Defiant Hope: What It Takes to End Child Trafficking
| 00:00:00 - 00:03:00 | In today's episode we're going to learn about defiant hope, what it means to get up off your button actually do something and what it's like to every day lean into uncomfortable conversations. Today I'm joined by Rob Morris, the CEO of love one hundred and forty six. Love one hundred and forty six is a charity with the vision to end child trafficking. If you're uncomfortable with the topic, I understand if you need to skip onto the next episode, but to all listening, I encourage you to lean into the uncomfortable conversation and all of our lives were faced about the uncomfortable conversations, topics that might be difficult, and this is one that is of upmost importance for us all to lean into. I encourage you go to love one forty six dot Org to donate. This month of June they have a wellness challenge where they're challenging you and your organizations to commit yourself to a wellness challenge, while doing so also help support this wonderful charity. Please welcome Rob Morris. You're listening to sea sweet blueprint, the show for sea sweet leaders. Here we discuss no bys approaches to organizational readiness and digital transformation. Let's start the show. Hey, rob, thanks so much for joining me, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You know, I think that Earth Shattering perspective checks are and are important every once in a while just to, you know, ground you. And in the business world you we use the phrases transformation, we use the the the word brave, but in the context of the challenges that you're trying to address, it did, quite honestly, makes them seem pretty am silly. And you know, I'd love to explore what some of those words mean in your world and I think you know there's a lot to be learned there, and the one I'd love to start with is is defiant hope. And what does that mean? Sure, I mean that's that's one of our values as an organization and I think oftentimes with you know, the issue that we deal with, which is the trafficking and exploitation of children. You know, people ask me often, and you know first how do you keep your your head on straight when your head is buried in some of the darkest stories imagine will day in and day out. But the reality is, I think, especially in the Times that we're living in now. I think we're all sort of buried in stuff right we're bombarded seven with bad news all the time and so trying to figure out how do we keep our heads on straight? And and yeah, I think sometimes people will heal me, hear me talk or whatever and they say, Oh man, I love your optimism, and I sort of chuckle because I think I am not an optimist. If you knew me, I'm definitely not an optimist. I seem too much to actually be an optimist. I'm not anti optimism at all. I like being around optimists, but I'm not an optimist and I think the danger of optimism sometimes, and not all the time, but I think sometimes optimism can get really close to the edge of denial, you know, where it's sort of like a things are bad or this issue is bad, but everything's going to be okay, everything is going to work out. That is not who I am. I... |
| 00:03:00 - 00:06:04 | ...think hope is a little bit different in that I think optimism has a tendency to be passive, whereas hope has a tendency, I think, to be more active and aggressive. And so we sort of added the word defiant to it very purposely because I think there is an an element of defiance when it comes to hope, especially when it comes to the Times that we're living in and especially with what we deal with as an organization. Are Really Hard, dark, heartwrenching, human rights abuse. There's a defiance when we say hey, you know what, this is the reality. It's pretty harsh, but I insist that it can change and it can potentially change because of my action and me actually doing something about it. So there's it's active and and the word defiance, you know, unfortunately has a really bad rap right it's like I'm you know, I tell people all the time that if I had a dollar for every time I heard the word defiant from, you know, growing up, from school teachers or even my own parents, you know, you're such a just break in the rules. So yeah, it's like that. It's it, but it's always this negative thing. But I think now, with the work that I do and with where I'm at even in life, that defiance is paying off in spades as I've attached it to hope. So yeah, so, in the midst of what looks like growing despair and darkness and growing cynicism in the world, I think pushing against that and insisting on another world and potentially being a part of bringing that. It's to Bi and hope. So yeah, that's kind of about what who we are. And and the crazy thing is George's that I'm learning what defiant hope looks like from the children that we work with, because for a lot of kids that have been through what kids have been through that are in our care, for them to wake up in the morning and to choose to live another day, that in and of itself is an active defiant hope. So yeah, so it infuses who we are as an organization. humbling to see those survivors. Did you do you start off as an optimist and then that transformed, or is that always been your your point of view? It's a great question. I think it's developed, like anything, over over years, right. And so, you know, I think I think a good part of my life I spent trying to shield myself, and I think we all do instinctively shield ourselves from injustice and and and the hard stuff and the heartwrenching stuff. I you know, I think there's a civil rights leader from way back by the name of w EB dwo boys and he made this statement. He said, there is but one coward on Earth and that is the coward who dare not know. And there's, I think, a part of all of us that when we hear something really hard or see something terrible, there's a part instinctively that we want to turn away. We want to look away, we want to bury our head in the sand, and I think a lot of our lives we spend trying to protect ourselves from the hard stuff. And and so I think as I've done that less and less and actually have choose and chosen to more and urse myself into the pain of my neighbors, the defiant hope piece... |
