This article discusses sexual assault. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call RAINN's national sexual assault hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support.
MILWAUKEE — Human trafficking and teen dating violence affect hundreds of Wisconsinites every year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Samantha Collier is the CEO of Team Teal 365. It is a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting all survivors of sexual assault and using education to lower those numbers.
“Do you remember what we learned, someone trying to control you, control your thoughts, control what you do?” said Collier to students at Cyber High.
She and her team were teaching seniors at the Milwaukee public charter school about the dangers of human trafficking.
“Healthy relationships, sex trafficking prevention, smuggling and trafficking and they also followed a character throughout the entire curriculum and it ended with the person being safe and self-empowered,” said Collier.
Collier and her team spent 13 weeks teaching students the Neu-S.T.E.P.P. (Sex Trafficking Education and Prevention Program), a program that she wrote.
She said it is very important that this program gets taught to those living in poverty. That’s because traffickers often prey on those with low self esteem, a lack of support networks, or financial or housing insecurity.
“Getting them geared up with the prevention tools is the way to do it and especially in the City of Milwaukee, we are number one when we talk about sex trafficking,” said Collier.
Collier said trafficking doesn’t start with someone being shackled up and being put into slavery. It starts with a process known as grooming, a process that draws victims away from their homes and allows them to gain trust and dependency.
“It starts with an unhealthy relationship that vulnerable youth may not be on the lookout for,” said Collier. “If you come from a cycle of violence, traffickers look for that and we want to prevent that. We want to increase healthy relationships and healthy conversations in our youth.”
Breanna Market is a senior at Cyber High who plans to go to college after graduation. She said she learned a lot from Collier and her team.
“It helps me set boundaries, learn how to be honest, affectionate and helps me understand how I am treating people and how other people are treating me,” said Market.
Before going through the Neu-S.T.E.P.P. program, Market said she was not aware of the dangers of human trafficking.
Now she has a better idea of the dangers that are all around her and she said she feels more confident she can protect herself.
“The biggest thing I can take away from this is to know your people, because if you don’t know your people, you don’t know what you are getting yourself into,” said Market.
While the senior class at Cyber High is finished with the program, this is only the beginning for Collier and her team.
“We started with the 12th graders. We will be moving on to the 11th graders and 10th and ninth here at Cyber High,” said Collier.
Team Teal 365 also teaches Neu-S.T.E.P.P. at the Milwaukee Excellence charter school and the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy.