Hope After Trauma: Building Resilient Futures

Secrets thrive in silence; hope grows where people show up. We open up about childhood trauma, domestic violence, and human trafficking—not to dwell on harm, but to show how kids and families rebuild with the right web of support. Heather shares the moments that kept her afloat as a teen—coaches who noticed, teachers who checked in, friends’ parents who asked “Are you okay?”—and why that steady care still matters. Then we welcome Karen Smith, director with the Oklahoma Coalition Against Human Trafficking and acting director of Camp Hope America in Tulsa, to walk us through a model that turns compassion into measurable change.

Camp Hope began as a free weeklong camp and now runs year‑round, pairing mentoring with family engagement so healing doesn’t stop at the cabin door. Think swim nights with the YMCA, tent campouts, ballet outings, and paint sessions that let kids process joy and stress side by side. It’s research‑backed, too: the Hope Research Center at OU‑Tulsa tracks hope and resilience before camp, after camp, and at a 30‑day reunion. Scores rise and stay high because small wins stack—trying a new food, finishing a hike, helping a friend—and those achievements rewire what kids believe is possible.

We also push past the myths of trafficking. It often hides close to home, fueled by grooming, economic stress, and online access, not just dramatic kidnappings. Technology and COVID‑era isolation increased risk, but informed communities and updated Oklahoma laws are making a difference. Karen shares why resilience needs both inner drive and outer scaffolding—research points to at least four caring adults—and how campers often return as counselors, paying forward the support that changed their path. If you’ve ever wondered how to help, we offer practical steps: volunteer for group events, donate old phones for emergency use, connect through your neighborhood or faith community, or reach Karen via the Family Safety Center to get involved.

Subscribe, share this conversation with someone who cares about kids, and leave a review telling us the one action you’ll take this week to be a steady adult in a child’s life.

Transcript

Opening And Purpose

Karen Smith 0:00

Get out in the real world, and suddenly you realize there is no way anybody is gonna work with kids and not come in contact and experience um child abuse and domestic violence.

Heather Anne 0:12

And that's what I was going to touch upon is that sometimes people think, oh, I'm just one person. So one person can make a difference.

Speaker 0:21

Your next favorite podcast pick starts now. Here's the Professor and Heather Anne.

Joe 0:31

Welcome to The Professor and Heather Anne. Although we don't have all the answers, we hope to encourage and excite you. We're here sharing our lives to inspire you to make the most of the second half of your life.

Heather Anne 0:46

So um we have a very powerful episode, and I am this is something that is truly um uh part of my heart and something that I'm very passionate

Heather’s Story And Early Mentors

Heather Anne 1:01

about. Our guest is a professional who has over 40 years of experience in the human service field, working with children and families with a focus on supporting those who have experienced trauma.

Joe 1:16

We'll also talk about um the long-term impacts of mentoring programs and um resilience, um sometimes extraordinary and surprising resilience. So even though this is an episode devoted to grim, disturbing topics, uh the message we want to convey is uh is an uplifting one.

Heather Anne 1:37

Yes. So as I mentioned previously in podcasts, I grew up in trauma. It's something that I continue to work through, but um my negative experiences have um impacted my family dynamics, and um I know that a lot of what I experienced and was able to change the family dynamics for my boys was because I had amazing people in my life. I was fortunate enough to have at the time I didn't know that that's what it was, but now I know that I had coaches and teachers and even friends and uh parents that helped uh mentor me in ways and helped me through my childhood, whether they knew it or not, it made a huge impact on my life. And so I do public speaking. Um I've become a national speaker talking about my childhood and what my family uh has experienced, and um so being able to bring on our next guest really warms my heart.

Joe 3:05

So um I um I didn't before I met you, I I didn't know anyone. Well I shouldn't say I didn't know anyone who I knew uh had had been abused as a child. Um so um hearing about your experiences was was something was something very new to me. And so so I am correct, am I ar I in that the help you got, it was very important and very effective, but it there was nothing

Introducing Karen Smith And Camp Hope

Joe 3:36

systematic, it wasn't it wasn't anything that was dedicated to helping abuse children.

Heather Anne 3:41

It was more like no, there was nothing, especially when I was growing up. There was um nothing, in fact. There was no place to search out to get the help. I had already learned by an early age. By the time I was seven or eight years old, because of the laws that were back then, even the police couldn't help us at the time. And so it so I just kind of had to figure my way through that, and just feel like I was just fortunate enough to be put on these paths. I I played a lot of sports, so um I had a lot of coaches that were there for me, even though they didn't necessarily know what was happening because you keep that quiet and it's private, they could still tell something. I I can see that now as an adult, that I was very fortunate that I had coaches that would come up to me and just, you know, give me a little bit of extra attention. Are you doing okay? Um, my gymnastics coach for several years, and um, I can't imagine this happening today, but I'd go stay the night with her and go to church with her. Um I would never allow my children to do that. But back then, it was just part of you know, just the dynamics I was growing up, that you know, my parents weren't concerned where I was or what I was doing, that um I had the benefit of doing that. So that went on for several years. So, and it just seems like I went from one coach to another coach or teachers, even when the trauma happened and we became front page news. Um I had coaches uh or teachers that came up to me and just would seek me out in the hallways and just be like, I just want to check on you. Are you doing okay? And I had several friends that I'd have been friends with for years and years, where if they were on campus, that their moms would come up to me and just ask me, Are you doing okay? Is there anything you need? And because at that time, especially when I started my senior year of high school, that it was front page news that I started my senior year, my first age of my senior year with my mom in the jail. So I was just fortunate enough to be placed in that situation, and I'm very thankful for that. But I know growing up what I've experienced and just the things that you're seeing coming to light and everything, because people are more willing to talk about these subjects than they were 20, 30 years ago, is that a lot of kids do not have that. So one of my great passions is here in Tulsa, we have a camp called Camp Hope, and it's for kids that have lived in trauma. Um, but it is a national organization that's across the country. So it's not just for kids here in Tulsa. There's another one in Oklahoma City, but we have us joining today is Karen Smith. So she's the director of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Acting Director of Camp Hope America here in Tulsa, um, with the that is affiliated with Family Safety Center in Tulsa. She holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in human development and family studies from the University of Arkansas. Karen has received awards, honors over her career, but most recently, the Tulsa Drillers Hometown Hero Award and the Tulsa Police Department's Appreciation Award. Um that's amazing. I didn't know about that. Congratulations on that. Uh I feel like I was just, when we met, it was just by kind of a chance thing. We were introduced by the director of Family Safety Center, and I just instantly was like, here, you're my friend. Tell me about Camp Hope. I was fortunate enough to go to a couple of camps. Um, one of them wasn't that great, but I was fortunate enough to go to a couple of camps when I was younger, and I loved that because I got to go to those camps and nobody knew me. I got to be whoever I wanted to be and hide my secret. Nobody knew the trauma that I was living in, nobody knew that my dad was beating my mom and us and everything. So as soon as I found out and learned that we had a Camp Hope here, um, I was very excited. So tell tell us and tell our listeners about what exactly is Camp Hope.

How Camp Hope Works Year Round

Karen Smith 8:29

So, Camp Hope is a program for children and families who've been through trauma. It originally started in 2015 in San Diego, which is San Diego is the Alliance for Hope International. It is the umbrella organization for family justice centers. Camp Family Safety Center is the local Family Justice Center. So Camp Hope is one of the programs. It was originally designed for kids who have been through domestic violence, which family justice centers work with interpersonal and intimate partner violence, and that's kind of the goal collated, numerous agencies co-located under one roof. So Camp Hope is one of the programs. It is expanded beyond domestic violence to child abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, trauma in general, kids who have been through trauma. And so they are enrolled in the program. They are nominated by one of our partners. Our partners include, but not only, uh, Family and Children's Service, Domestic Violence Intervention Service, the Spring Shelter, DHS, Legal Aid, the Tulsa Police Department, just to name a few of the partners. So they're nominated by it, one of the partners, and then they are enrolled in the program. I do an interview with the kids and families. The program started out basically to be a week of a residential camp, one and done, uh, with the kids being able to come back year after year. But and when I started, um the national program was morphing into being more than just a week-long camp, and I came in with the attitude of supporting the entire family because the kids on their own aren't going to make a major difference. They are in their home, they're in their life. So really supporting the entire family. The program now is the week of camp, it is a year-round pathways program with mentoring, family engagement activities, and that's kind of hope research, and that's that's the program. So I enrolled the kids and the families. Uh, it's for kids going to camp age seven to like 16. Um, the whole family is enrolled, the entire family, youngers and olders, and grandparents, and extended families, and whoever can come to the family engagement activities, ongoing year-round things. And what kind of activities do they do year-round? So year-round includes we have a partnership with the um Tulsa Um area YMCA, and they partner with um a lot of their activities. So we do some indoor and outdoor swim parties. Every fall we do a family campout uh over a weekend where the whole families pitch up pitch tents. The Y provides the tents for families that don't have their own. Uh, so it is it's an amazing partnership. Um I also have a partnership with the Tulsa Ballet Partners in Art, and they um provide ballet tickets. So uh

