Breaking Roots: A Conference to End Modern Day Slavery

This event is hosted by 14 Livingston County Home Educated teens, representing 7 Churches in our area.  Our goal is to raise awareness of some of the injustices we have discovered in our community and our world.   We intend to not only raise awareness, but to break the root causes of the injustice we found. 

143,000 Michigan children are living in a family with allegations of abuse and/or neglect. 1 Every day 50 more children are added to that number. 80% of runaway youth report running away from abusive home situations. 2 Experts estimate that within 48 hours on the streets, young people are solicited for sex 3 and then often find themselves entrapped in the sex industry. Traffickers are preying on society’s weak and most vulnerable children. Human Trafficking is a $32 Billion dollar a year industry. Shared Hope International, an organization that conducts studies on existing state laws, graded Michigan with an “F”, the worse grade, two years in a row. As young people in this state we have decided that this is unacceptable. We need laws and systems in place to protect our children.

The evening will begin with dinner and a brief introduction to our cause. Guests will then be invited to break out into different rooms.  The Breaking Roots Conference will address some of the many root causes for crimes against the young and defenseless.  Each room will represent a root cause of the injustices we found and will offer a way each person can act to end the root problem. These “root rooms” include:  Fair Trade Market, Sex Trafficking, Justice For All, Drug Use Awareness/Prevention, Poverty/Homelessness, and Legislation. 

We are inviting the following organizations to be represented at Breaking Roots: Michigan Abolition Project, Love Inc., Pregnancy Help Clinic, Grace Centers of Hope, Lansing Teen Challenge, Women at Risk International (WAR Int’l), Fair Trade Resource .org, Global Gifts, and Clothing Matters, SOAP

Tickets sold at: Greater Brighton Area Chamber or Commerce

1 Lutheran Child and Family Services

2 National Runaway Safeline

3 Spangenberg, M. (2001) Prostituted Youth in New York City: An Overview. ECPAT-USA.