Compass Empowerment Trainings
Replacing exploitation with empowerment must be an effort of the community, not just the effort of one single organization. We need you. You can help. Ending exploitation for even one life demands multi-faceted solutions from every aspect of society. Each of us has a unique role to play in creating empowerment opportunities and restoring freedom.
Apathy is not an issue for people passionate about freedom like yourself. But maybe you’re not as active in helping as you want to be because you’re simply overwhelmed by how great the need is. Maybe you feel ill-equipped to help. We get that. Sometimes we even feel that way ourselves. But, by equipping yourself through these practical and relevant training tools, you will become more empowered to create your own new solutions to exploitation. Together, we can do this. We are here to help you help.
"Empowerment abolishes unrealized potential. It kills me to hear of people who want to jump in and help, but who stop themselves because they don’t feel equipped or confident. These Compass Empowerment Trainings allow you to participate in practical, accessible equipping at your own pace. Come listen, learn, and be encouraged to find new levels of your own strength and how to share that strength more effectively with others."
Alexis Miller
Not Abandoned International Director
With knowledge comes wisdom,
and with wisdom come more effective action.
Trafficking & Exploitation
There are many complex facets to the plague of exploitation and unfortunately, its reach hits every community of our globe. Online recruitment of vulnerable teens, trafficking of children, exploitation of adults, international sex tourism, and the abusive trappings of pornography are just some of the issues we'll cover in these trainings. Here you will dive into a journey of understanding both the heartache, and the tremendous opportunities to help in practical ways.
Understanding Worldviews
We all have a unique understanding of the world based on our culture, traditions, family, environment, and religion. We must understand our own worldview lens to begin to understand the perspective of others. This is especially important when working with those who are exploited. Poverty, trafficking, and other traumas create powerful subcultures with their own set of rules. Trainings here will give platform to exploitation survivor’s voices and practitioners with years of experience.
Sustainability
Pouring out your energy to help others can be an exhausting reality. Without a strong base and without ways of refilling yourself, your energy will eventually deplete and so will the effectiveness of your helpful work. Trainings here go beyond the encouragement of self-care and dive into an understanding of your very foundation as an individual. Learning to focus your mission will not only help fuel your empowerment, but it will also help make your work more sustainable.
Women Empowered
Ladies, it's time to rise up. Empowered women empower women. Here, you will engage with real talk from diverse women with diverse perspectives. Bakers, business owners, pastors, creatives, mothers, and leaders. Let's have honest conversations about the unique challenges that come with being a women, amidst a culture that glorifies male leadership. We may not always agree, but in respectful transparency we grow stronger. Pour in encouragement; drink up empowerment.
Pattaya, Thailand: The World’s Trafficking Hub
Not Abandoned launched it’s first operations in this Southeast Asian beach town over ten years ago, but many people ask us, “Why here?” Why not Amsterdam? Why not in the United States? Why not at least Bangkok? You may never have heard of this town yourself, but to pedophiles and sex tourists it’s a notorious Disneyland saying, “I can come here and get away with whatever I want.”
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Surviving Pattaya & Trafficking: A Case Study
They arrive to this city expecting to find a good job to support their family who are trying to survive rural poverty. Now, she finds herself trying to survive a whole new kind of trauma in the form of commercial sexual exploitation. There’s no quick fix to “getting out.” It takes time, relationship, and the stubborn love of a healthy community.
Instructors: Jeff McKinley and Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Online Dangers of Trafficking Recruitment
For most of us, at any age, our lives are lived online. There are fantastic advantages that come with technological developments, but these new frontiers also have the potential of opening doors to online exploitation of one of our most vulnerable societal groups: children, teens, and young adults. Learn what to look out for and how we can keep our digital lives safe.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
The Thriving Global
Industry of Sex Tourism
You’ve heard of the sex industry. You’ve of course heard of tourism. You’ve most likely heard of trafficking if you’re on this website. The question remains, how do these all intersect? There is a thriving criminal industry utilizing the same international frameworks that support your family beach vacation and your cousin’s European honeymoon. Hidden in plain sight is a billion dollar system of exploitation.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Global Trafficking Trends and the Routes They Follow
Like in any business, the sex industry has it’s methods for recruitment, centers of distribution and routes of transport. Every corner of our global has their own take on how these systems are set up but there are many similar themes in how they operate. Each year, the trafficking hotspots pilot new tactics for exploitation and pass those ideas on as trends to other syndicates and nations. This training will explore a macro look at these destructive trends.
