prevention

Our club focuses on prevention education. In 2025, we are facilitating two exciting projects: prevention training with the 3Strands Global Foundation and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center and a prevention campaign with The Ugly Truth. Contact our club if you’re interested in getting involved in either project. Here are the details of both projects.

 

3Strands Global Foundation

We partnered with the 3Strands Global Foundation to provide training to parents, school staff, teachers, and other adults to help them spot signs of sex trafficking in children and teens. The training is based on the organization’s PROTECT curriculum, which is aimed at preventing sex trafficking before it starts.

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Here in western Washington, the training is presented by experts from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center during in-person or virtual events. The sessions are about 90 minutes, including time for questions. The trainings touch on several issues related to sex trafficking, including: 

* Defining what trafficking is, myths surrounding the issue, and who is most affected.

* Signs of grooming and other risks.

* Applicable laws, like how to remove intimate images posted online.

* How to get help and access resources.

As a club, we raise money to fund the training. We do this in part by partnering with other Rotary Clubs in the greater Puget Sound region. Those clubs make donations, which are matched by our Rotary district, and then partner with a youth organization in their community interested in the training. Our club also funds the training for other trainers.

PROTECT trains educators and adults to identify and respond to signs of human trafficking and equips them to build and implement a reporting protocol. PROTECT can also be tapped to provide age-appropriate curriculum, delivered by trained educators, to students to help them identify abusive tactics and signs of exploitation both online and in person, to help keep themselves and others safe.

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So far, PROTECT has been used to educate more than 122,000 adults and 807,000 students in several U.S. states.

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Note: A new law signed in 2023 mandates trafficking prevention education in Washington state middle and high schools starting in the 2025-26 school year. If your school or school district is interested in acquiring this proven curriculum – and receiving Rotary funding to support implementation – please contact our club. 

 

The Ugly Truth

The Ugly Truth campaigns focus on dispelling myths about the commercial sex trade and work to show the reality of the coercion, abuse, and social and economic conditions that fuel the billion-dollar global industry. We are exploring bringing a localized campaign to the Seattle area, including the Aurora Avenue North corridor, now notorious for sex trafficking. (See this Rotary Magazine cover story about the issue.)

Created by the nonprofit Voices & Faces, which works with survivors of sex trafficking, the campaigns help educate the community through billboards, signage on buses and trains, and in other bold areas. Another goal is to open lines of communication and build a coalition with city, county, and state officials, along with nonprofits and other organizations aligned with our work. Many of these organizations are discussing ways to prevent sex trafficking as part of planning for the 2026 FIFA World Cup games in Seattle.

 

(You can also listen to a presentation by foundation CEO Ashlie Bryant to the Rotary Club of Seattle. Bryant’s remarks begin at minute 24:13). 

 

Talking points for discussing sex trafficking with teenagers can be found here.

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Check out the Calendar for upcoming service projects and meetings.