Volunteer Voices
Our Brentwood group had its first official meeting last month with 13 attendees. After a brief overview of ESTN mission, role of volunteers, vision for Brentwood group and announcements of events, the group heard from current volunteer Trish Gomez about her experience as a youth presenter and showed the Be the Jam video. The group concluded with hearing from each person about their personal knowledge of human trafficking and interests going forward in volunteering with End Slavery Tennessee.
In addition to many long time volunteers, the Franklin group welcomed several new folks at their February meeting. Volunteer Marge Middleton continued walking the group through legislation from Shared Hope International, GovTrack.us and Tennessee General Assembly regarding TN bills. Group leader Gwen Smith says, “Following legislation and writing our representatives both in Tennessee and Washington is an effective way for all of us to get involved with the issue of human trafficking.”
The group concluded by collecting the last of their gift cards for the January gift card drive and was able to take 43 cards to ESTN for survivors!
Murfreesboro group had a great meeting as well with ten members present as well as a newly interested volunteer. As a special guest, ESTN's Shelia gave updates to the group on survivors and events happening at the office and volunteers were excited to present her with their 20+ gift cards. The group also had ready survivor kits, a pack n play, and their Made with Love art project.
The Spring Hill group had four in attendance this past month and completed three more emergency kits for new referrals. The team discussed upcoming screening events, the No Show Ball, and group presentations. They also watched segments from the first episode of the PBS documentary, A Path Appears, featuring ESTN friends from Magdalene/Thistle Farms and including ESTN's own intervention specialist Shelia . The group is excited about their next film screening/Q&A at Bethesda United Methodist Church on April 21 at 6:30pm. Film and speaker are to be announced.