Theresa Flores was appointed to the Ohio Attorney General’s Commission on the study of human trafficking in 2009, and has testified before Ohio’s House and Senate in support of human trafficking legislation.
Her efforts played a major role in the success of Senate Bill 235-B, which passed into law in December 2010.
She received a Courage Award from Ohio Gov. John Kasich for her work in human trafficking.
Theresa has been a licensed social worker for more than 20 years.
She has a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in counseling and education.
During the time that Theresa was being trafficked, she recalled how important soap was to her – to be able to clean up.
With this in mind, she created an outreach program called S.O.A.P. It stands for Saving Our Adolescents from Prostitution, and it consists of free bars of soap with key identifying questions and the number for the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
The soap is distributed to motels that are at a higher risk for human trafficking.
The project goals are:
- To educate motel owners and staff on human trafficking.
- To offer a way for motel owners, clientele and victims to reach out for help.
- To locate missing children.
- To mobilize volunteers who are burdened with this issue and don’t know how to help.
- To address the demand side of trafficking through awareness.
Theresa has appeared as a guest on The Today Show, MSNBC, and appears in a TV series called Kidnap and Rescue, which airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.
She also appeared on a two-hour special about sex trafficking on America’s Most Wanted last February, and her story of survival was made into a book called The Slave Across the Street.
You can visit Theresa’s website at www.traffickfree.com to learn more about her cause and become educated about our nation’s human trafficking epidemic.
