Four years since the first Freedom Summit in 2009, conference chair Betty Ann Boeving reiterated that the goal remains the same: “to move anti-trafficking efforts from conviction to action.”
Boeving’s Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition (B.A.A.T.C.) has an impressive record of conducting training, assembling collaboration partners, raising awareness, and organizing Freedom Summit conferences.
The B.A.A.T.C. is committed to shining "a spotlight on the problem" that is a "crime hidden in plain sight right here in our cities and towns," Boeving asserts. The Freedom Summit is designed to produce a collective mobilized response to the problem.
One of the most abhorrent of those "hidden in plain sight" crimes is the sex trafficking of children, and the Bay Area is one of thirteen metropolitan areas in the country identified by the F.B.I. as having a “high intensity” of minors being sold for sex.
“Freedom Summit helps people to understand how this problem is impacting them on a local level, to explore the many ways that they can participate in the solution, and to help them get started,” Boeving said in her invitation to attend and become educated and empowered.
Presenters at the summit are visionaries and veterans from state, national, and international organizations renowned for their expertise and effectiveness at combating modern slavery and serving survivors of trafficking.
One of those featured speakers is Justin Dillon, musician, documentary director, and founder and CEO of Oakland-based Slavery Footprint. He recently tweeted, “Freedom is not an end…it’s a means. We have to constantly protect freedom.”
Keynote addresses will be augmented by break-out sessions with “nuts and bolts” details of fighting slavery and addressing its damage, an Expo Center filled with over 50 anti-human trafficking organizations, Q & A panels, film screenings, art exhibits, book releases, and a resource center with authoritative references.
Registration is still open for those ready to move "from conviction to action." Details and registration for Freedom Summit 2013 at Harbor Light Church in Fremont on Jan. 25 and 26 are here: www.freedom-summit.org.
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