit more about you, sharing your story and raising that awareness for you.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.