Guardian Group's mission is to prevent and disrupt the sex trafficking of women and children while enabling partners to identify victims and predators in the United States.

Guardian Group's vision is that every child in the United States would live free from this form of slavery and the threat of it, where the innocence of children is reclaimed and restored, and where Guardian Group is the most trusted and effective resource in the fight against human trafficking in the United States.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Increasing child sex trafficking victim identification to law enforcement.

Goal Type: New program(s) based on observed changes in needs among our constituencies/communities served.

Goal Two: Scaling Guardian Group’s sector-specific training for healthcare, law enforcement, and hospitality professionals to successfully identify victims nationwide.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Growing our team and improving our infrastructure are critical to expanding the innovative ways we bring the full fight to sex trafficking.

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Describe an investment in leadership

We invest in our team through an annual strategy and leadership retreat and through identifying with each team member during performance evaluations goals for and progress on professional and leadership development.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

Since our formation, we have valued the team of teams approach to proactively solving this problem. We have formed task forces and collaborations, assisted in the development of councils and sit on numerous advisory teams focused on the issue of human trafficking. Guardian Group is purpose-built to be a force multiplier for Law Enforcement agencies across the United States. We provide free training to law enforcement and first responders in order to ensure they have the most up to date techniques used by sex traffickers. Further, we provide training to the hospitality industry, the health care community, and other community venues in order to inoculate communities against sex trafficking. Our work with renowned higher education institutions, companies and thought leaders across the nation is proving to be an incomparable collaboration.

The year of 2020 has been historical in countless ways and many of us were forced to pivot and adapt throughout the year. The fight against sex trafficking was no different. Predators ramped up the recruitment of victims the moment schools closed. Children were given the stay- at-home order and suddenly online at a much higher volume allowing traffickers to recruit from the safety of their own living room couches. Alongside the recruitment of children, many young adults lost jobs and fell into a state of vulnerability created by a lack of income making them prime targets for traffickers as well. Simultaneously, there was a drastic decline in law enforcement’s ability to interact with victims due to the pandemic and the events thereafter. Second only to friends and family, law enforcement is the most likely place for victims of sex trafficking to find help. This combination of events has only increased the complexities associated with combating domestic sex trafficking. Without the ability to travel and provide in-person training Guardian Group developed an online course exclusively for law enforcement. This course, along with our revamped hotel and community courses, have been a great avenue for providing training during the year despite the restrictions. As law enforcement and other public service agencies continue to be overextended in order to handle the impact of COVID-19, requests for Guardian Group's support did not slow down but, instead slightly increased. Throughout the year the PURSUIT™ team has been tirelessly fielding requests for support from law enforcement agencies and community members across the country, while simultaneously developing out new leads daily.