Instructors: Jeff McKinley and Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Isn't she just a prostitute?
The power of our language.
As humans, when we’re faced with uncomfortable topics that pain our heart, we’re inclined to minimize the atrocity as a way of comforting ourselves. When discussing the topic of trafficking, I have heard many times the rebuttal, “well yes, but these women aren’t really trafficked. They’re here by choice. They’re just prostitutes.” In this training we’ll take the necessary time to unpack the reasoning behind this response and the danger in perpetuating it. Spoiler: our words matter.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
What is a Worldview?
An Intro to the Concept
Understanding the concept of worldviews is like climbing to the top of a forested mountain to get a better view of your surroundings. From this high level vantage point you can now better see not only the best path forward, but you’ll also see more clearly where you’ve come from, and what you’re surrounded by. Just in the same, to climb to the top of other people’s mountains will give you a better understanding of what it’s like to live in their shoes.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
The 3 Big Worldviews
(Series)
Every person on this globe can be divided into one of three worldviews. In this series of trainings we’ll explore each of these worldview categories and how they dictate behavior. The perception of our world will always be viewed first through this lens and we must begin to understand the lens of others’ if we intend to relate to them in any significant fashion. This especially relates to the fields of social service missions and community development work in cross-cultural settings.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Thailand’s Worldview and its History as it Relates to Sex
Thailand has a unique history as it relates to the sex industry, the historical context of which reaches far back to the beginning of the monarchy. It is also as broad in scope as to encompass the structure of the Thai family unit in ancient and contemporary times alike. We are unable to evoke positive change in a vulnerable community if we do not first understand the cultural underpinnings. The especially important because our aim is not to disrupt a beautiful culture but simply to enhance its health.
Instructor: Stephen Fulton, Not Abandoned
Spain’s Worldview and the History of its Sex Industry
Spain is Europe’s trafficking and prostitution hotspot. When most people think of Europe and a red light district, their mind first assumes Amsterdam and burlesque. However, because of porous borders, high unemployment, warmer temperatures and vibrant beach towns attractive to tourists, Spain has become the favorite target destination for commercial sexual exploitation. Explore with us Spain’s history as it relates their worldview to a thriving sex industry.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Looking Through the
Lens of Trauma
(Series)
Much like the strength of culture, religion, language, etc. have to shape our worldviews, the existence of trauma in an individual’s life has great power to shape how they view the world around them. Sometimes this shaping is temporary, but for many, the shaping is unfortunately long-term and is rarely a positive shaping. Through this series you will come to understand the basics of trauma and the important application of trauma-informed care. We will also explore how your own personal traumas may have shaped your worldview and be guiding your work to help others.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
The Sub-Culture of Trafficking & the Sex Industry
Those who exist in and survive the commercial sex industry truly learn to live in a different world from main-stream culture, or “square” culture as it’s sometimes called. Those in “the Life” learn that their survival demands the adaptation of a new system of rules, traditions, and rewards. This series of trainings will explore how this sort of exploitation creates the secondary worlds and the communities and differences in these worlds across various nations.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Holistic Recovery for Sustaining Freedom
Not only is it not helpful to provide superficial solutions to those trying to recover from exploitation, but it’s potential dangerous. A starving man can receive a single meal, but he will be starving again tomorrow. Someone struggling with addiction can maintain sobriety the day after a DUI, but what about the next? Trafficking and exploitation are often merely symptoms of complex vulnerabilities. We must holistically address the heart of these vulnerabilities in order to break cycles of abuse and secure a sustaining freedom.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Security in Your Identity
We all know the typical flight protocol that instructs you to put on your own oxygen mask first. In this training you’ll examine your own reflection. What makes you who are you? Where is your foundation grounded? Do you have a personal journey of faith? Is the way you see yourself the same way others see you? Is that how God sees you? You can not expect to lead others into freedom if you aren’t first secure in that empowerment yourself.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Best Practices for Sustainable Work
It’s very easy to begin this sort of work. You become passionately motivated to help those vulnerable, take a deep breath, and jump in with both feet. The hard work is in the staying power. In addition to that initial passion, we’ll discuss best practices to help you fight off burn out, resolve team conflict, maintain volunteers, adapt to social changes, and of course, the ultimate F-word: fundraise.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley and Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Worker’s Sustainability
There are many issues that can threaten the sustainability of the workers. Burn out is a tangible reality. Family challenges, personal health, donor fatigue are all common struggles to navigate. So, where does one find sustainability? In this training we’ll hit the high level or your original motivation to help the vulnerable and exploited. We will also bring the discussion down to the real practical's to help you make a proactive plan for sustainability instead of constantly playing defense and catch up.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Sustaining a Team:
In Health and Conflict
Every member of your team may be strong, passionate, and capable as individuals, but this does not guarantee a well-function team. There are many challenges that can disease the functionality of a group. In this training we’ll discuss areas you can proactively address as well as how to spot common struggles before they lead to utter destruction. There is such strength in collaboration, but collaboration takes diligence and grace in order to succeed.
