August 19, 2019 3:50 a.m.
The Douglas County Human Trafficking Task Force recently received a Centennial Anniversary Grant from Zonta International to provide a curriculum to all 26 middle and high schools in the county to help prevent the trafficking of kids.
A release from the Mercy Foundation said the Zonta Club of Roseburg and the task force joined efforts to apply for the international grant last fall and was one of only 62 groups to receive a grant.
The release said most of Douglas County’s schools are located near high volume, major human trafficking corridors such as Interstate Five, and highways 38, 42 and 101. However, there is currently no preventative trafficking curriculum being used in local schools, in spite of students being vulnerable, according to the release.
The issue has been identified by multiple teachers, parents, law enforcement officers, health care providers and others. The release said according to law enforcement officers, in Douglas County 75 percent of the trafficking is sex trafficking, and is heavily related to drug trafficking and use. While more girls are victims, there is currently an increase in boys being trafficked.
The grant will provide training for teachers, along with a free “Teens Against Trafficking” curriculum to those teachers who attend the training. The grant will also provide a survivor speaker from Bend’s “In Our Backyard” program, who will speak at several schools.
The release said the curriculum meets the Oregon Health Standards for the Promotion of Sexual Health and the Promotion of Mental, Social and Emotional Health for students in grades 6-12 and for Title 9. It also satisfies Erin’s Law, enacted in 2015, which requires the development and adoption of child sexual abuse prevention programs for students from kindergarten through 12th grade in Oregon’s public schools.
For complete information about the grant, or about the trafficking of teens in Douglas County, contact Marion Kotowski, violence prevention coordinator for the Mercy Foundation, at 677-6531.