Measuring Hope And Resilience

Karen Smith 12:16

I sent out one uh just this week, um, received a notice we have tickets for the an upcoming ballet, and I sent out um a text to all the camp families and some of the human trafficking families and said, Um, do you want to go with me, Camp Hope, to uh the ballet? And at the moment I have um there'll be about 40 people that will get tickets to go to the ballet. We do uh the Nutcracker, um, Sleeping Beauty, a whole variety of whatever. So that's an amazing partnership with uh the ballet, and it's an opportunity for the kids uh and the families to have to do something that they normally wouldn't have the opportunity to. The other thing that I am doing is right now I have four um practicum students, social work practicum students. Two of them are juniors from ORU, one is a senior from ORU, and one is a um graduate student at OU. And so they will also attend the ballet, they will be working on the program, allowing another group of people, students, college students who wouldn't have an opportunity to do something like this, to then build relationships with the campers, uh, learn about something exciting, um, and do that. Some other things that I have planned upcoming is just a paint party, come and paint. Um, and I have a story about that. Um, one of my stories with the painting. I've I've tended to do that some because painting can be a therapeutic thing. So we just do come and paint. And I did one several years ago, and I had lost touch with one of my campers. Um, she had had some um issues and um had left her home for a bit, and I saw her at the family camp out uh this past October, and it she's grown, it was very exciting to see her. Um, I had painting available uh there, and at checkout or when, you know, go home time the next day, I asked, you know, what did she do? Um she had been in and painted, and I said, Oh, I know how much you love that. I have a painting you painted for me hanging in my office. Her eyes got huge. Miss Karen, you kept that? Oh. Yes, of course I kept that. Yes, it is hanging in my office. So that that painting is coming up. Um, and then we will do a lot of things. I will get donations for things. And so whenever I get a donation, like the ballet tickets, or occasionally I've gotten um ORU uh basketball tickets or TU football tickets, things like that. Hey, we come together. Um, and there's always in December we did um a skate party uh at Rama. They have an activity center, and we did a skate party there, and then the families walked the lights if they chose to the Christmas lights. So just a whole variety of things.

Heather Anne 15:38

And it's providing opportunities. Some of these kids would never have get to experience this. For instance, I love camp. Let's go back and talk about the week of camp. Being able to, so one of the things that Camp Hope does is not only provide camp for free for the

Campers Becoming Counselors

Heather Anne 15:58

kids, but they'll provide all the amenities that are needed as well, correct? The sleeping bags and bathing suits and all that stuff, because not every child is going to have the things ready to be able to go to camp. Right. But the one thing when I heard about camp hope that was exciting to me is number one, camp is a lot of fun. Yes. Not all kids get to go. But the thing that really appealed to me the most as a child that grew up in trauma was you don't have to worry about anybody knowing your secret or anything. You get to go and be yourself because all the kids are in the same situation. They've been through some kind of trauma, some worse than others. But you just get to go and you don't have to. I do know that when I went to camp, sometimes I would have to censor myself because I would say something like, you know, uh, yeah, my dad, you know, stripped me down and beat me the other day, and that's why I have these bruises, or you know, making up stories of why I have bruises. But these kids don't have to worry about what anybody's gonna think, or if they say the wrong thing, or anything.

Karen Smith 17:15

Exactly. So the Camp Hope curriculum is based on Hope Research, it is evaluated by the Hope Research Center at OU Tulsa. Um, Dr. Chan Hellman runs it. And all the kids that come to camp take a hope and resilience survey before camp when they're enrolling or signing the paperwork for camp. They take it on the last day of camp and they take it at the 30-day reunion or after camp, and that is compared. The counselors also take a hope and character trait survey, the end of the first day of camp and the last day of camp, comparing, they take it on the group of campers that they are in charge of during the week. So then it is sent to Oyu Tulsa, who does the evaluation of the program. And I can say that nationally, consistently, um the kids at camps scores increase, which a lot of people would say that's nothing to be surprised about because you're giving them an intervention. But the key is the 30-day reunion, they stay high and often it even increased. So hope research says hope begets hope. When they've had success, they're more hopeful and continue to have the success. So the curriculum is based on a um a theme for the year, and it also then is based on um daily like truth statements that the kids talk about, and four hope heroes. And each of the hope heroes is typically someone who's fairly young, um 20s to mid-30s, who had some kind of a hope or some kind of trauma in their life, and now they are they've overcome it and they're doing amazing things with their lives. So that's the curriculum beyond the fun camp things that get to happen.

