Welcome To The Battle
Experts from all sectors of the Human Trafficking field will join us for an incredible time of education and awareness!
6-8pm
LCBC-Manheim PA
Northstarinitiative.org/events
Unstoppable You Conference 2023
Dress For Freedom 6.0 was a beautiful success! Thank you Stephanie and all the amazing volunteers for your hard work and dedication to this event!
Outreach & Education
Thank you York Springs Global Methodist Church for hosting Sparrow Place to share about the realities of Human Trafficking and the role the Body of Christ plays in the education of our communities and the healing process of survivors.
The 2023 Sparrow Place Annual Pasta Dinner & Auction was a beautiful success thanks to our Event Coordinator Mickey Forry and our incredible staff/ BOD/ volunteers! Thank you all for another great year!
Welcome To The Battle
Sparrow Place was honored to attend this year’s Welcome To The Battle event. It was a beautiful and inspiring evening that we were blessed to be a part of.
We are always so grateful and honored when our local churches reach out and invite us to share about Human Trafficking and what part Sparrow Place plays in the healing and restoration process. Thank you again Christ Lutheran Church of Shrewsbury for your warm welcome! It was a blessing to be with you.
BLIND EYES OPENED: The Truth About Sex Trafficking In America
Our dear friend Jennifer Foxworthy from Unstoppable You Ministries hosted another amazing public showing of the invaluable film Blind Eyes Opened. Afterwards we had a passionate and productive community conversation on how we can best work together to combat the injustice of modern day human slavery in our communities and in our nation.
Find Out More about Red Sand Project:
https://redsandproject.org/
FREEDOM WALK
2022
Sparrow Place had the honor of joining Hope.Inspire.Love for this year's incredible Freedom Walk! Hope.Inspire.Love is an amazing organization that engages people through targeted awareness campaigns and events that reduce vulnerability and disrupt the demand for sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery. We were moved beyond words by the courage and dedication of our fellow Anti-Trafficking Organizations and the incredible turnout of walkers from the surrounding communities. There were over 300 "freedom fighters" in attendance at this year's
Freedom Walk! We hope to see you next year as we continue taking steps to END Human Trafficking in our communities!
"Calling all artists!"
If you are looking for ways to help Sparrow Place and have artistic talent, we have a great opportunity! We are looking for artists willing to create a piece that will be featured and auctioned off, with proceeds being added to our fundraising total, during the Give Local York Event, 5/6. Here's your chance to showcase your work while creatively contributing to the restoration of women survivors. Reach out for details! 717-347-7176, email info@sparrowplace.org
https://wjtl.com/listen/wjtl-casts/
Dressing Up Demand!
May 3, 2019
We used the Give Local York & First Friday celebration to display a bold message in Continental Square, at the corners of George & Market streets, York.
Our message was clear. You can't say I didn't know after you walk past an 8 ft. doll box displaying the fact that humans are marketed and sold for the use of other humans.
We have to face it to fight it!
HuGE SUCCESS!
It was truly humbling to look around the room and recognize the number of community members who are now willing to stand together against this violent and mostly hidden crime. The message was obvious, 'Human traffickers and buyers be warned… you are NOT welcome here. HERE, we support survivors!'
It would be impossible to name all of the 260+ volunteers, donors, sponsors, board members, and attendees who made this amazing but please be assured, we know who you are and we appreciate you! 💙👏👏👏
Our York Media
Presented by: York Traditions Bank, Written by: Anthony Machcinski, Photo by: Paul Chaplin
Mei Tomko: Escaping the Statistic
Mei Tomko remembers visiting Grace Church Shrewsbury in New Freedom and seeing a sign for an “adults-only” event about sex trafficking.
Born in China, Mei (pronounced May) came to the U.S. as a baby after being adopted by a York County couple. She considers herself one of the lucky ones. Children in China age out of orphanages once they turn 13. If there is no housing placement available, they may find themselves on the streets. When that happens, they often become victims of sex trafficking. “Realizing that hit home for me,” the teenager says. “It could’ve been me if I wasn’t adopted.”
Sparrow Place, based in York, looks to create a voluntary stay residential program for survivors of sex trafficking that would offer career training and development. They’ve built a following through community awareness events, like the one that attracted Mei. She reached out to the organizers and convinced them to let her attend the event. Today, she’s a 17-year-old teen advocate for the group.
“I wanted to highlight why teenagers, especially high school students, should be aware and care.” Sex trafficking isn’t limited to other countries, she says. Pennsylvania ranks 10th in the United States for prevalence of human trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, with York and Dauphin counties accounting for 10 percent of human trafficking incidents statewide.
Mei first learned of the topic in elementary school, when a YouTube channel she followed began a campaign raising awareness for human trafficking. “It had illustrated images of people with price tags being lined up like toys,” Mei says. “It just hit me that these people were being sold.” Now that she’s linked up with Sparrow Place, Mei has done her part to raise awareness in her southern York County high school.
Over the past year, she spoke at two Sparrow Place community awareness events, is continually requesting her high school leadership raise awareness through infographics and age-appropriate speakers, and works with students to create art projects to encourage youth involvement.
“Traffickers come and target people as young as 12-to-14 years-old,” Mei says. “I wanted to highlight why teenagers, especially high school students, should be aware and care.”
1/26/19 Excited to take action to the street & support Communities Against Trafficking of Central PA SOAP event! 💙
We labeled soap and makeup remover wipes with the National Human Trafficking Hotline phone number and helped distribute them to York area hotels and motels. Hopefully, this effort will give victims easy and discreet access to the information. ☎️
12/10/18 Human Rights Day Community Panel Discussion
Hosted by the Paul Smith Library of SYC
“How are our rights affected by high profile crimes?”
