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| Title slide from the "Know More" event |
On November 7, 2018, Santa Barbara County Child Welfare Services, in collaboration with Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley, hosted a unique and informative educational opportunity around the topic of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).
The highlight of the evening was the interactive drama presented by kNOw More, a student-centered, drama-based, human trafficking awareness prevention program from San Diego. The kNOw More program is interactive, and requires participation from those in attendance. It takes you through the steps of how a 15 year old youth became a Human Trafficking victim, and what could have been done along the way to stop this. It was very encouraging to see the audience, especially the youth in attendance, actively participate.
This is the first time that this group has traveled to another county to provide this presentation, and Santa Barbara County Child Welfare Services was excited that they agreed to come and present for our community. This photo album shows a few pictures from the event.
The event drew a large crowd of approximately 250 people, with another 23 on a wait list. The event started at 5:00 pm and lasted until 8:00 pm. The participants ranged from youth and parents in our community, to local community based partners, law enforcement, social workers, probation officers, and Resource Families.
The feedback after the event was encouraging, with many people in the community asking for additional events like this to be scheduled yearly. At this time, Santa Barbara County Child Welfare is planning on hosting a similar event in South County in the spring.