Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by a cherished member of the GCWJ Community Advisory Board, Cheryl Pittluck. Previously, Cheryl was the Chair of the OCHTTF Faith-Based Action Committee and today is a part of the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast’s common mission in ending human trafficking. They look at the value and resources provided by the C.A.R.E. 68 Network to help fight human trafficking.

Key Points

Resources

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 222 – The C.A.R.E. 68 Network.

Production Credits [00:00:08] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:28] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:36] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, I’m looking forward to today’s conversation because we’re going to be learning about the C.A.R.E. 68 Network. And I know virtually nothing about the care 68 network. Other than knowing that it’s kicking off. And I’m so glad we get to welcome a friend of ours, Cheryl Pittluck to the show today. Cheryl is a member of the Global Center for Women and Justice’s Community Advisory Board, and she is the past chair of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force and Faith-Based Action Committee. And she has been a friend and a partner to both of us in the work we’re doing for many years. And we’re so glad to have her on the show today. Hello, Cheryl.

Cheryl [00:01:26] Hi.

Sandie [00:01:27] Hey, I’m so excited about this because Cheryl and I met because someone when I was in Washington, D.C., said there’s a woman in Orange County that you need to meet. So, of course, I love meeting people. And I made arrangements to go and meet that person. And that person didn’t show up, but Cheryl Pittluck did. And Cheryl Pittluck has been showing up ever since in my life. She was a founding member of our community advisory board for the Global Center. And when I became the administrator of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, Cheryl jumped in and became the chair of at that time, a church committee. And eventually, that morphed into a faith-based committee. And the names have changed. Currently, it’s now faith-based action council. Is that right, Cheryl?

Cheryl [00:02:24] Yeah, I started as the faith based advisory council, which was helping the professionals at the task force learn how churches run and how things get done and how we can be more efficient in making use of church resources. And now it’s a faith-based action committee.

Sandie [00:02:44] You have had a lot of experience on the taskforce leading churches. And in fact, you did a webinar for Health and Human Services office as well, is that right?

Cheryl [00:02:57] Yes, it was public and private partnerships. And my part of the webinar was on working with faith-based communities.

Sandie [00:03:08] And let’s just establish right from the front that faith-based communities are an incredible asset. But there have been so many missteps and problems sometimes with communication. And what are some of your major frustrations?

Cheryl [00:03:26] Probably my two major frustrations are, first of all, the churches don’t always play nicely together and convincing them that we can come together to deal with a specific issue or a specific goal, but not necessarily agree on, you know, the particulars of how we run our churches and how we baptize whatever. It’s a little difficult. It’s a little difficult. The other thing is churches often want to invent their own thing and have their own name and their own brand, so to speak. I don’t mean that to sound as maybe as bad as it sounds, but we’re used to doing things our own way. We’re used to knowing what we’re doing. We know how to do a Bible study. We know how to run the service. We know how to do women’s ministry, whatever. Human trafficking is not something that most churches know, and they need to be willing to come in and learn. And that doesn’t always happen, at least in the beginning.

Sandie [00:04:36] So, you and I’ve had this conversation many, many times. And one of our goals out of the Global Center for Women and Justice is to create tools to help people study the issues so that they can be a voice and make a difference in ways that are really helpful. Sometimes we’ve experienced people who want to do things that maybe aren’t very helpful and they’re not intentionally doing things that aren’t helpful. And if we just gave them some resources, we felt like we could help them leverage the amazing resource they really are.

Cheryl [00:05:14] Exactly. I sometimes feel like when I’m going to meet with someone at a church for the first time, I need to wear a t-shirt that says “it doesn’t help, if it doesn’t help” because people, you know, naturally you come up with ideas. “I know! This would be an awesome idea. Let’s do this. Let’s offer them that.” Well, if it’s not what’s needed, then it’s not what’s needed and therefore it’s not helpful. So, we need to help churches understand that there’s a learning curve, that there’s some education that’s involved before they act, before they respond.

Sandie [00:05:56] Okay. So, let’s jump into our Global Center for Women and Justice launch of CARE 68 Network. Tell us about what the title of that network. You’ve been the lead on this project. So, tell us about what the title means.

Cheryl [00:06:13] Well, Care comes from what I felt like were four areas that churches could really use some assistance in as they dive into dealing with the issue of human trafficking, whether they are just planning to do a single event, or wanting to partner with an existing group, or wanting to create a whole ministry in a church. The C would be collaboration, understanding that we can do more together, that it helps to stay informed about what others are doing, and opportuni...