Instructor: Jeff McKinley, Not Abandoned
Volunteer Sustainability: Honoring & Empowering
Volunteers are vital to the success of any non-profit or ministry working to help vulnerable committees, but don’t confuse volunteers with simply free labor. Frankly, volunteers can be lifesavers or time-suckers. However, in both cases, the person is almost always motivated by a genuine desire to help. If a volunteer is not helping effectively it’s rarely their fault. Instead, they either haven’t be placed in the right role, they didn’t receive the proper training, or there was a miscommunication somewhere. In this training, we will learn some best practices of working with volunteers and how both the worker and the volunteer can be happier together.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Longterm Commitment vs the Emotional Response
One of the keys to both a individual’s and a group’s sustainability in a cause has to do with their original motivation. In this training we will discuss the differences between an emotional response and a longterm commitment. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but there is a difference to be discussed when examining the best roles fo involvement. This is a time for both self reflection and an evaluation of the makeup of your support group. Let’s ask “Why?” in the name of better sustainability for the cause.
Instructor: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Pour In or Drink Up:
Women Supporting Women
We’re better together. We’re incredibly strong, but we’re not invincible. We can have a superhuman-like ability to multi-task, but we are still in fact human. We can be excellent peace keepers, but we also stir up hell when necessary (and we shouldn’t be called overly-emotional as a consequence for doing so.) Let’s kick against the box that says: this is what is means to be a woman. I can be independent and fierce and a feminist, but I am also allowed to watch a sappy movie an ask for help. Some days we have the extra energy to pour into others. Other days, we simply need to show up so that we can drink up encouragement from others.
Alex Miller & Dr. Lynne Ellis-Gray
I’m Still Speaking: Harnessing Our Pet Peeves
Get any group of women together to discuss the shared experience of being female in a male dominated society and you will quickly find yourself encompassed by stories of workplace harassment, double standards, inappropriate comments from strangers, unnecessary but realistic fear, and many other eye-roll inducing and “me too!” evoking moments. In this discussion we wrestle through the expectation of women to be superheroes in a culture that can also demean our abilities. However, more importantly we will discuss the power we have to catalyze this frustration into powerful action.
Alex Miller & Dr. Lynne Ellis-Gray
What Triggers Disempowerment & Empowerment?
What is is that makes you feel empowered? What is it that makes you feel like this freedom is being robbed? Often when we are in an environment of disempowerment we don’t even recognize it as such. There is also a mentality that “this is just the way things are” and so we’re not inclined to pursue anything different. Furthermore false empowerment opportunities are all around us, gaslighting us into fake security. (Hint: one of the biggest offenders is the sex industry) In this discussion we’ll look at how to spot the difference between fake and true avenues to empowerment.
Discussion Moderator: Alex Miller, Not Abandoned
Women in Leadership... and All the Weight of that Label
This discussion was almost called, “Women in Leadership: Right Where They Should Be,” but that’s inherently part of our problem: telling women where they should or should not be. I don’t think it’s any surprise that being in leadership has its burdens and that specifically being a woman in leadership has a whole extra layer of weight. In this discussion you’ll hear from a diverse group of women leaders, and they are not women who sugarcoat reality. If we can’t talk openly about the awkwardness, the pain, the betrayal, the burden, and yes, the honor, than we’re only allowing a broken system to move forward with our silently implied approval.
Discussion Moderator: Dr. Lynne Ellis-Gray
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