What is The Empower Youth Program?

The Empower Youth Program is a five-module curriculum that can be used by anyone who provides services directly to youth, such as teachers, youth program directors, counselors, mentors, therapists, and more. It has two chief objectives: to equip youth with personal safety strategies, and to nurture their empathy for others.

By inspiring students to develop empathy for those around them, our curriculum distinguishes itself both as an exploitation prevention tool as well as a character education program with far-reaching transformative potential for your school, classroom, or youth program.

Why Teach Exploitation Prevention?

The exploitation of minors is an alarming reality in the United States, and it comes in many forms: Bullying has evolved into an issue with often severe consequences. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by age eighteen. And the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the U.S. is part of a thirty-two billion dollar criminal industry. 

Perpetrators of crimes of sexual exploitation view schools as a prime location to recruit new pimps and lure new victims. These youth often have no idea what is really happening to them until it is too late. The purpose of The Empower Youth Program, therefore, is to equip students with strategies to stay safe from exploitation.

Program Features:

The Empower Youth Program has been flexibly designed for numerous youth-serving environments, including traditional academic classrooms, after-school youth programs, juvenile corrections, individual counseling sessions, and more.

• Intended for youth aged 12 and up.
• Five-lesson unit comprised of two short films per lesson, discussion questions, classroom activities, and assessment options.
• Each lesson is 25 minutes in length with optional extension activities up to 60 minutes.
• Supplemental Friendly: The program can be integrated into existing curricula or existing initiatives.
• Aligns with Common Core language arts and social studies standards and national standards in health education and counseling.
• Successfully engages teens through media featuring only youth – not adults – who speak from their real-life experiences of learning to navigate vulnerability.
• Available via a physical DVD and guidebook package or as a digital resource through this online portal.

For more information on education and training, please email lynda@hopeunl.org.