The Phoenix Rising Education Program helps raise awareness about child exploitation and trafficking

RAPID CITY, SD (KOTA) – This week we are highlighting the Phoenix Rising Education Program (PREP) as part of our KOTA Cares series.

PREP’s mission is to prevent child exploitation and trafficking through education.

Pamela Lee, Devon Nelson and Kelly Gould recognized that there was a growing need for education in their community to show people that child exploitation and trafficking was occurring locally.

“When we started, we met with all the different organizations in the Black Hills to make sure there was no overlap in services. We really wanted to make sure we were meeting the needs that weren’t being met,” Gould said.

Doris Cardwell, PREP’s executive director, added that there are many organizations that provide services for survivors, with education being just one part of it, while her nonprofit is solely for education.

Gould explained that the organization’s goal when it was founded was to provide continuing education to surviving victims, but as it grew, it realized its niche was to provide that education to community members and parents.

“We hold community events and do everything we can to educate parents, grandparents and educators, but we also go into schools. “We have a curriculum that covers all age-appropriate grade levels and addresses online safety and preventing exploitation,” Cardwell said.

Cardwell added that they also teach about healthy relationships and what they look like.

The FBI estimates that more than 500,000 criminals search for children online to victimize them. Cardwell said that with statistics like these, all parents are trying to navigate and learn how to help their children safely navigate the online world.

“We are able to answer a lot of questions about this, we can give parents conversation tips and educate them on the current trends that predators are taking advantage of,” Cardwell said.

She added that sexting is a major problem across the state and blackmail comes with it.

Cardwell also stated that family trafficking is one of the most common forms of human trafficking in the state of South Dakota.

“A lot of people have an image from movies and other things they’ve seen that human trafficking always involves a white van. “In reality, sometimes it can be a white van, but most of the time it’s either people who met your child online or people who live in your community or family and already know your child,” Cardwell said.

To donate to the Phoenix Rising Education Program or for more information about the organization, you can visit their website.

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