| 00:06:04 - 00:09:01 | ...has sort of risen through that. So I don't think I've always understood what defiant hope looks like. I don't know if I was ever really an optimist, but the defiant hope piece is the thing that's sort of defining and and really I'm digging more into and learning about day in and day out. So yeah, he and and really leaning into those uncomfortable conversations, those uncomfortable situations. I mean that that going to be applied anywhere? Right is this? Because because if your optimism is cranked up to the point of just ignorance and oblivious is nest. Then you're you're really not going to help anyone around you. Right, and this is something that's always draw me to your cause and and that I was want to give it more of a voice, is that it tends to be one of those things that not a lot of people are going to bring up at the dinner table. You know there you know when they're out, it's just because it's going to instantly bring things down. You know, it's much easier to talk about, you know, cancer, you know whatever. Insert whatever other cause, then then this one. But you know this it's such an important thing and you know, I'm curious how have you navigated that? Like always being the guy that's got a you know, bring up that uncomfortable conversation? It's a great question. I laughingly refer to myself often as that dinner guest from Hell, right where it's just people you haven't met before. Whatever. They hear you speak some place, they take you out to dinner or you know, you know friends of friends take you. You know, you go out and and somewhere along the line people you know. So what is it that you do? You know? Or I'm on an airplane right, you know, on a fifteen hour flight and somewhere along that line you're going to end up having a conversation with somebody sitting next to you, and oftentimes it'll be the classic you know. So you know, are you going to the Philippines for business or pleasure? Are you going to Thailand for business or pleasure? Well, you know, business really, what is it that you do? And it's just like I could already feel like there that that question coming, and I used to be really afraid of that and feel like, Oh man, am I just going to put up just a bucket of cold water on a conversation, but now I actually look at it as an opportunity to share extraordinary stories of extraordinary children, because it's not all horrific, it's not all dark. I mean, just like any of us, we don't our stories are not just one narrative, right. They're full of hope, they're full of despair, they're full of victories and triumphs and incredible flaws and failures and all of that. And so it's not. It's not all the fact that, interestingly, I remember having somebody with me visiting one of our safe homes in the Philippines and we spent the day there with the kids and we were playing games with them, having dance parties. I remember playing badminton. They absolutely crushed us in bad mitten, but it was just a wonderful day playing with these kids. And at the end of the day, this this friend of mine, she looks at me, she goes, I'm so confused, this was not what I was expecting to see. She goes, these are just like real children, and I was like, yeah, that's because they are real children and real children laugh,... |
| 00:09:01 - 00:12:00 | ...real children cry. It's all of that. It's just not one one narrative that defines us, and obviously none of us want to be defined by the worst thing that's ever happened to us, and so I try to share the big picture, that it's not all dark and horror stories, though the horror stories are horrific, it's not all that. Yeah, because then then I feel like there'd be no hope, right, because hope is that there's going to be. There's there are some good things now and there's going to be more, more good moments, right, and that's just going to turn into more and more. I'm curious when you I travel, are used to travel a lot for work. What is the general reaction to people lean back into the conversation or is it one of those moments where you tell them what you do and they're like Oh, and they just slip their headphones back up on and stare out the window? You know, it's great, it's I find both. There are people who I mean and we've seen, especially, as you know, the issue of human trafficking, especially in recent years, has really become the human rights issue of our time. When we first started twenty years ago, not a lot of people knew what human trafficking was and as soon as they started hearing about it, it was that sort of like, oh my gosh, that's just too there's it's too much and it and I totally understand that and I totally get that. But we've seen that change over the years and obviously, you know, you you have to sort of read the room and and and get where a person is at, and there's there and I actually have been really encouraged that more and more people