There are things that keep me up at night and most have to do with the health and well being of my girls.    The hardest for me is not dwelling on scenarios that leave them vulnerable no matter how hard I try to prevent or prepare them.   I'm not a big fan of stories about astroids hitting earth because I'm not able to do much about it.

I also can get pretty worked up about risks and get so focused on the risk that I  forget that I can prepare my kids to face it.  One of the areas that concern me as a parent and in my work at Project Patch with out teens is sex trafficking.

I met Linda Smith the founder and president of Shared Hope International several years ago and have been following her work closely because it helps me prepare rather than worry about the risk of sex trafficking.

Lindsay Holmes, Awareness Manger at Shared Hope International (http://www.sharedhope.org) and I sat at a meeting together several months ago and I knew right away that she would be a great guest on the podcast.  She is not only active in raising awareness about Shared Hope but more importantly, she is active in teaching teens, parents and the community about how to eradicate it.

Here are some things that really stood out to me as I spent time recording this episode with Lindsay in our studio.

* It is a huge problem.  This isn't something that we can pretend isn't a local problem.
* All of our kids and us have vulnerabilities.  These vulnerabilities provide a way for traffickers to entice our kids.
* Protecting my kids requires training all across the system including me, my girls, their friends, all their teachers/mentors, community, police and judicial system.  Each of us have a role to play in prevention, restoration and justice.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and encourage you to become for familiar with the work of Shared Hope.  You can listen below or listen on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/todays-family-experience/id917953313?mt=2).
Lisent to the Podcast

Here are some Links:
Website:  www.sharedhope.org
(http://www.sharedhope.org)Chosen Teen Curriculum:  HERE (https://sharedhope.org/2012/12/18/chosen-to-be-released-in-2013/)
Become an Ambassador of Hope: HERE (http://sharedhope.org/aoh/)
Video of Shared Hope raising awareness at Super Bowl (YouTube):  Watch HERE
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEIFjlLMcQ&sns=em)Video of how pornography creates "Johns" (YouTube):  Watch HERE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng172g_F8rM)
Announcements:
February 21 - Help!  Technology is Invading My Home Seminar will be in Boise Idaho.  This free seminar is hosted in partnership with KTSY Family Radio (http://www.895ktsy.com/calendar/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=8698) and The Experience Church (http://livetheexperience.org).  This is a free training for parents, mentors and is focused on helping parents be more effective in helping their kids deal with risks like Internet pornography, video games, and social media.  Child care is provided.  More details in the Up Coming Events page (http://blog.projectpatch.org/events/help-technology-is-invading-my-home/) of this blog.

Family Experience Discount about to expire!   We are offering a 20% discount on the Family Experience coming up on February 19-22.  Call Jessica  at 360-690-8495 to get registered or find out more at www.thefamilyexperience.org (http://www.thefamilyexperience.org).