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With the month of April being recognized as National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month, the Circle of Care Center for Families is promoting a new tool to protect children from being exploited by the human trafficking industry.

“Through many survivor interviews, we know the average age that someone is first sold is 12 to 14 years old,” said Adrian Carpenter, the Center’s Renew Hope 85 project coordinator, in a press release. “Human trafficking is definitely a child abuse issue.”

The Agent of Hope campaign offers businesses the opportunity to provide basic training to their employees that gives them the information they need to identify and report human trafficking incidents.

“It’s a great opportunity for convenience stores, restaurants, retail stores and other high profile businesses to become involved in the fight for children and against human trafficking,” Carpenter said.

Businesses can simply visit www.renewhopeintitiative.com and click on the agent of hope button.  A business or individual can become an agent of hope by signing a pledge, downloading sample workplace policies and viewing the brief, basic video training.  Businesses can also request a more in-depth, in-person training from the Circle of Care’s Renew Hope staff.

“Ultimately, we want to keep kids safe and working together we can make that happen,” Carpenter said.

For more information about joining Renew Hope’s effort to prevent human trafficking or other services provided by the Circle of Care Center for Families, please call (334) 768-4091 or visit www.theCircleCares.com.