March 2020 – Stopping the Traffik, Transforming Communities – Ruth Dearnley

Featuring Ruth Dearnley
CEO, STOP THE TRAFFIK

Ruth Dearnley is a distinct combination – an outspoken, humorous, passionate, and inspiring Brit.   Most notably, she is an advocate and a spokesperson for one of the major issues of our world – human trafficking.  She has been Chief Executive Officer of STOP THE TRAFFIK, an international anti-human trafficking organization, since May 2008.  

Ruth has big vision and big opportunities to make an impact against human trafficking.  Her vision is to inspire transformation in communities and lead a strategic response to human trafficking worldwide. With a law degree and a background in education, Ruth has spent the last 20 years communicating creatively and inspiring and facilitating others to transform the world around them, starting in their local community.

Since STOP THE TRAFFIK’s inception in September 2005, Ruth has been involved with fighting sex trafficking globally.  In particular, she created and delivered the communications strategy for the STOP THE TRAFFIK global campaign against people trafficking. Her work resulted in thousands of individuals taking to their streets in their communities and becoming active campaigners.  

In February 2008 STOP THE TRAFFIK delivered over one and half million of its own declaration to the first United Nations global forum to fight people trafficking in Vienna where all 192 countries were present. After the Vienna forum STOP THE TRAFFIK was given the role of UN.GIFT Special Advisor for Community Action against Human Trafficking to facilitate global change.   Ruth is now leading STOP THE TRAFFIK, building a global team of activists across the world, reaching across all continents, empowering communities in the prevention of people trafficking.    

In addition to the remarkable work at STOP THE TRAFFIK, Ruth has served for 7 years as a company director of a national charity (Spring Harvest) that delivers a yearly major event for 40,000 people in the UK, the largest of its kind in Europe.  Ruth co-presents a weekly radio show.  She has been an advisor and project coordinator for educational national and local projects and worked in schools and universities as a teacher, lecturer and supervisor.  Ruth has a law degree, a PGCE in Primary Education and is a Licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England.  Ruth was also among the featured speakers for the Northern Colorado Human Trafficking Symposium held February 6 at Colorado State University. 

Ruth’s many skills, experiences, and knowledge have provided her the tools to not only STOP THE TRAFFIK, but to create a network of informed and passionate individuals to join the cause and transform their communities.  

March 2020 – Freedom to Free Our Girls – Megan Lundstrom

Featuring Megan Lundstrom
Founder/Executive Director, Free Our Girls

Megan Lundstrom has lived life in ways that many couldn’t imagine.  While a single mother, Megan became involved in a relationship that soon became abusive and ultimately would entrap her in sex trafficking.  After years of abuse, in 2012, she was able to exit and begin her healing process. 

Through her healing, Megan felt compelled to share her experience of being lured and trapped in the commercial sex industry. As she began speaking, Megan quickly realized that she was not the only young woman that was at-risk for or had previously experienced commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. What she found as she began to share her story in her home town was that very few agencies were aware that these crimes were occurring in their community, and even fewer felt equipped to serve the complex needs of survivors like her.

In 2014, Megan founded Free Our Girls. a Colorado-based non-profit focused on addressing domestic sex trafficking.  As Founder and Executive Director of Free Our Girls, Megan’s combination of over a decade of both lived and formal experience help her to effectively fight the commercial sex industry.  Through her experiences, Megan provides communities and professionals with the insight to better equip themselves to prevent and respond to the sex trafficking in our region.

Free Our Girls began delivering their Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention & Response Training.  This curriculum was used to train most northern Colorado agencies, organizations, and community groups prior to the Colorado Human Trafficking Council’s statewide standardized curriculum was released in 2017.  After hosting the first and second annual Human Trafficking Awareness Weeks at the University of Northern Colorado, and extensively training the region, service provider referrals began to come in with requests for mentorship, referrals, legal services, mental and physical health care, housing, and employment for victims and survivors now being identified in the area.

Beginning in 2017, Free Our Girls began offering direct services to at-risk and exploited women and girls in northern Colorado, and the organization accomplished a wide variety of achievements, including serving over 40 exploited women and girls locally and sending care packages out to 45 actively exploited women across the US. 

As Free Our Girls continued to make an impact on sex trafficking in the region, Megan continued to make an impact as a scholar and speaker on this issue.  She now holds a BS in Finance and is currently pursuing her MA in Sociological Theory.  Megan is a trained facilitator in prevention curriculum My Life My Choice, and intervention curriculum Ending the Game. Additionally, Megan is a Survivor Consultant for the Department of Homeland Security, and contracts with Larimer County’s CSEC MDT.

Megan’s experience, knowledge, and training have also led her to author a number of books and resource materials that provide information to equip advocates and law enforcement to fight sex trafficking.  Among her publications are: Free Our Girl’s Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention & response: A Comprehensive Training Manuel (#BeTheKey Book 1), Free Our Girls’ Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention, & Response: A Comprehensive Trafficking Manual for Pimp-Controlled Trafficking, A Sample of Applied Research in Anti Sex Trafficking Work Across Sectors, and A Sample of Applied Research in Anti Sex Trafficking Work Across Sectors. 

Megan’s life experiences have been a mix of tragic and empowering.  Her process of healing from abuse by sharing her story and making an impact on her community, have given her freedom.   And that freedom allows her to free others who are entrapped in commercial sex in our communities.