Service Learning 2023-2024

My name is Juliette Leone and I am a senior at Holliston High School. I have lived in Holliston my whole life, as I have gotten older, I have noticed our community needs more advocacy especially in the highscool. I have always had an interest in protecting human rights. Our Project on Sex Trafficking is an interest to me because I want to spread awareness and help end this major issue, globally and within our state. With Izzy's help, we hope to educate our community on this topic, leaving people curious and inspired.

My name is Izzy Glenn-Smith, and I am a junior at Holliston High School. I grew up in Buffalo New York, but moved to Holliston in 2018. I have always been a huge advocator for women's rights, but more recently, after learning about human trafficking, I feel passionate about doing everything I can to help survivors and prevent more people from becoming victims. Together, Juliette and I want to use our power as young adults to put an end to sex trafficking while also educating as many people as possible on this frightening issue.

Community Need: We chose to focus on this issue in our state, Massachusetts, because we feel deeply affected by the dangers of Sex trafficking as young teen girls, and want to help make a difference. We are prime targets of sex traffickers due to our gender and age. Therefore, we feel we should do everything in our power to help prevent people from becoming victims and help ourselves and others feel safer in our communities. Anyone is at risk. Traffickers make money victimizing innocent people, and this is a form of modern-day slavery. Women, Men, and children are abused by this kind of violence in the US and abroad. Pimps target those who are weak, poor, living in dangerous conditions, or looking for a better life; victims may come from any background. This project is a community need because it will help to prevent an entire community from feeling unsafe and at risk.

This is a link to see more about what this project is all about: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15utX9ePBwmGlnkKCHXFKZKw_Dl1jjWF_/view?usp=sharing

Community Partnership: My Life My Choice is an organization run by survivors and leaders determined to help survivors by providing the support needed and spreading awareness. They respond to trafficking cases as they happen, educate people on their response, and work to end sex trafficking. They provide training to help recognize the signs of trafficking, and they are located in Boston. They will provide us with much research/data, helpful ways to respond to or prevent trafficking, and how to recognize the signs. We want to work with this organization because we feel we are working towards the same goal, and they could greatly help our project.

Community Involvement:

The best way to make change and get involved is to use your voice to inspire and educate others. You can support many different Human Trafficking organizations by donating and simply just reading and looking at their websites and pages. Sharing what you know on the subject with someone else can go a long way. Make sure to educate yourself with the right information from trusted sources. Support the victims, support the organizations, spread the word, and change will come!