Guardian Group’s Legacy

The work that we do and the time that we spend doing it, what will it all mean for the future? This is a question the Guardian Group team considered in 2019, as we focused not only on defining the impact we were having in the fight against human trafficking but also the legacy we will leave behind for future generations.

The Now

We learned this year how to better define what we do and how to better measure it. On our defensive side the metrics are simple and straightforward: we hosted 83 training events, resulting in 5,365 people trained to recognize and respond to potential trafficking situations. These trainings took place in 15 different states across the country.

Our offensive effort poses a different challenge because, in general people want to know how many victims we helped law enforcement recover and how many predators are behind bars because of the work that we did? All are valid questions. However, one must realize that once our Pursuit Team hands information off to law enforcement that case often becomes active and may go on for years. We aren’t always given follow-up information, thereby making it difficult to answer those two questions.

This has been a discussion point for years as we have refined our strategy and metrics. We can only report what we can measure. The Pursuit Team worked 114 cases in 2019 in 11 states. Our team generated 69 new leads for law enforcement and assisted in 29 stings. Each of these cases, leads and stings represents multiple victims recovered and predators behind bars. Some of these cases are still active and our Law Enforcement partners are continuing to find new evidence to place predators behind bars, meaning they can no longer victimize their existing victims and will be prevented from using their tactics on new victims.

The day-to-day metrics we measure are vitally important. However, we are committed to make sure our impact will last a lifetime.

The Legacy

In general, our country has little knowledge of how trafficking happens, how to stop it and more importantly how to prevent it. When we give a person the tool of knowledge we equip them to make a difference for a lifetime. A difference of which we may never hear or see the outcome.

We know when we empower law enforcement and task forces with the knowledge and support to pursue the difficult trafficking cases we are also protecting those communities for generations to come.  When officers and district attorneys are proactive in their pursuit of traffickers it also sends a message that their city is not going to stand for trafficking. Traffickers avoid places they are pursued; therefore, the community and future generations are impacted. This is the legacy we are leaving.

Guardian Group is empowering law enforcement, hoteliers, healthcare workers and community members to have the knowledge and support to protect their communities. As this expands across the country there will be few places left traffickers can hide. A safer America for our children and our grandchildren is what we (Guardian Group, our financial supporters, volunteers, those giving of their time and talent) are leaving as our legacy.

 

Please take a few moments to read our full Legacy Impact Report. What legacy will you leave behind? Will you join us in making this legacy a closer reality in 2020? Become a Guardian.