Sex Trafficking Prevention

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Forget what you thought you knew about sex trafficking and the best ways to prevent it. The problem is larger in scope and involves more factors than most can imagine. This book:

• lays out what makes young people vulnerable to trafficking

• explores the real root of the problem and the numerous effects of abuse

• outlines steps parents and others can take to mitigate those risk factors

• describes ways to help victims find healing.

Drawing from her own experience being trafficked plus her insights gained from years of advocacy and anti-trafficking work, the author speaks directly not only of the realities of trafficking that occurs in our own communities but also the solutions that we can all be a part of. She talks of everyday things we can do to intervene—not “rescue”—youth in troubled lives and homes. The book also lists hidden signs of trouble and offers parents and professionals practical tools and knowledge to intervene and make a positive difference in young people’s lives.

Why should parents read Sex Trafficking Prevention?

SAVANNAH: Looking back on my childhood, I realize how the adults in my life missed signs of abuse because they saw them as signs of behavior instead of symptoms of abuse. Now I've learned different techniques and ways to work with my own children to advocate for themselves and their bodies, which, on multiple occasions has saved them from experiencing sexual abuse. We've had four experiences now in our family that have stopped sexual abuse in its tracks. Parents should read it so they know to be aware, what to watch for, and what to do if they suspect abuse in their children.

Why should professionals read Sex Trafficking Prevention?

SAVANNAH:  Professionals who work with those at risk of being trafficked are providing valuable services to the most vulnerable members in our society. However, most of the training that professionals receive is textbook-oriented, which is important, but this book gives a real life account (my own as a survivor) with the added benefit of a professional view (my own as an educated, experienced educator and advocate). 

Why should teenagers read Sex Trafficking Prevention?

SAVANNAH:  It took me a long time to recognize the causes of my pain while I was growing up. I didn't realize that the way I acted was because of the abuse I'd experienced. I honestly didn't understand that I'd been abused until I became an adult. No one who came into my life, no matter how much they loved me, knew to teach me what abuse looked like. Later on as an adult, I was able to understand that there wasn't something wrong with me. Rather, it was something that had happened to me. It was one of the most freeing experiences I had. This book outlines some of those experiences and realizations I had and I hope that every teen that reads this is able to see that their worth today is no different than it will be ten years from now and that they can do anything that they put their mind to.

The Author

Savannah Sanders is a leading voice in the prevention of sex trafficking in the U.S. and abroad, and author of Sex Trafficking Prevention: A Trauma-Informed Approach for Parents and Professionals (Unhooked Books, 2015).

Savannah shares her compelling story of abuse and recovery to audiences of professionals who work with vulnerable youth and with trafficking victims, and also to teens and other groups. She has provided testimony on Emmy-nominated television news segments, in sex trade documentaries, at local events and on talk radio.

She was the Training Coordinator for the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute SAFE Action Project, elevating awareness and action within the hospitality industry to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children. She is a founding board member of Well Founded Hope, helping to restore the lives of traumatized young women who have been sex trafficked.

Working with the organization Mending the Soul, Sanders was instrumental in developing and implementing curriculum to help survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation. She was a Program Fellow of Intervention, Recovery and Empowerment Services for TRUST, a grant-funded project to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts.

She holds a degree in Social Work and Women and Gender Studies and is pursuing a graduate degree in Social Work and Social/Cultural Pedagogy at Arizona State University.

Book Details

Publisher: Unhooked Books
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Pages: 162
Binding:  Paperback
ISBN (print): 978-1-936268-84-9
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-936268-85-6
Author: Savannah J. Sanders

For she is uniquely and wonderfully made—

The year I met Savannah Sanders was the same year my clinical team and I assessed and treated 21 girls and young women who had been identified as sex trafficking survivors in order to better understand how to support that particular population of victims. At the time, I was the owner and executive director of a mental health clinic and had enjoyed a fifteen-year private practice specializing in abuse recovery. Savannah was the second “trafficked survivor” I had the privilege of meeting—she was unforgettable, mesmerizing, and one of the most beautiful and passionate young women I had ever met. As we sat on a bench talking in a sun-drenched park while her children laughed and played, she began to tell a heart-wrenching story of betrayal, abuse, and exploitation. While she talked I listened with tears welling in my eyes marveling at the exquisite strength and wisdom possessed by one so young. From our first meeting on I knew that Savannah would leave her mark on a broken world. I knew she would pass on every bit of support she received, impacting thousands of people in her lifetime. She is already living up to those expectations and continues not just to impact the survivors she serves but their caregivers as well.

Savannah was a quick study, paying keen attention to the models and interventions that helped her; she passes those on in practical ways to help others. In Sex Trafficking Prevention Savannah articulates hope for communities that bring children from darkness into light; her wounds eventually became a womb, a fertile place where life was birthed.

Savannah’s sacred gift offered up on these pages is the vulnerable articulation of her story. The reader feels loved in the telling. It’s bold and honest and memorable as it gives each of us clear and simple direction in what we can do, what we must do, to prevent our children from being sold into slavery. It’s a mission of love, a model of costly compassion for communities.

There is much wisdom—applied knowledge in these pages. I am grateful that Savannah boldly tucks the subset of sex trafficking under the broader category of abuse. And so it is. Of the twenty-two interviews our clinical team conducted all but one of those beautiful young women had experienced early childhood sexual abuse that was perpetrated by adult(s) who were entrusted with their care. Every girl knew, what we are learning now, that the abuse and maltreatment they experienced as young children created the vulnerabilities that turned each of them into the “perfect victim.” By the time they ran to the streets, they told us, they were already survivors and bearing the scars of that early abuse. Whether we’re educators, providers, parents, or clergy, Sex Trafficking Prevention articulates when to intervene with children and teens and how to do it well. The time is now—this book shows us how. Thousands of children are waiting on us.

—CELESTIA TRACY, Founder and Director of Resource Development
Mending the Soul Ministries