Classroom Activity Ideas
Create a Presentation
- Have students create a presentation (2-5 minutes) on sex trafficking (what it is and how a victim can get help in their area).
- Present to class or in quads
Create Postcards
Create postcards that include messages about:
- Not buying sex
- Not exploiting others
- If a person is sex trafficked, messages of hope/help
Create a Flyer/Brochure
Have students create a flyer/brochure about sex trafficking for their local community
- Include local agencies and service providers
- 101 Information about sex trafficking
Local Awareness activity
- Create a Map of the local community programs that serve sex trafficking victims
- Create 10 interview questions
- Contact a staff person at 2 agencies and interview/ask the 10 questions
Challenging Stereotypes: Not Just Girls project
Explore how boys, males, and transgender persons are also vulnerable to sex traffickers.
Start a Blog
Utilize students from a journalism, yearbook, or English class to start a blog about the issue of sex trafficking. Students can highlight organizations in the area that are doing anti-trafficking work, survivor stories, student stories of how they are getting involved in the community against this issue etc. Students can determine how often the blog is posted to, and they can assign others as guest bloggers. Challenge students to do research and get creative about how they bring awareness of this issue to their peers.
How language hurts (words like prostitute, pimp being glamorized)
Explore how language about prostitution or sex trafficking can further victimize a person (calling someone a “prostitute” or “hoe”) and how language can contribute to a person falling victim to a sex trafficking situation (glamorization of “the life”, glorying pimp culture, etc.).
Stop Sexploitation Project
Challenge a group of students (student government, National Honors Society, Key Club, Social Justice Club, etc.) to start a year-long campaign to speak out against sex trafficking, and to raise awareness about the issue on school campus. Develop a hashtag (#peoplearepriceless or #stopsexploitation, etc.) and utilize social media, the school news, school events and activities to get the message out about the campaign. Students can develop activities during lunch hour, volunteers events, fundraiser events for a local organization, and other events to further the campaign and raise awareness at school and in the community about the issue of sex trafficking. Get creative!
Recruiters – How are people tricked into sex trafficking
Describe different ways in which a person might be recruited into a sex trafficking situation (meets a boy on social media, through a friend at school or in the neighborhood, through gang affiliation, through family, because of homelessness or being kicked out of home due to sexual orientation, etc.).
Create Safety Plan (for people to report, talk about it)
Discuss with students about how to create a safety plan that outlines what to do should a student experience attempted recruitment into a sex trafficking situation. Outline the adults to talk to, the numbers to call, and additional resources in your community that are helpful. Write up the plan with the students and post in the classroom.