are leaning in and often times they're like how, how? What? How can I be involved? What can I do about it? And so yeah, and so that's that's been changing. And it's and it's encouraging. That's great. And then the other, the other word that I find interesting is transformation. You use it within within this exploitation space and in the business world. When I talk about transformation, I always say there's never an end right this and it's always it's you're always retransforming and transforming. Now the kind of bums me out a little bit to think that that same concept would apply in the exploitation world, because I do want an end. But what does transformation mean for you? Yeah, I think. I think, first of all, I applying it to recovery. Is is an interesting thought. Like what is transformation look like right? One of my big aching questions when we first started doing this work, when I would hear about some of the things that happen to the children that we were bringing into our care, the big looming, haunting question was, is recovery even possible? Is Transformation coming from where this person is at right now, with all they've experienced when it comes to trauma, is there a moving out of that is or a moving on from that? And and I've got to say, and in in all the years that we've been doing this work, that the resounding answer to that question is absolutely. I've been able to see it, you know. I've seen the lives of little human beings absolutely transformed. And then the issue itself, when it comes to transformation, right, people are like, you know, wow, but when... |
| 00:12:00 - 00:15:00 | ...you hear the statistics of how many people are being trafficking exploited, do you think this is ever going to change? Because we have this really bold and audacious vision as an organization, which is the end of child trafficking exploitation. And sometimes people will be like, you know, don't you think that's a little naive or idealistic to think something like this is ever going to change or ever going to end? And and I hate that defeatist mentality right, because it ignores, first of all, history, right, because people said the same thing to like a William Wilberforce when he was fighting against the Trans Atlantic slave trade in Britain. You know, people said the same thing to an Mlk, to you know, and and you can a Mandela, you can go on and on on all of that, but I think I don't think it's idealistic or naive, I think it's audacious. Then at the end of the day it's people of audacity that end up changing the world, right. So it's so yeah, I think transformations possible. So I look back, and I have this privilege of being able to look at twenty years that we've been involved in this and I see really good changes. Right. What again, people didn't you know, not a lot of people knew what it was. Now most people know what it was. Legislation being passed over the last twenty years that are creating safer situations for children. I'm in every state has passed legislation in the last twenty years or so, and so we see these incremental movements toward a better future, and so that's what we what we look at. And so, yeah, I think. I think transformation is absolutely possible and we look even as an organization, George, of like the importance of evolving and as an organization, right, of continually transforming and changing as an organization as our knowledge increases. We want to be more effective and so we tweak we change, you know, we do all of that, and part of that is having a posture of being learners, being curious, you know, being good listeners. God knows we need more listeners in the world right now than talkers, because everybody's talking but not a lot of people are listening. But it's really key to transformation is being good listeners and and having that posture of being forever learners. Totally agree and I want to dig into, you know, how you motivate your team and and how you keep them on mission. But before I do that, I'm realizing even now like we're talking about this topic somewhat abstractly and I'd love to like lean into it and if there's a story or two that really ground you, know this this problem that you're willing to share, I'd love to hear it. Yeah, I mean even even how we started as an organization, it was because of encounter with the issue, you know. I know intivity has this sort of like ethos of human first, and I think oftentimes we can dehumanize human beings by putting them under categories that you know that they fit under right, and so we have these categories like the homeless or the refugees, the poor or human traffic. When you put the in front of a group of people and use... |
| 00:15:00 - 00:18:00 | ...blump everybody into that thing, after a while you can start to forget that we're talking about human beings here and not just an issue or a cause. And so for me, you know, twenty years ago, you know, I was, you know, before we started love, one hundred and forty six, I was with a couple of friends. We connected, we we were we were just hearing about this thing called child trafficking. Wanted to see how we could be involved or do something about it, and we were. We traveled with an organization made up of criminal investigators who go in investigating these crimes against children, into places where children are being exploited and sold like commodities. They were as an investigation taking place in this particular city. They invited us in to go in with them. They basically compose as customers. They go in with undercover surveillance equipment on they gather