2011 Norma Hotaling Award Recipients

2011 Survivor Centered-Service Provider

Kathrin Hardy,Founder and Director of Freedom From Exploitation based in San Diego, CA. The organization provides peer support and group facilitation to women and girls at-risk or involved in prostitution, human trafficking, and all forms of sexual exploitation. Since its inception in 2002, it has served over 1,500 individuals. Ms. Hardy facilitates county-wide groups providing peer support to victims of sexual exploitation, as well as the Survivor of the Streets group (SOS) that is a peer-driven group in which one survivor helps and supports another survivor in the recovery from sexual exploitation. Kathrin has also served as a research specialist for The Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC) for over 16 years, where she conducts interviews with individuals who have been exploited through the sex industry and works to empower and educate those affected that seek to leave the life of sexual exploitation. She is also a survivor of prostitution, homelessness, and drug and alcohol addiction.

I am honored to receive this award reflecting Norma Hotalings memory. She was my first inspiration in knowing I was not alone, I was not broken, and that I had self-worth, regarding my own commercial sexual exploitation. She was my mentor in creating Freedom From Exploitation; she gave me faith that I could help someone else that was lost in the chaos of the sex industry. She is forever etched in my heart and it is through her expression of love for others that I do my work. I am truly honored and humbled to receive this award. Thank you and thank everyone that nominated me for this award.

2011 Innovative Demand Reduction Award

Kaffie McCullough,Program Manager of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) Program at the non-profit organization, Juvenile Justice Fund, where she addresses key areas known to create vulnerability for the extreme abuse of child sex trafficking. Ms. McCullough also serves as the Campaign Manager for A Future. Not a Past, which works to eradicate demand in Georgia through mobilizing supporters, supporting key legislative efforts, and commissions groundbreaking research that drives strategies of prevention, intervention, and education. She led the groundbreaking Georgia Demand Study, which revealed that 7,200 men in Georgia knowingly or unknowingly exploit adolescent females every month. Kaffie leads the Prosecution arm of the Georgias Governors Office for Children and Families CSEC Task Force, and directs AFNAPs efforts on We Urge You legislative campaign, which supports the passage of laws to protect victims and prosecute perpetrators. Ms. McCullough also helped create a training program for law enforcement officials to aid in the increase of arrests and prosecutions of pimps and johns in Georgia, reaching 3,000 law enforcement officials in 51 counties.

Thank you so much for honoring me and the work that A Future. Not A Past. has done to eradicate demand for child sex trafficking. When I opened the email this morning, I was totally overwhelmed. I only know of Norma Hotaling and wish that I had had the opportunity to meet her in person because I have heard so many people speak so highly of her. To be getting an award that is in her honor is very humbling to me. I know what her life’s journey had been – and the courage, resilience, and leadership that she had shown throughout her life seemed to far outweigh my own. I have been blessed to work alongside many incredible people and know that I would not have qualified for this award without a lot of work from many others. Although the world is big in square miles, the connections of all of us that are working to end child sex trafficking and human trafficking cross those miles and make the world smaller. I am proud to be one of those people, and will continue to stand against those who are tryrng to buy others for their own pleasure and profit. Thank you for all that you do in this arena, and again . . . from the bottom of my heart I appreciate the honor that you have given me.

 

2011 Josephine Butler Abolitionist Award for Policy Development

Amanda Kloer,Director of Organization for Human Trafficking at Change.org launched the Human Trafficking Cause Community at Change.org, including creating a blog that engages anti-trafficking activists from around the world. As of 2011, the online activist base has grown to nearly half a million activists engaged in anti-trafficking. Ms. Kloer has helped lead over 50 campaigns targeting governmental, corporate, and institutional human trafficking policies from an abolitionist perspective. At Change.org, Amanda has made tangible progress in fighting and eradicating sex trafficking and the related abuses of the commercial sex industry. Amanda promotes the human trafficking abolitionist policy through media and her writings, popular culture, local governments, and her pioneering online and social media activism, including her listserve called Human Trafficking Heroes.

 

I am very humbled to be honored with the 2011 Josephine Butler Abolitionist Award for Policy Development for my work at Change.org. Josephine Butler was many things I strive to be a passionate advocate for women and girls, a pioneer of social and economic justice, and a true believer in the beauty and goodness of the world. Josephine dedicated her life to fighting for an end to the abusive, painful, and unjust forced medical examinations of women in prostitution in the 19th century, eventually winning the fight against the legally-sanctioned torture these exams included.

But even more so than her policy victories, Josephine Butler is a person I strive to emulate because she inspired a generation of people especially young women to fight against injustice and exploitation in society. In an era when women were rarely empowered as leaders, she took on some of societys toughest challenges with tenacious grace. At Change.org, Ive had the privilege of lifting up the stories of people around the world who are fighting slavery, exploitation, and injustice. Some of them, like Josephine, have dedicated their lives to this fight. Others have made incredible changes in their communities while juggling family, work, and other life commitments. All of them are my heroes.

With this award, I will remember and honor the legacy of powerful women like Josephine Butler and Norma Hotaling, who have made the work I do today possible. And I will see this as a call to action to inspire, empower, and encourage future generations of abolitionists to continue to work for a freer and more equal world.