July 30, 2019: Premier Doug Ford,
BPW Bowmanville President - Carrie Andrews, MPP David Piccini
Global News coverage of the July 30, 2019 unveiling of the Sex Trafficking Awareness Campaign: Project Maple Leaf. BPW Bowmanville members, joined by politicians, advocacy organizations and the general public at the Port Hope ONroute to raise human sex trafficking awareness. Click here or on the image below to read the article and view accompanying videos.
The BPW Ontario District Directors have developed an Anti-Human Sex Trafficking Project for the province of Ontario. Goal: To increase public awareness of this issue specifically as it relates to girls under the age of 18.
At the 2018 BPW Ontario Conference, Heather Ellis, BPW Ontario First Vice-President and BPW Ontario Resolutions/By-Laws Chair, introduced the project to the BPW Ontario members. She also introduced Kelly Franklin, Executive Director of Farmtown Canada and Courage For Freedom and a BPW London member. Kelly shared with the BPW Ontario members the work she and others are doing to serve girls who have been trafficked in the sex trade. Courage For Freedom will be leading this project with BPW Ontario.
Project ONroute
The campaign launch date was February 22 (Canada’s Human Trafficking Awareness Day) and concludes July 30 (World Day Against Trafficking in Persons).
The awareness campaign will engage Ontarians using the 400 series highway ONroute Service Centres by providing over 2 million media awareness impressions at all 20 Centres across Ontario during the month of July 2019.
The campaign will involve:
- Positive messages to travelers about human trafficking and include a number to call if they should suspect an individual being trafficked along this highly used corridor.
- Messages to those being trafficked that there are people in Ontario who care about and will help them and the numbers to call for help.
Campaign Finale Celebration July 30th
This was an open invitation for you, your family, friends, colleagues and co-workers to attend and celebrate the campaign finale at a local ONroute location. And, people came out and supported the Campaign at ONroutes across Ontario.
Our Hope
Our hope that by raising awareness we directly help trafficked individuals by Ontarians reporting potential criminal activity. We hope this potentially increased reporting will lead to arrests of traffickers. We also hope that by raising awareness, young women and their families will become more cautious and send a message to traffickers that Ontarians will not tolerate this immoral criminal behaviour.
How to Partner/Donate
We are looking for partners to assist in making this campaign a reality. This project will raise the profile of donors as an institution or person that contributes to a greater awareness of social issues affecting all individuals. In addition, the institution or person will be seen as a progressive and an advocate for vulnerable individuals.
Donations to the project can be completed via e-transfer, cheque or credit card. Click here for complete donation instructions.
