2020 Campaign Update
2020: A year of chaos, grief and change. As tired as we may be of hearing the word unprecedented to describe the past twelve months, it’s fitting: Many of us faced challenges, experienced heartbreak, and confronted ugly parts of our world in a way we’ve never experienced in our lifetime. Yet even in the midst of racial injustice, a global pandemic, and collective turmoil, good news is surfacing.
This campaign season, the Dressember community has shown up like never before, raising over $2 million in record time to fund vital anti-human trafficking work.
That’s a lot of money, and it can make a huge impact in the lives of trafficking survivors and victims (just read last year’s impact report). That brings our cumulative impact over the past eight years to more than $12 million and counting.
Dressember Canada, in its second year as a specialized campaign, has raised $330 thousand. That’s enough to fund 52 rescue missions through our partnership with IJM Canada.
We also had our biggest matching campaign ever at $82,000. On match day, we raised $289,082—that’s enough to fund 45 rescue operations or Economic Empowerment programming for 170 survivors!
And the work isn’t over yet, either. The campaign is open through January, National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and we’re expecting our impact to grow even after the style challenge ends.
In the face of great need, you’ve responded. This year, the Dressember community spans 40 countries. More than 5,172 advocates donned dresses and ties to stand up for freedom with Dressember and Dressember Canada. More than 30,000 supporters contributed funds to resource anti-trafficking work.
We began the campaign with cautious optimism. In a season of increased financial instability, and with an abundance of organizations in need of support to meet the needs of communities impacted by the pandemic, we weren’t sure what to expect. But you exceeded every expectation we had—and then some.
The fight against human trafficking has never been so vital.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a devastating increase in human trafficking. Victims are quarantined with abusers and traffickers. Survivors are losing their jobs to the pandemic and finding themselves vulnerable to being trafficked again. Internet pornography use and the online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) have increased drastically.
Additionally, the intersectional nature of human trafficking is more apparent than ever. COVID has disproportionately affected BIPOC, putting vulnerable communities at an even greater risk for exploitation—especially transgender BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. Even without considering COVID, it is impossible to ignore that the effects of systemic racism are deeply intertwined with human trafficking. Black children, in particular, are disproportionately vulnerable to human trafficking and more likely to be seen as criminals rather than victims of exploitation.
The situation is bleak, but hope is on the horizon.
Every year, more and more advocates and supporters are raising their voices and mobilizing their networks to end human trafficking. Already, Dressember has made an impact on the lives of victims and survivors through our COVID-19 relief fund, supporting Dressember Network partners like Pathfinders, youthSpark, International Justice Mission (IJM), Love 146 and Restore NYC. And we will continue to help meet the needs of victims and survivors in the U.S. and worldwide through the funds we’ve raised during our eighth campaign.
We couldn’t do all this without you. So thank you for offering your time, energy, platforms, resources and skillsets to the movement to end human trafficking. You are a part of something amazing, something bigger than all of us. We’re looking forward to advocating for freedom with you through the month of January as we raise our impact even higher.
About the Author
Shannon Gage is a recent graduate of Liberty University and a lover of narrative nonfiction, traveling and all things Enneagram. When she's not writing articles or editing videos, you can find her brushing up on her Spanish or writing moody poetry that no one will ever see. She dreams of someday using her skills full-time in the nonprofit world and publishing her fantasy/sci-fi novel.