Heather Anne 19:33

Well, I can speak personally. I I know that hope truly plays a major part. I, you know, often get that

Karen’s Path Into Human Services

Heather Anne 19:44

question from people who just hear my story. Like, how did you survive that? How, you know, that's a typical question. And I know that it was hope. I had hope that I was going to have a better life. I had hope every single time, just like you said, it was living on that high of when I was playing sports, or I was in band and being able to get that first chair. Those were the things that just kept me going. And um when something bad would happen and I'd go through a period, you know, like the seventh grade was like my worst year ever, and when I was getting the worst beatings and things changed in the house and all of this stuff, I didn't have a lot of hope that year. But come my eighth grade year, everything changed again. Um, I wasn't being beat, but I was and it was one of my the best years of my childhood, um, because that was when my mom had actually uh kicked my dad out for the first time. But I lived that whole year, and that was my hope. My hope was I don't have to have this life. I don't have to worry about being beat. I don't have to, because one thing I talk about a lot is um children who grow up in trauma, when they wake up in the morning, they don't just get out of bed, they have to listen and pay attention to what the house is telling them. That's how I explain it to people is is there already yelling? Is there yelling from last night? Has it stopped? What's happening? Am I in danger? What is my they they they plan that they they don't necessarily plan their days ahead of time because you never know. You you get up that morning and it's like, what am I doing? Am I getting out of the house right now? Or can I get some cereal, bowl of cereal, and go watch cartoons in the front of the TV? So um, so I um just love Camp Hope, and I've actually had the honor of meeting several campers that came back and were counselors. So tell us tell us about that.

Karen Smith 21:56

So I'm gonna say something first before I get into that, which You reminded me of something that a camper who has been a counselor, come back as a counselor, said during one of our camp weeks. Camp Hope is helping me to break the chain of pain. So, you know, we talk about um breaking the cycle of family violence, and she put a different term to it, chain of pain, and that's amazing. So, yes, I said that I enroll the campers between uh the age of seven to 16, and when they turn 17, they are invited to continue in the program to be a camp counselor. I've had about 18 individuals who to this date have graduated into being a counselor. So the Tulsa program has been going on for 10 years, and we celebrated our 10-year anniversary in October, and many of the individuals who have been a counselor that maybe they stopped for a year or whatever, they were they were coming together. Oh, let's do it one more time, let's do it next summer. And so seeing that, and then um watching some of the counselors come from being, you know, having been whatever that are now growing up and getting into careers and life. Um, one of my young lady counselors uh now is working at Divus Domestic Violence Intervention Services. Um giving back. She'd gone through a whole variety of different what does she want to do when she grow when she grows up, and now she wants to be a social worker.

Heather Anne 23:47

That is amazing.

Karen Smith 23:48

Yes, yes. One of my young men was coming to camp. He was there, he'd been involved since year one when we started in 2015. He's coming to camp. Um, and we would have sheriff's deputies come out to camp and spend a day out at camp with them. Building the relationship of law enforcement is not bad.

Heather Anne 24:15

Correct. Which, yes, a child growing up in trauma. We believe that the police are bad, that they

Mentoring Models That Lift Families

Heather Anne 24:22

are not there to help us, whether we experience something that's negative with them, or they're just told. Yes, because it's a way of controlling that you know, nobody's going to help you, there's nothing that you can do, you are trapped into this situation. So I I love hearing that they come out.

Karen Smith 24:40

So he builds a relationship or they build a relationship with him, and he decides law enforcement is what he's going to do. He now works for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Department.

Heather Anne 24:49

Now that is an amazing story.

Karen Smith 24:51

Yes, yes.

Heather Anne 24:52

Well, one of the benefits, one of the things that I did when I've met a couple of the uh campers, turned counselors, was ask them, because I'm always a curious person, I ask a lot of questions, but why is it that you wanted to come back and be a counselor? And the res the the few that I have met, the response has been, this is what it's done for me. It gave me hope. I was able to change my life. I I before I could never dream about what my future is. Now I can, and I need I want to be able to give back to that, and I want to be able to help kids that are like me uh be able to give them hope and know that there's a place for them to go.

Karen Smith 25:38

Yes, absolutely. So I another story, um young man who did not go through Camp Hope, but he worked, his mom worked and I worked together at my previous job. Um came time to get, yeah, came time to, it was I was planning looking for counselors, um, and I reached out to the mom, and this young man had been adopted, so he'd had trauma. He came back as a counselor. Um he is still connecting with the camper, the other counselors. So he didn't have that opportunity, but he had the opportunity to get to know the others and understand hey, um, I can do this, I've been through stuff, and he he's now um at in college at Northeastern.

