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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: TEN Charities
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2004
Project URL: http://www.tencharities.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - We provide training to slavery survivors and high-risk individuals and access to education to surivors and youths in order to protect them from being trafficked into slavery.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Children in red light districts are not typically allowed access to education. By providing access to education, while forming relationships between sponsors and those at risk for being enslaved, we expand opportunities. Long-term involvement with the children gives sponsors the chance to mentor children and form bonds that can make an important difference in young lives. Training programs for survivors provide skills that lead to employment and ultimately self-sufficiency.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - Our model is similar to other child sponsorship programs in that sponsors are funding a child's education, but our approach is unique in that we foster true relationships between sponsors and children so that bonds can be formed and relationships strengthened. The children we sponsor are in many ways "forgotten" or overlooked, because they are marginalized culturally and economically. By identifying these echildren as high-risk and acquiring access to education and training for them, we truly believe we can change the course of their lives and they will have many opportunities that they would have missed out on had they not been sponsored.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - We plan to grow our innovation by ensuring that the children already in our program continue to thrive. We monitor the progress of the children and we encourage their hardwork and achievement. We plan to send more children to school and provide greater access to job-training and mentorship. We envision that the survivors and at-risk children in our programs will gain the tools they need to live self-sufficiently in the future.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - We partner with Apne Aap in Kolkata, which directly works with children in the red light districts. They take great care in ensuring that sponsored children attend excellent, private schools. We also partner with Apple of God's Eye/ World Mobilization in Kathmandu which rescues children from the streets and places them in a family setting and enrolls them in strong, private schools as well. Other partners that we work with are DEPDC, EBT, Sanlaap, Hagar designs, and TEN Inc.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - The impact of our innovation is on individuals' lives; access to education and training provide for individuals to live and work free from exploitation.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - We currently sponsor more than sixty children in the education program and many others have been identified, but are awaiting sponsorship at this time. Additionally, we have funded training for slavery survivors and high-risk individuals and helped them to acquire marketable skills in order to begin rebuilding their lives. These training programs are in conjunction with our partners abroad and TEN Inc.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - The success of our initiatives are measured in different ways. The children in our school sponsorship programs receive progress reports and take examinations just like their peers. Their success is indicative of their hardwork and the goals of our program being met. The impact of our training programs is evident when formerly unskilled people begin producing beautiful handicrafts that our partner TEN Inc markets in the US. The sale of the products pays salaries to the craftsmen and invests in the growth of their businesses.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - The beneficiaries of our innovation are children who would have not had access to education, but are now enrolled in private schools. Other beneficiaries of our innovation are survivors of slavery, who are receiving training and ultimately paid employment. They have been rescued or freed from exploitative situations and are in the process of rebuliding their lives.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Our Initiative is financed through direct donations and grants.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: In 2007 we raised over 90,000.00, but have even more plans for helping survivors and prevention programs, hence our projected budget for 2008 is anywhere from $100,000 to $157,000. The breakdown would be approximately as follows: $30,800 for salaries and consulting fees, $21,200 for the school sponsorship of eighty children, $10,000 for supplies, marketing, printing, and mailing, $25,000 for travel and meeting expenses, $25,000 for a new training center for girls in Kolkata, $15,000 for Kolkata Medical Center for Children and Families Fund, and $30,000 for emergency grants. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - There are so many surivors and children who could benefit from the expansion of our program. Educated and skilled young people face much better odds of escaping slavery than those denied education and training. The demand for this innovation is quite high considering the prevalence of slavery in the world. Children of slaves and other high-risk children are extremely susceptible to exploitation when they are denied education.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - One barrier to financial sustainability is we rely heavily on private donors and grants that can be unpredictable and impacted by economic fluctuations. We feel committed to sponsoring the complete education of our children and this is difficult if donors back out or are unable to continue their sponsorship. We are also constrained by the limited funds that we have to work with. We could be send more children to school, train other survivors, and change more lives with a larger budget.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Founders of The Emancipation Network, Sarah Symons and John Berger came up with the idea to help trafficking survivors help themselves by providing economic alternatives in making and selling handicrafts as well as education the general U.S. public about the serious epidemic of Human Trafficking. As you can imagine many other issues arose while helping these communities of trafficking survivors, such as helping with emergency situations in these communities, schooling their children as well as the survivors themselves, training the survivors to start their own businesses, thus T.E.N. Charities spun off as its own entity. Executive Director Alicia MacGregor, many volunteers and former staff, from The Emancipation Network Inc., now comprise T.E.N. Charities and fill in the gaps that we in dire need to be filled.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Alicia MacGregor, Executive Director of T.E.N. Charities started as the second person to have one of The Emancipation Network, Inc.'s Awareness parties and from that moment she knew that helping these children and young adults was her next mission in life. Being schooled and working initially as a Cartographer and G.I.S. Specialist, MacGregor had a passion for the world, doing quite a bit of travelling across the globe made her aware at a young age herself the need for educating and helping the youth of the world in order to help countries help themselves. Getting involved in human trafficking awareness in 2005 has only begun to open the doors for her way to help these youth. MacGregor is also currently working on her first book about human trafficking.
Contact Information:
Alicia MacGregor
Executive Director TEN Charities (501c3 federal tax exempt organization) Discussions about this entry
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Slavery Proofing Children
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