Thank you for inviting SP to sit on this panel with District Judge Lindy L. Sweeney, local attorneys, and other guests. We look forward to many more future discussions and awareness opportunities!
Theresa Flores 👏“Thank You” for speaking to our community yesterday evening!! We are grateful for the time and effort you took to share your knowledge and experiences. Your enthusiasm for action was contagious and your ability to present made it a memorable evening. We especially loved being able to walk away with concrete ideas about how we can IMMEDIATLY begin to make a change! It’s rare to find a survivor willing to speak out and advocate. You have definitely found your purpose and you're making a huge difference in the lives of many living in this horrific reality. You always have a home in York County, and we look forward to any future visits!
Thank you, York Alliance Church, for being such gracious hosts!
“1st Annual Dress for Freedom Event! 2018”
Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude!
Survivors of sex trafficking not only deserve safe housing, but a comprehensive, integrated umbrella of wraparound services, guided by best practice principles & promising therapeutic approaches to healing.
Sparrow Place leadership is currently seeking out and establishing relationships with providers of service and sometimes, we LOVE 💚 this part of our work! Take this morning…we took a tour of the EquiTeam property, and we met Silly.
(Seriously, the horse’s name is Silly.)
🐴Thank YOU, Ellie Williams and Susan Scott, for taking the time to talk to us about your unique equine therapy and Neurofeedback programs for survivors of trauma!! We appreciate your willingness to embrace our vision and look forward to bringing our future survivors to meet you…and Silly!
To find out more, we encourage you to visit -
http://www.equiteam.org/
EquiTeam Support Services
Heidi has offered her services not only to future residents, but to future staff as well. She is a welcome calming presence to our chaos!
"Welcome...
Ashley Broberg!"
Sparrow Place just accepted our first intern and we are thrilled to have her along on our journey.
Ashley is currently a Junior in college with a dual major in Social Work and Biblical Studies. She first started having a passion to see human trafficking brought to an end as a senior in high school four years ago. Her goal is to forward our awareness efforts through the use of photography, video, social media, and a possible teen speaking engagement. Keep an eye out for her work!
Since we believe in the empowerment of all girls and women, we’ll let Ashley speak for herself, “It is my goal and dream to work with survivors one on one and see them spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically restored through the grace, love, and power of Jesus Christ.”
Join in our support as we wish Ashley a warm welcome. We are going to keep her busy!
Even MORE to 'Purchase with a PURPOSE'! Have we mentioned how much we LOVE Individual Fundraising?!? 💕
Volunteers used their skills to create FUN & unique artisan jewelry and offered it for sale at The Top Drawer Consignment Shop! 100% of profits will be used by Sparrow Place toward the purchase or re-purposing of a donated house for survivors of domestic sex trafficking.
We rely heavily on volunteers & donations and the community once again, generously & graciously...stepped up!
Thank you for making this event a success.
One step closer to fulfilling our mission!
“Thank You!” to the motivational speakers and advocacy groups that participated in our community awareness event.
The Samaritan Women
Communities Against Trafficking
House of Hope
New Life for Girls
Not One More
Also, a huge SHOUT OUT to Grace Church Shrewsbury for hosting, & to the Women of Grace for sweetening up the night with treats!
Jan Wilson, Sparrow Place
Thank you to the Paul Smith Library, Shrewsbury, for helping to spread the word about this event!
Support our local library and stop by to thank them for having resources about human trafficking available.
We LOVE partnerships that work for the betterment of SYC!
Sparrow Place was asked to set up an informational table and be available to answer questions regarding what human trafficking has to do with local kids. Our response? "Absolutely!"
1705 Palomino Road
Dover, PA 17315
Phone 717.292.5622
4/3/18 SP Executive Director, Jan Wilson, joins Fred McNaughton & Lisa Landis Blowers LIVE on WJTL FM 90.3 to share our mission and invite the community to the human trafficking awareness event on 4/19. Thankful to be asked to share!
Shout Out!
Thank you, Ben Williamson, college student and all around amazing guy, for the design of our logo. We LOVE it!
Sparrow Place is a non-profit based on volunteerism and you are a perfect example of a community member joining us to offer their talent and abilities to help move this vision forward.
Who's next to jump in? If you believe in our goal to help survivors walk a restorative path to freedom, reach out and contact us!
1/29/18 York, PA
Red Sand Project
An interactive and social media driven national campaign, held by ACCESS York. Sparrow Place was proud to participate!
Leaving a visual reminder that Human Trafficking victims should not fall through the cracks.
![thumbnail[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a36bf8112abd90cb2a36a10/1516480355590-UABAK6P1725CIDED9Q3N/thumbnail%5B1%5D.jpg)
It was a huge success!
1/19/18 Sparrow Place was honored to have our Executive Director, Jan Wilson, participate as one of the speakers at a Human Trafficking awareness event hosted by Communities Against Trafficking of Central PA & the York County Human Trafficking Task Force. Thanks to all of those able to come out and join our awareness efforts. The turnout was amazing; the community has spoken. We want to end human trafficking and we want to heal those who were trafficked.
We look forward to hosting the next community event in the Spring!
Many thanks to the speakers and moderator!
(L to R) Jan Wilson/Sparrow Place, Stacey Springer/CAT, Sara Keister/Covenant House and Michelle Cooper/ACCESS York & York County Human Trafficking Task Force