Heather Anne 26:38

But that's giving him hope because he's giving him hope. Yes, his age, those counselors that were

Human Trafficking Realities In Oklahoma

Heather Anne 26:44

campers, and what they got out of the the program to be able to, that's giving him his hope right now. So I've been doing a lot of different work and stuff in the past year or two. It's taken me to the aces and paces, and so that's the positive things that are setting up in his life and raising that PACE score for him because he's having that connection exactly, giving him hope that he can have a better future.

Karen Smith 27:15

And that's the other thing I have to say about the year-round activities beyond the week of camp. I watch the campers immediately when they show up, is so-and-so coming today. Is you know, and because of the environment that many of our families do live in, sometimes they aren't able to get to everything. Sometimes programs say you miss and you get kicked out. I don't kick anybody out. I don't see them for two years and then they come back. I got a text yesterday saying, um, you know, again, telling people about the ballet. I yes, I want to be there. We want to get back involved. Wonderful. You know, please. So they never get kicked out. Um I like that. Yes. And so the families connect with each other. I watch the families calling each other, supporting each other. Um, they now have somebody who maybe hasn't experienced the same thing that they did, but they know they've experienced something that, and again, I I cannot stress this enough uh and why I'm literally just obsessed with the program.

Heather Anne 28:26

But just having you have to pretend so much in your life because you live a different life outside your front door and than you do on the other side. And so being able to just go out and be around people, other kids, even adults that understand. So if you you're not so you could go outside and and be in the real world and not have to censor yourself. That was the the thing that I love the most. It's just that it just amazes me. It just truly amazes me. Because when the, you know, you know my family story, because when that all happened, people were just like shocked of, you know, well, how did this happen? How could have that happened? Because I didn't talk about it when we because you just were not allowed to. Right. You're just not allowed to. Because if you did, then that's a whole different story that happens.

Joe 29:22

Yes. Karen, I wonder if we could sort of like rewind here and and if you could tell us how you how you got into this line of work.

Karen Smith 29:30

So funny question, funny story. Okay. I went to college, um, was had my mind on something. I actually the funny story is my first uh degree, my first one, you know, as a freshman, I wanted to be a costume designer because I love theater. Okay. Um realized very quickly that no, I did not have the um skill to really do that. Still love the theater, but and as I'd walk around campus, where I was, where I gravitated to was the the child on-site childcare. And I would stand at the playground and just, you know, okay. So very quickly, um decided human development family studies was where I wanted my degree path to be. So in in class as an undergraduate, I hear people doing their reports and presentations on child abuse and domestic violence. And in my mind, I'm thinking, uh nope, never, never get out in the real world and suddenly you realize there is no way anybody is going to work with kids and not come in contact and experience um child abuse and domestic violence. So over the years, because of that and because it is more well known, more talked about, there is much more training on it in uh in education, in people going into the field of education, um, even when they don't think that you know that's what they're gonna have to be or do, they you learn it because. So everything that I have done, um so as I'm in college and yeah, I I um am reading the professional journals and find a position called the Child Development Specialist with the state of Oklahoma. And I decide that's what I'm going to, that's what I want to

Online Risks, COVID Isolation, And Law Changes

Karen Smith 31:32

do. So that just led me down a path of working with children who had been abused, who'd been in domestic situations. My role was developmental screenings and parent education and parent support. Well, you tell parents to come to a parenting class and they're like, I don't need someone telling me how to be a parent. So I then, you know, what's going to work? And I will tell you, I started doing something called advanced two-year-old classes. Well, everybody wanted their kid to be an advanced two-year-old. And so they started, you know, one of the requirements to come to get enrolled in that um guarded parent child interaction class, which it wasn't bringing two-year-olds to a child care or a Mother's Day out. It was coming together. Uh, they had to do a developmental assessment. So I'd get them in, you know, to screen and then do uh here's how we work together, and have just it developmentally appropriate activities, and just set back and let the kids interact and the parents and building that trust and relationship so suddenly parents can ask questions and learn. And it's not, all right, I'm going to, I'm the professional and I know what to do, and I'm gonna tell you how to do it. No, it's modeling, it's being there, it's listening, it's following their lead, and all of that. So that I did that, and then I moved to the community service council in Tulsa, where I basically was involved in everything, um early childhood to adult in youth development and family support in promoting prevention and supporting and whatever, and did several different programs to, you know, as we talk about Camp Hope, being yes, I love it. It's I I love it. I did another program that was the same type of thing, and it was an intergenerational mentoring program where we would go into the school, either a lunch or an after school, and we would invite people that were 55 and older to come and be a mentor and mentor some of the kids that you know the school identified as needing it most, but it wasn't just mentoring, it had four components to it. One of the components was the mentor by someone who was 55 or older, one of the components was life skills, one of the components was um uh service learning, encouraging the kids to give back,

What Creates Resilience

Karen Smith 34:19

and the third one was um family activities. And so again, it became the pulling the family together, doing fun things, supporting the family and building their hope, building their strength, and building them as a family unit and support with other people helping and um working.