evidence, they then bring that evidence to local law enforcement and there's usually a recovery operation when there's enough evidence to warrant of successful prosecution and a place being shut down, and then, hopefully these children are brought out of those situations and begin their long road of recovery. And I just oversimplified an incredibly complex process for the sake of time. But it was that night in particular before we went in, you know, and and honestly, Georgia was the most disturbing experience of my life to pretend to be the very thing that everything in me is completely and utterly repulsed by. Right going in a Polis and as a customer, and we walked into this place. It was a brothel where children were were suspected of being sold. And sure, if we walk in, we look, you know, and behind this glass there are these children sitting in in chair, chairs, in rows. I'm having even the dignity of a name stripped from them. They just had numbers pinned to their dresses. On this side of the glass I'm standing shoulder or shoulder with predators who were purchasing these kids for sex. And I remember, right before we went in, the last thing this investigator said before we went and he said, look, if you don't think you can do this, if you don't think you can hold it together with what you're about to see, do not commit, because we can't risk you breaking character and destroying this investigation that had already been taking a while to complete. And we were like no worries until we found ourselves standing in this room, and then everything in me was like trying to hold it together and yeah, it was an incredibly disturbing experience. And so, and I'm this side of the glass, the these brothel workers were handing us these menus with the numbers of the children on them, with their so called specialty of what they could provide, and I remember the looks in the eyes of these kids. These kids were just like like motionless, watching these children's cartoons on television sets on their side of the glass, waiting to literally be purchased and abused. And they all had that sort of motionless stare, except for one girl. She was the only one not looking at the children's cartoons. She was staring at us through the glass. And the look in her eyes, I don't know what I was seeing, whether it was fight, whether it was trauma, you know, whether it was panic, you know, I hope that it was defiance or whatever, but that look, and that's there. I... |
| 00:18:00 - 00:21:03 | ...will never forget, still haunts me even to this day. Will never forget her number. Her number is one hundred and forty six, you know. And so even when we named the organization, once we started at or after we started it, we renamed it actually to remember the one right mother, Theresa said, if I didn't pick up the one off the streets of Calcutta, I never would have picked up the fortyzero right that it's not about issues and causes, it's about real human beings. And so yeah, to this day that's you know, she's a constant reminder to us of that. It's about the one and she represents the multitudes that we work with. So yeah, so since since that time till now, our two core programs as an organization our survivor care, we care for children who have been trafficked and exploited, and then prevention program which looks like a prevention education curriculum that's being utilized in schools, in child welfare agencies, within juvenile justice agencies. And since two thousand and two when we started, we've been able to reach a little over sixty seven thousand kids on four continents through survivor care and prevention programs. So something it's started out with literally an encounter that transformed us. You don't walk away from something like that and not engage on some meaningful level, and we've been able to create this thing that's making a difference. It's amazing impact to respond to that, you know, because that could it just as easily just crush your soul at that point right, but to turn around and and and drive this organization and to have that type of impact is huge. You know, I'm curious as you've as you've gone through all these years. You know, What Have you learned? What have you faced rallying your team around that? You know, I you know in the business world a lot of the challenge is getting people to buy into the mission. My assumption is that that, I would imagine it's fairly easy for people to get on into the mission. Don't know if that's correct, but what challenges do you face kind of bringing bringing them along and keeping them on target? I think I think we are so fortunate that the people that work at love one hundred and forty six. I mean I'm inspired every day by my colleagues and the people that I get the great privilege of working with because of this dedication. This level of dedication, is level of passion of wanting to make a difference is incredibly inspiring. But I think, I think a big piece, and I think this applies to almost any kind of work, especially when it comes to human rights issues, is this thing that we call steady perseverance. Another one of our values as an organization. Of My mom used to refer to it as stick to itiveness. I thought that she had made that word up, but you can actually find that word of a dictionary. So, but that that perseverance piece. You know, I had sort of a this crisis of thinking some years years ago when we had there was a particular girl who had gone through one of our programs. She was doing extraordinarily well, I'm she actually ended up telling her story because she wanted to after she became an adult. You wanted to tell her story publicly, to to inspire other people to get... |
