This January, Guardian Group is undertaking a comprehensive community awareness campaign in conjunction with National Human Trafficking Awareness Month and will host its largest-ever training on January 11th, 6:30 to 8:00 pm, at Journey Church. Sponsored by War Tribe and Clark’s University of Martial Arts, the event is designed to be accessible for the general public (ages 12 and up) as well as special interests, and can accommodate several hundred people.

The evening will open with pizza and refreshments, and then feature the 35-minute Human Trafficking Prevention Training. After this, participants will be invited to visit one of several breakout sessions designed for various interests, including business and hotels, volunteers, law enforcement, community leaders and the CSEC (Commercially Sexual Exploited Children) Response team. The event is being promoted to PTAs, businesses, churches, schools, nonprofits, and other civic groups with the goal of having a critical mass of professionally trained eyes on the problem. Concurrently, Guardian Group is working to ensure that all first responders, law enforcement, hotels, restaurants, and tourism venues (where trafficking happens most often) also receive the Guardian Seal® training to equip them to recognize the signs of trafficking. And although sex trafficking is something no one wants to consider, it affects hundreds of young people in Central Oregon every year.

Through its offensive work in training and education, Guardian Group intends to establish Bend as the first Sealed City ensuring the near impossibility of carrying out sex trafficking within the city.