Heather Anne 34:41

And that's a huge thing because um it's amazing how not only can you change the dynamics and programs like that for the family, but for the community. So our congregation had a mentoring program for many years, and so I was one of those mentors, and um, you know, I grew up and knew what it was like for your parents not to show up for things and stuff, but I at that point was always showing up for my kids, so and um most of the time when we would show up for the awards programs and all of that stuff, then um we would uh there would be a lot of parents there, you could never have enough seating and stuff. But when we showed up in the school, there was nobody there. By the time we were a couple years into that program, it was standing room only. Parents were showing up for their kids. It was just amazing to see those dynamics. Can we shift real quick? Because one of the things that's a hot topic right now is human trafficking. People think that they they have this vision, the movie came out a couple years ago, and that's what they see is you're just being snatched and taken to another country and stuff. But human trafficking is happening in our backyard. This is a very uh popular place for the hub because of how you can get in and out of Tulsa, I mean in and out of Oklahoma, but it's also happening, people are trafficking their own kids.

Karen Smith 36:15

Yes, that's exactly right. And they have been throughout my career. I just didn't have a name for it. We it was just child sex abuse. Um, and yes, it's because sometimes, I mean, rent. Um, some of it's drugs, some of it is child care. Um, I have to go to work and I'm going to leave you with the landlord because um then I don't have to pay the rent. And then what happens when I'm at work? There are things like that that happen. Um, very often what we see through our Oklahoma Coalition Against Human Trafficking are um usually young adults that were brought into the trafficking

Volunteer Vetting And Ways To Help

Karen Smith 37:08

situation as a teen, um either by um a usually it's a it could be a relative, but it's usually a boyfriend. It's usually somebody that uh looks at vulnerabilities and identifies, oh, you know, I see these three girls, there are four girls together, I see these three are, you know, good and say, and and I don't, but this one right here, she looks like she's um vulnerable and needs some help and support and build on the insecurities and whatever, or um the they don't have uh the the near it neatest newest phone model that other kids do and hear, you know, and start grooming them that way.

Heather Anne 37:57

And that and that's another thing that um abusers and and especially traffickers is they look, and it's like they just have the sixth sense of being able to pick up on children that are already vulnerable, that are already um, like you said, just not fitting in, you can tell something's off. And it it it amazes me the dynamics of that.

Karen Smith 38:23

So with the Tulsa police and actually statewide Oklahoma, um the youth under 18 that are being trafficked are the you know priority, but we tend to typically find situations there they're past 18. Um underage, they actually many, most people who um are experiencing trafficking don't think that they're do that they're being exploited, they think it's their choice. Um, and it gets to a point where they start realizing I don't want to do this anymore. That's when uh they ask for help and and seek out.

Heather Anne 39:07

And and just real quick as well, is that it it's amazing how many people don't think that, and especially if they're the victim, they don't think that they're being trafficked. Um, my sister was in a group home, the last group home she was in, um, after being in and out of the system for you know 10 years plus and having probation officers and stuff in the group home, that's what they were doing, is they were trafficking the girls. They did not call it back then. They didn't, and they did not help the girls get counseling or anything. My parents were good about helping my sister get counseling, but the state just came in and was like, okay, well, you're doing something wrong, we're gonna have to shut you down. But it honestly wasn't until a couple years ago. I was at something at the Capitol with regarding human trafficking, and just sat there and a light bulb went off of my head, going, Oh my gosh, that's exactly what my sister had gone through. And so, and she's doing great, and you know, all of that stuff, and you know, she's gone through all of her counseling and everything, and it's amazing. Um, but it people still, even in today, we're in 2026 already, that we don't understand human trafficking, and so it's great to know that we have programs here to help victims and also educate the public because again, I think the news and the movies and all that stuff makes people think, oh, that happens in other countries, or they're literally they're snatching kids and taking them to another country when it's actually happening in our own backyard.

Karen Smith 40:49

Yes. And, you know, you did mention it's easy because of getting in and out, um, and people talk about the highway system. Every state has a highway system. So we look at, yes, some majors um look at where uh direct flights are and things like that, but it's people that live here, and they aren't always or often necessarily moved someplace else. It's here that they're being trafficked, um, they're being sold, uh, labor trafficking, they're being forced into labor, um, into domestic servitude, um, or into doing things, you know, that they're being forced to do that.