| 00:21:03 - 00:24:02 |
...involved and all of that. And then we had gotten this news on this particular day that she was back in an at risk situation and it was like back in a vulnerable situation, that feeling of like two steps forward, three steps back, and we were really impacted by this and I was talking to one of my colleagues and just wrestling with what do we do now about this? How can we come alongside of her again and support her, you know, and what does that look like? And what do we do about even like our story has been told publicly, what does that look like? And and and I remember like this this colleague of my she looks at me, she goes rob, she, you know, because here's here's the deal in being completely transparent as a charity, as a nonprofit organization, there is this unspoken pressure that we carry to feel like we have to tell only the success stories, the stories of victories, triumphs and successes and and and stories with fairytale endings, because that's what donors will support, that's why people want to get behind. Everybody loves that kind of story. And and so there's this pressure. And she looks at me and she says rob, maybe our story as an organization is not just the story of victories, triumph successes and fairytale endings. Maybe our story is actually the story of never giving up. Maybe our story is the story of perseverance. And Georgia was like somebody hit me with a two by four of truth right up, just like, oh my gosh, that is said and and and the reality is is none of us really have our whole story looking like fairy tale ane. Right, I think about my own life. Why would it be any different than with the children that we get the great privilege of journeying with? Right? We all have stories of yeah, we have some some successes, but we have a lot of failures. You know, we human experience, right actually, and it goes back to that human first thing, right, that this is about human beings, and so the complexity of just being human is going to involve all of that, the victories and the absolute failures. That's two steps forward, the three steps back, and we need to tell the true story, that the human story when it comes to the work that we do. And so the perseverance, that steady perseverance, that keep going thing. Again, it's another thing that we're learning from the kids that we work with. And and and I maybe I'm late to the game, but it was only a few years ago that I actually, for the first time, saw the words severe in the word perseverance. And I don't know how I have I missed that, but I'm like, of course, that completely makes sense. Right. You never hear somebody that is doing great saying I'm really persevering, right, it's always when you're in the when you're in the trenchest man, when things are when you're back against the wall, and that perseverance thing of I'm going to keep going, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to keep going and and so fortunately I get to work with people that were constantly with each other let's keep going, let's keep going, and I see that happening in children who are daily aggressively taking their lives and their childhoods back and persevering. |
| 00:24:02 - 00:27:02 |
And so there's that inspiration around us all the time. And so that happens within the context of our team and as our organization all the time. It's really it's a powerful thing to be a part of, a really powerful thing to witness. Yeah, yeah, it even gets messy, even in the recovery set of things right. And and you know, I remember remember this conversation pretty clearly when we first came up with the human first thing. There was a few people. The feedback was, but doesn't that mean that you're flawed? You know, and doesn't that Andy? So are you now like marketing yourselves as a flawed organization? And it took it took us a while to get over that as well as well, because, you know, especially in consulting, you're supposed to come with all the answers and you know and you're you know, you're doing nothing but solving problems. But I find that the most rewarding times are when, you know, I say that I don't know, or that we're you know, you build those relationships just getting through something that's a complete and utter mess. But it's it's how you do it too. It's like it's like how you persevere, because I guess there's there's probably different, different styles of how you could persevere and and I think that that that is really critical to is is and that's probably where values come right. The values are what's going to drive you during that that time of perseverance and keep you on the right track. Absolutely, yeah, a hundred percent. So let's talk about being action oriented. Then I find that most organizations, not even a business, as just people, they get stuck just with inaction, right. Yeah, everything from deciding what restaurant a group of people want to go to, to buying a software platform to whatever in and you're addressing a problem where there's action is so important. How do you stay action oriented? And then that's then let's talk a little bit about how we can get people involved in action oriented with love. One hundred and forty six sure, I often tell a story of an experience I had when I was in high school, and and that was a very, very long time ago, but I remember very specifically we were leaving the school parking lot. I was on the bus and we were heading home and and the bus was going through the school