In Our Backyard: Human Trafficking in America and What We Can Do to Stop It

This book is the primer on human trafficking in North America.

In recent years, Americans have woken up to the reality that human trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries. But what most still do not understand is that neither is it something that just happens to "other people" such as runaways or the disenfranchised. The human trafficker is no respecter of faith, education, or socioeconomic status, and even kids who are raised in solid families in middle and upper class suburbs can fall victim. Likewise, labor trafficking happens in our cities, neighborhoods, and rural areas.

Through true stories and years of boots-on-the-ground experience, including at the Super Bowl, anti-trafficking expert Nita Belles teaches readers everything they need to know about human trafficking in the United States and what they can do to join the fight against it. She helps concerned parents, friends, teachers, law enforcement, government officials, and other leaders understand all forms of trafficking, identify risk factors, and take practical steps to keep their loved ones and neighbors safe from predators.

From the Back Cover

Modern slavery is happening all around you--and you can be part of the solution

Human trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries. Neither is it something that just happens to "other people" such as runaways or the disenfranchised. Even kids in your own neighborhood can fall victim. But they don't have to.

Through true stories and expertise from her many years of boots-on-the-ground experience, anti-trafficking expert Nita Belles teaches you everything you need to know about human trafficking in the United States, helping you identify risk factors, take practical steps to keep your loved ones and neighbors safe from predators, and recognize trafficking around you in order to help fight it.

"The aptly titled In Our Backyard is superb. Belles compellingly calls for action based on the truth that every human life is of equal, enormous value."--Mark Lagon, former US ambassador and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP)

"A vital resource and tool that should be required reading for every concerned citizen."--Francine Rivers, author of Redeeming Love

"Information is power. In this well-written, arresting book, we have the information we need to defend those we love most."--Frank Schaeffer, author of Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God

"Nita Belles's book detailing the shocking reality of forced labor and sex trafficking in the United States is a must read."--Lynne Hybels, author, cofounder of Willow Creek Community Church

"Every one of us can make a difference to end one of the greatest evils of our times, and in In Our Backyard, Nita Belles shows us how to do just that."--Anna Bastian, Bastian Center for the Study of Human Trafficking

"Not to be missed, this book can and will change lives only when individuals open their eyes (and hearts) to the trafficking going on around them in their own communities (and then do something about it)."--CBA Retailers + Resources

Nita Belles is an author, a compelling keynote speaker, and a leading national expert in the anti-human trafficking movement. Her work has been featured by CNN, Fox Files, BBC, NPR, Focus on the Family, USA Today, the Huffington Post, and many others. She is known for her compassionate heart, for being a friend to survivors, and for working with other to find solutions when there is seemingly no hope. She is the founder and executive director of a nonprofit which shares the name In Our Backyard. You may contact her at www.inourbackyard.org.