Heather Anne 41:33

They're being forced to do that.

Karen Smith 41:35

Forced fraud and coercion is the definition of what human trafficking is, um, either forced fraud and um coercion for uh into the um commercial sex industry or labor.

Joe 41:51

How has well if if it has, but if it has, how has technology, the internet, and so forth made

Anyone Can Make A Difference

Joe 42:01

made for a more dangerous environment for children?

Karen Smith 42:04

Well, yes, in that it's it's there and it's very accessible, but I have to add that COVID was also a big piece with technology, putting the two together because people were stuck at home, away from relationships, away from building the connections. And so they go to the online, and predators do um you know, reach out. And it's like I had a um human trafficking survivor leader say um that she tells parents you need to be giving the kids what they need, or someone else will. And she didn't mean she wasn't talking about you know every um every toy, every whatever. She was talking about the emotional needs. And so that's you know, that's one of the things that struck me as something to say to parents, um, to be thinking about that. But so, yes, I think that the COVID and being isolated had a big, big deal with it and um internet stuff. So Oklahoma has made some major strides in changing legislative wording on it's no longer child pornography because that suggests that the under that the child is participating is participating.

Heather Anne 43:37

But that they're willingly, which a child cannot give that consent. That is not so so it is amazing, and Oklahoma is uh is having a lot of strides to change a lot of our laws. They've changed a lot of our laws in domestic violence. Uh how we met years ago was um Uh uh like an awards for a police officer who helped uh with the strangulation in changing the law that that's now a crime.

Karen Smith 44:10

Yes.

Heather Anne 44:10

If there's strangulation during domestic violence. So Oklahoma has truly made a lot of uh strides these last few years.

Joe 44:19

So I wonder if you could say something about about resilience. So, you know, children undergo horrific experiences, and and I mean there's and this does have long-term effects on their personality and then their like brain development, brain stress response system, so forth, cortisol levels, so on and so forth. But then there's also um you know the the possibility of of uh ameliorating or or recovering completely from these and and and having a productive, healthy, fulfilling life. And so, yeah, I just wonder if you could say something about what what what makes what makes for resilience?

Karen Smith 45:00

Some of it is something innate that they have to, I mean, it has to be them wanting to do something, but there has to be supports around them. And all of the research says that um youth need at least four um adults around them to be to thrive,

Closing Thanks And Next Steps

Karen Smith 45:22

and so it's more than just a parent. Um, and if you don't have a parent who's that supportive for you, there are others that can step in, like you said, Heather, having the coach, having teachers, having different people. But there needs to be more than a just uh, hey, how are you doing today? Once it's an ongoing thing.

Heather Anne 45:44

It's an ongoing thing.

Karen Smith 45:46

Um, and it's you know, they have to have experienced hope. So that's one of the things that Camp Hope does is the residential camp gives them time to or opportunities to be successful with something that might be challenging, whatever that might be. It might be something really simple as um eating something new at the meal, or it might be something more difficult like um repelling. But so getting success into whatever, and you know, I I use an example with one of my young men who's um now a counselor, um working full-time, doing amazing. Um was always afraid to go into the water, and I never you know asked if there was some trauma to it, because it's not a end of my business, but the fact that he had he struggled with that. And I wouldn't climb up some of those you know high structures, and he would get to the top and just be whatever. And so, really talking about the difference of we all have our own fears, we all have you know different things, and just because you are afraid of whatever someone else isn't, and we support everybody and wherever they are and whatever they're they want to do.

Joe 47:08

So volunteers are really important for the success of Camp Hope. So, yes, what what procedures do you go through to vet volunteers?