parking lot and then somebody on the bus yells fight, fight, and we look out the window when there was this crazy fight happening in the parking lot and it was like fifteen people on one kid and they were pounding the life out of this kid. The bus, you know it is there, and we all kind of run to the side of the bus, almost tipping the bus over to get up a window seat to watch the fight happening in the parking lot. I don't know what this kid did, but he upset a lot of people and it was it was insane. I mean they were they were stopping on this kid. I mean they were they were really beating the life out of this kid and and we're all on the bus looking out the windows and we're just like Oh oh man, just watching this thing taking place right until one kid on the bus, he was on the baseball team, and I remember this because he started yelling at the bus driver, stop the boss, stop the bus, and this kid runs back to his Duffel bag and he pulls a baseball bat out of his Duffel bag and he goes running down the aisle of the bus and I'll never forget this scene as... |
| 00:27:02 - 00:29:59 |
...he barrels off of the bus. And this kid was not some big kid or anything like that, right, but he had the baseball bad it goes off the bus with the baseball that and he literally risks his own life and he just throws himself into this angry mob of people and he's swinging this baseball bat and he's crying, screaming, leave them alone, leave him alone. He's just one kid. He's just one kid and he disperses this crowd of people right and I will never forget the feeling that I had in that moment as I discovered what I was right that, man, I'm just an observer, I'm looking at I'm staying on the safety of the bus, looking out the windows on a gross injustice happening right and and never thinking about engaging, and probably for the classic reasons. I don't remember what my thinking was in that moment, but was it the classic reason that we all use often times? Oh, what can one person do right? You know, again something like this, you know, or the fear of my own safety man, I'm going to get killed if I try to get involved here, or whatever, and so I just remember that I felt sick to my stomach at that thought that only one kid on this bus had the courage to say I'm going to engage and it may cost me and it may not solve anything, but I'm going to do something about it. And that's sort of planted this this seed, I guess, and in me and that moment of determining I never want to feel like this again. I you know, and and I think it's there was a Jewish history and name you, who to bower and he made a statement concerning the Holocaust and he said that he says, I think there should be three new commandments added to the existing ten, and that first commandment should be thou shalt not be a victim, and the secondly thou shalt not be a perpetrator. And then he said thirdly, the most important of all is thou shalt never ever be a bystander. And so yeah, so I think this, as far as the thing that pushes us, is that is that refusal to be a bystander that I'm going to engage in some meaningful way and make a difference, hopefully by what that action looks like. That's great. You know, as we're as we're coming towards the end here, I wonder if it would if he be if you can share a survivor story. Maybe that's a good way to as we get towards the tail end of this. Yeah, I mean were there's so many right, there's so many stories. I guess probably one of the most recent things that I think. Yeah, that I think was impacting for me because it's sort of like it comes back to that human first thing, right, because the tension that existed in the moment. So at one of our safe homes in the Philippines, it's called the round home, we have a lot of the kids are really young there and part of the safe home property we have a farm, are working farm, and it provides food for the safe home, for the staff and for the children and all of that everything. And on the farm we have we have their animals there as well, and and we had just recent... |
| 00:30:00 - 00:33:00 |
...laid there's some goats that we had that had baby goats and I don't know if you've ever seen like baby goats, but if you go to youtube and you just put in the search bar baby goats. There are literally millions of videos of baby goats just because they are hilarious. They're absolutely hysterical to watch, just the way they sort of bowing straight up and down and everything, on top of each other, on top of rocks, and they're just they're hilarious, right. And so we get to the safe home and as we arrive, one of the younger girl, she's she's five, she comes running up to me and she wants to show me the new baby goats that are on the farm. Right. So she grabs me by the hand and we go running down to the farm area where the baby ghosts where, and we get there and she's just laughing hysterically right at these baby because the way a child should be laughing at baby goats, right. And her laughed or not? Just the scene of the goats, yes, that was funny, but her laughter was contagious, George, and I I find myself just laughing with her. We're laughing until I start paying attention to the size of the hand that's holding mine. And it was this moment of realization, the idea that I'm holding the hand of a five year old child in a place called a safe home, and the reason for that is absolutely horrific. And there was that dark aspect of like this is crazy that a thing called a safe home for children who've been exploited and trafficked and traumatized she even have to exist in the world. There was