NEW BEGINNINGS

WE HAVE SOME BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS!!


Greetings from the new Director of Education and Awareness for Access Freedom.
http://www.accessfreedom.org/Access_Freedom/Home.html




Now, you may be wondering..."what about Bridges?" The Bridges Anti Traffiking Coalition is now being headed up and run by the infamous Cameron Meyer (my wonderful husband) and we are in the process of joining forces with Access Freedom and becoming one organization.

Bridges will be the functioning RESPONSE UNIT.
Access Freedom will remain the AWARENESS AND PREVENTION team

Imagine this as two legs to one body, two sides to one coin. Email or comment with questions or clarification.
CHECK THEM OUT!

A little update on where we're coming from:

The Martin Luther King Junior Human Rights Conference was a great success. Access Freedom and Bridges came together once more to give a powerful presentation on the effectiveness and need for a wholistic community response to the reality of CSEC/DMST in Whatcom County. We also heard from someone who has experiences this first hand. It was a powerful afternoon.

Our intern is doing amazing work gathering information on other service provider's intake policies and client care policies.

The donations from Redeemer Church have already been such a blessing to those we are aiming to serve. Again, thank you for all who gave.

Here's some exciting things that are coming down the shute:

Work has begun for a benefit concert at Woods Coffe in Bellingham sometime in the spring. We are hoping to raise awareness about CSEC/DMST and to raise money for future events and general operations costs.

Cameron is developing Bridges relationship with
The CENTER FOR YOUTH JUSTICE

http://www.ccyj.org/
to plan a Policy Maker's Summit in the spring. Their goal is to create a standardized response protocol, at the State Level to CSEC/DMST. We have shown up on their radar as a very strong signal. It's amazing to learn the level of interagency interest and cooperation we have achieved here in Whatcom County is unique across the State. What an encouragement. We look forward to this opportunity to talk with Public Defenders, Service Providers, Commissioners, and Law Enforcement, and the court system about the need for efficient and swift response to exploited youth.

As the Director of Education and Awarness, my new endeavor will be to be trained in the AWARE: Decpetions Curriculum, to create a program to go into schools and educate youth and train others to do the same. I will also be supervising our 2 wonderful interns.

On a side note: Cameron and I will be attending the Justice Conference in Portland during the last weeked of February supporting our comrades, Aaron and Lea Newcomb (ENGENDI MINISTRIES) who's vision is to create a safe house here in Whatcom County.



For more info on that Conference:
http://thejusticeconference.com/

Thank you as always for your prayers and support. For now, any donations may still be sent through Northwest Family Life but you can expect that to change in the near future...YOU WILL BE KEPT IN THE KNOW

Our God is Good and we are so thankful for His Restoring work in our lives and in the lives of each youth we reach out to, strive to serve, and work to prevent harm in their lives.

Peace and Grace,
The Meyers