Karen Smith 47:18

So, of course, we have a um comprehensive background check that um our our um agency does that covers everything, all of the everything that they can you know do. Um and then they go through training. And so they have to go through the training. Um to come to the just family engagement stuff where there's a lot of people, they don't have to go through the major training to start with. Um they can come and start learning, but if they're going to go and spend a week at camp, we have an in-depth training that OU Social Work Harouv Institute does, and it's a simulation lab. And they hire actors who pretend to be a camper with an issue and um help the um counselors and volunteers practice what might happen and how to uh how to do it. So that's a major piece that we do for you know the big volunteering. Otherwise, um anyone is invited to do just any little thing, and it could be things um like supporting a Pathways family engagement uh event, whatever that might be. It might be one of the things that um we do at the Family Safety Center that I kind of coordinate is um a program called 911 Cell Phone Bank, where people donate phones to us that I mail to this organization in Florida that re wife some refurnishes them, or if they're no good, does whatever, but then sends us back phones that when we act when someone needs it, it gets activated, and there's two months, two months of free internet phone service. And even if it's not activated, it can always dial 911. So that is, you know, just donating phone, old phones. Um, so that's something that anybody can do, that it doesn't cost anything if they have a new phone. Um and so it can be something simple or it can be very long-term and in-depth. Um, our mentoring program tends to be what we call group mentoring, that we don't have you take kids and go take them on your own someplace. Um, we're always in a group, uh, we're always together. So if you're doing a mentoring and you get with one kid and you don't have that connection, there are others that you can find the connection to, or just to be extra, an extra help. Um, when we do our things at the Y, they usually have the Herman and Kate Kaiser West Side Y, which is their outdoor, there's always fishing. So people sometimes just want to come and fish with the kids. So they're simple things. And beyond what I am doing, I encourage people to, they don't have to do something that is different from what they do all the time. So look at your faith community. Are you um are you attending a faith community where there's youth or families that just need a little bit of something extra? You're right there anyway. Um or your neighborhood. Um is there something, someone in the neighborhood that you can just do a little bit extra? Things even like if there's you know single um parents or working parents in your neighborhood and kids there after school, just being an open door that they know if you're home, that um they're there. And um even as a working mom full-time, my door was open, and some of our neighbor kids had been known to come in when they just needed a little bit of something extra. So it doesn't, you don't have to be a professional to be someone important in a child's life.

Heather Anne 51:29

And that's what I was going to touch upon is that sometimes people think, oh, I'm just one person, um, I can't make a difference. But I am here to tell people that you can because sometimes just one person just was brought into my life at that precise moment that made a huge impact on me. So one person can make a difference, but if we have young adults and professionals and community um leaders and stuff, how do they get involved with Camp Hope?

Karen Smith 52:04

So going to the Family Safety Center fsctulsa.org's website and click on um information or um how to contact or whatever they can reach out. Oh, anybody can reach out to me directly through my email at KSmith@fsctulsa.org, and um I can connect them with any of the things that I do. Um, I just have to give a couple more stories just because so you talk about, we never know when something we've done has made a difference. We might think, oh, I did nothing with that, you know, that was not a success, or you know, whatever. Um there is a um adult um who now works at the uh as a security guard, and I've run into her a couple of times and she sees me. I know you. You came to my school, my elementary school and and helped me with some with some programs. Like, okay, you know, just I mean, just and she and it's like every time she sees me, it's big big smile, and it's been um probably 20 years since that happened, and she still remembers it and focuses. Um, and so yes, it's just little things like that that you never know when you've made an impact on somebody and what you've done. And we don't necessarily have to know that we've done something, we just know.

Heather Anne 53:50

And I have been fortunate to be able to go back to several of the parents and teachers and things in my life and thank them. Yes. Uh, because you know, afterwards they knew our story and stuff. Before at the time they were helping me, they didn't. But there is so many more people that came into my life that I've never been able to thank, but they have made a huge impact. And and so when I'm out and about in the community and stuff, and people come up to me and tell me, you know, I'm just one person, I can't do, but you can. You can make a difference, even just like you said, in your own, you know, in your own church, in your own neighborhood. Um, it doesn't have to be with Camp Hope. It would be great to get you guys some volunteers and stuff, but you don't have to. So, um, so thank you for the information and coming on and sharing Camp Hope, which again, I you know, uh it's amazing what you do and what you do for these kids. And we just need more people like you, uh, because you are making a huge impact on our community. Um, and by the impact that you're making, it spreads out even further because of the campers, and then they become counselors, and just like the story you just told just a minute ago, that um the secure the person you ran into. I know you came to my school and just taught and made an impact on me. And here I'm out in the real world um and able to handle more of the stress of adult life and different things. So thank you very much for the things that you do. And um thank you for inviting me. We I really I you know I'm partial to Camp Hobo, not gonna lie. I am too. And so um, and I'm very excited because you guys have a new facility that is opening, and um, we're actually going to do an episode and come and uh uh do have our episode at the new facility. I'm very excited for the grand opening for that.

Joe 56:04

We hope you've enjoyed this podcast in which we talked about dealing with childhood trauma, programs that help families, and how you can help volunteer and support.

Heather Anne 56:13

So please subscribe to um and support our podcast. We have so many more exciting discussions coming up. So join us here each week, my friend. We're sure to give a smile from lesson learned to miss. The adventures go on for miles. Here we're the Professor and Heather Anne.