that, but then there was the sound of children's laughter in the midst of pain and trauma and all of that. And was this mix of this crazy world, the way childhood is supposed to be, in the way it should never have been. And so we we for a while. I tried to get rid of just the dark side of that stuff, and and yet it's the reality is that those those things are mixed together when it comes to to human beings and everything. And so yeah, so laughter happens. We get to see children again taking their lives back and and there are there stories after stories. And again, not every story has a fairytale ending. Not Every story is just full of that victory type thing. We it's a struggle. It's a hard, hard struggle, it's a lifelong journey, but we get to be a part of that as well. So yeah, yeah, it's that innocence and purity. That makes it that much harder to comprehend. You know, why anyone would harm harm them. It's so tough. So how can people get involved? I know you've got you've got a an event coming up this next in June. So depending on people are listening in June of two thousand and twenty two, let's talk about that. But that's also talked about in general, you know, if people are listening after yeah, I mean, we have a lot of resources available on our website. Love one hundred and forty six dot Org. You there. |
| 00:33:00 - 00:36:00 |
There's all sorts of ways that you can be involved. Obviously, you know, we have our monthly partners that partner with US financially. We have corporations companies that have come on board and and support the organization. We do have an event coming up. It's a thirty day event actually in June, called tread on trafficking. where. I mean, I don't know, bet you, but I feel like I've been sitting in this chair for to freaking years. I'm in my house right and you know, due to the pandemic and and and all of that, and and there's also the natural like spring, where you just want to get outside and so we have this thing that we do called tread on trafficking, where people can take that natural sort of instinct right now wanting to get out there and do something active, whether it's running, are walking or biking or swimming or kayaking or painting or writing, whatever you want to do. Or, you know, we have people that engage just but hey, I'm going to drink a two gallons of water a day or whatever, efforts, some sort of physical effort and attach it to raising funds for for our work in protecting children. And so yeah, so trend on trafficking kicks off on June. First we have companies that have engaged their employees, you know, as part of their social response, you know corporate responsibility stuff. They have their entire you know, employee staff treading individually. We have some kind companies that compete against each you know. You know, hey, we're going to see how much we can we can raise, and it's it's a great way to get people involved in really fun and practical ways. We've even had kids in our care the say, foams, that have participated in tread on trafficking is well and doing their own doing their own efforts. So that's a if you go to the website there, the tread on trafficking information is on there. It's love one hundred and forty six dot Org and I think it's tread on trafficking and all the information is on their in Tivity is is is a corporate sponsor and has been in the past, which we deeply appreciate. Again, I love the synergy and the connection that we have on keeping human beings first and and caring about human beings right, and so we're deeply appreciative to at the level that people come to the table and say, man, I care, I want to do something, and these are practical ways that people can be about working alongside of us. Yeah, well, in the spirit of defiant hope, you know, rather than me asking listeners to do something here, I say just do it, do something and make at least two other people do something here, because otherwise you're just going to be a bystander, an observer right in that that's not going to help anyone. I love what and Lamott, one of my favorite writers and Lamots, she says it and she says I did them the single most important thing that one can do to save the world. I got off my butt and the tread on trafficking piece is a great way to get off your Bot... |
| 00:36:00 - 00:37:16 |
...and actually do something that is going to be super meaningful to children and a practical way to engage. So yeah, thanks, man's great. Well, thanks for being here, Robin. Thanks for your organization and over the years that we've been involved, I've I've seen so many fantastics, driber stories and and it does, it does instill me with hope and and I'm with you two is a you know, you're not going to get to the moon unless you say you're going to get to the moon and and so, you know, I think that it's very it's very grounded to say that we're going to end this. So thanks rob thanks for everything. Thank you, man. Thanks again for caring. Technology should serve vision, not set it at intevity. We design clear blueprints for organization readiness and digital transformation that allow companies to chart new past. Then we drive the implementation of those plans with our client partners in service of growth. Find out more at wwwetcom. You've been listening to see sweet blueprint. If you like what you've heard, be sure to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcast to make sure you never miss a new episode and why you're there. We'd love it if you could leave a rating. Just give us however many stars you think you deserve. Until next time. |
