Oct. 1, 2018

Contact Rick Kyte at 608-796-3704 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu or Nicole Van Ert at 608-796-3616 or nmvanert@viterbo.edu

AUTHOR OF GIRLS LIKE US: FIGHTING FOR A WORLD WHERE GIRLS ARE NOT FOR SALE TO DISCUSS TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING AT VITERBO OCT. 15

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Rachel Lloyd, founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) and author of the critically acclaimed book Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15 in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.

GEMS is the largest service provider of its kind in the nation, providing intensive services and support to more than 400 girls and young women, preventive outreach and education to 1,000 youth, and training more than 1,400 professionals each year. Lloyd founded the organization at her kitchen table with $30 and a borrowed computer in 1998 when she was just 23 years old. She was driven by the lack of services for commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked girls and young women and the stigma and punishment they faced from service providers, law enforcement, the courts, their families and society.

Lloyd’s tremendous impact on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking has helped shift the perception of trafficked girls from criminals to victims and now to survivors and leaders. She has impacted thousands of individual lives through her love and commitment, but she is also passionate about changing public perception and policy. Her advocacy ensured the passage of New York State’s Safe Harbour for Sexually Exploited Children Act, which in 2008 became the first law in the nation to protect and not punish trafficked and exploited youth. Since then, 28 other states have passed similar laws. She has also advocated for survivors at the White House, the United Nations, and before Congress.

Lloyd also co-produced the groundbreaking Showtime documentary Very Young Girls, which has been seen by over 4 million people and created a national dialogue on the issue.

This presentation is part of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership’s fall 2018 lecture series and is free and open to the public. No tickets are necessary, but seating is limited. For a full schedule of D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership events, visit www.viterbo.edu/ethics.

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