In 2014, Atlanta, GA became the no.1 hub of human trafficking in the U.S. The brutal, complex and widespread crime has become a grave concern to many, including one Spelman organization, Priceless Ambassadors.
Spelman College senior and International Studies major, LaDarrien Gillette is the founder and president of Priceless Ambassadors. Gillette and 25 Ambassadors are on a mission to raise awareness on-campus and surrounding areas on the severity of human trafficking.
Inspired by the film “Taken,” a film about a teenager, who visits a foreign country, is kidnapped and forced into a life of human trafficking Gillette began her research. Following her research, she began interning with various non-profits to gain practical experience working with human trafficking survivors. “Since then, I broadened my passion to just violence against women in general, so I’m looking not just at the trafficking of children, but the trafficking of adults, prostitution, stripping is a big one now, and sexual assaults on campuses.”
This year the organization has extended their platform to include a mentor program with girls in the 7th to 9th grade. Priceless Ambassadors partnered with Raising Expectations, an after school program in the West End, in which they work with 20 girls on lessons related to the dangers of human trafficking. Every Monday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the organization uses curriculum made up of 15 lessons and speakers from the community.
The curriculum is focuses on safety on the Internet, self-esteem, black women’s roles in the media, and decision-making. In the future, the organization plans to have the girls receive self-defense training at the end of all the lesson plans.
Gillette decided to work with 7th to 9th graders because the average age for girls to enter into sex trafficking is 11 to 14. “I wanted to be able to get to them before traffickers would.” She added, “I thought we’ll just work with middle school girls, which would be a little more difficult to kind of get them settled down, but they need it a lot more.”
In the future, she plans for the organization to become a permanent part of the Bonner’s Office, implementing the program simultaneously at various schools, and creating a boys’ program with the same focus to be executed at Morehouse College.