Art with Meaning: Fighting Sex Trafficking

Evening for Freedom Event Photo by @ArtofChelleElle

Hello!

Many of you who follow my social accounts have been seeing posts about an important and meaningful project I had the opportunity to work on. The wait is over! It's story time!

The Project

Recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to use my God-given talents for a good cause. (How neat is that!?). I was approached by one of the directors of an organization called "UnBound Seattle", here in my new home city to work on some art pieces. Frankly, it's amazing what this organization and its community does.

UnBound Seattle began in 2012 as an extension of Mosaic Community Church when a need was recognized to provide sexually exploited women with safe housing and resources, helping them move toward freedom and healing. The group also does prevention programs for at-risk youth in the Seattle area. Basically, they're working really hard to bring people all over Seattle into freedom and out of human trafficking!

Until I got to know this group, I had NO idea how heavy a burden sex trafficking and human trafficking was in general or how heavily it affected my city (Click here for statistics.). Sadly, many turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is going on, but this organization is working to bring a greater awareness of the things happening right underneath our noses. Knowing how much this group does for our city, I was so happy to be asked to participate in one of their fundraising events, "Evening for Freedom."

The "Evening for Freedom" had one major goal: raising money to support the safe house for trafficked women, giving the women more days for care and safety!

To assist with the event and bring a greater awareness of sex trafficking in Seattle, I was asked to create character concepts of women who might be targets of the industry. Background stories, based on real women, were written up and given to me as inspiration. From there, I illustrated eight different women from different economic, educational, and ethnic backgrounds, all of whom could very well be one of our own next door neighbors. The craziest thing that hit me about these stories is that someone as young as 12 could be involved! :(

Here are the eight ladies I designed based on UnBound Seattle's amazing character stories.

I was so glad to be able to go to the event and see my artwork in action. To my pleasant surprise, my character illustrations were used in multiple ways! I got to see them displayed as the main, stage backdrop for the evening as well as used in storytelling, which is something I hold very dear. The stories I used to create these important images were recorded, tied to the images themselves, and air dropped to guests attending the event for a special segment of the evening. It was amazing to see the stories shared and a hush go over an entire room of people who were listening to these eight stories over headphones (Click here to listen to one of the stories.)! I loved being able to give people something tangible to connect with for this important cause and to see it used in such a powerful way.

By the end of the night, I could see a change in the faces of the guests attending the event. No doubt that they also had changed hearts and had gained a lot of knowledge about the subject of trafficking.

Also, can I just say how cool it is that 1,000 nights of freedom were donated!!!??? WAHOO! The event was a wonderful success!

And honestly, it was so nice to see my art being used to benefit others. What better cause than a cause for freedom and healing?

I love it when my art feels so meaningful and is used in special ways. I got to learn a lot from working with UnBound Seattle and I hope that my experience can be an influence upon others and their education of what is going on in the world. If you are interested in learning more about the organization, sex trafficking, to join the fight, or just to see pictures of the event, please check out the links below!!!

Helpful Links:

If you'd like to learn more about UnBound Seattle and what they do, make sure to check them out here: Learn About UnBound Seattle
For more information on the event (As well as photos!), click the link here: See event photos
To hear one of the event stories that goes along with my art, click here: Listen
To learn more about sex trafficking statistics in Seattle, click here: Statistics
If you'd like to join the fight against sex trafficking, click here: JOIN THE FIGHT

Thanks so much for taking time to read about the project. It was so wonderful to be part of and I hope that you'll take the time to check out the organization. UnBound Seattle is truly amazing and I know they would love to share more about what they do as well as find some Campaigners, Catalysts, and Champions to fight alongside them. :)

Yours passionately and truly,