Stephanie Page On Storytelling And Unravelling The Systemic Roots Of Human Trafficking

Stephanie Page is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Stories Foundation. Stories is a not for profit organisation in Minneapolis, Minnesota that engages communities to fight human trafficking by using business to bring awareness about trafficking and support the work through fundraising.

Steph believes every story has value and that by embracing our own story and being willing to step out and share it with others, we are taking the necessary steps towards changing the stories of injustice in our communities. Steph and Stories Foundation have been featured on Kare11 and KSTP as well as a variety of podcasts and newspaper articles.

Stephanie discusses tackling the systemic issue of human trafficking by engaging communities with authentic storytelling, and why businesses must give back to those who are disadvantaged or underprivileged.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, can you please share a bit about your background and what led to your work in the not-for-profit space?

[Stephanie Page] - I never thought I would run a non-profit. Before I found myself in the non-profit space, I did humanitarian work. I lived in the Ukraine for a while, taught English as a second language and worked in an orphanage there. In the United States I was on the Gulf Coast doing flood relief work, and it was when I was working in that space after a big hurricane (Hurricane Katrina) I had some major realisations.

We were doing flood relief work; we were handing out food and water to people who had lost everything; their homes and their families were scattered. They were coming back to see if they could remake their lives, but they were just lost. I was just handing them bottles of cold water, and it was so hot and humid, but these people were telling me their stories and more about their families.

I had this idea in my mind that I wanted to make a difference with my life, and this was when I was still in my early twenties. I wanted to make a big difference, and I thought that meant doing something big in the world.

But when I was talking to those individuals (and I can still see them today in my mind's eye), I realised that because every single person matters, we can make a big difference by seeing the people right before us. If we honour them, value them, and listen to their stories, that right there is making a big impact.

That was a pivotal moment for me, just realising we have all these large issues (and in my work I’m fighting a large issue now) that we need to take big risks and do big things to address, but there shouldn’t be a pendulum swing between the big and the small projects. It’s about holding the tension in the middle and saying, “we need to do big things, but also small things matter too.”

Maybe the small things are the big things, and we need to see the people. I never would have imagined the work I'm in now, when I look at what led me here and what I did before on my journey, I see a lot of things which prepared me.

When I learned about human trafficking, I was back home in Minnesota. I'm a mum of four girls, and at the time I was pregnant with my third baby. I was restless and not sure what my purpose was or what I was supposed to be doing during that season, but then I learned about human trafficking which turned my whole life upside down.

As the Executive Director and Co-founder of the Stories Foundation, can you share more about the organisation and the problem you're tackling?

Stories Foundation is an anti-human trafficking non-profit. Human trafficking is the largest criminal enterprise in the world today, it brings in $150 billion every year in profit. That's the amount of money people make around the world selling human beings, and there are two parts to human trafficking. There's labour trafficking and sex trafficking, and we also really have human trafficking because we've normalised exploiting people to get what we want.

We've normalised using people to get what we want, so with labour trafficking, if I want a product fast and cheap, then we can justify the human cost in getting that product. With sex trafficking, we have an entitlement around sex. People think sex is just transactional, we need it how and when we want it, and we don't think about the human cost to this.

That's the issue we're fighting and those are some of the systemic problems. Our culture has normalised manipulation and using people to get ahead through exploitation. At Stories Foundation, we talk with young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships, how to prevent human trafficking, and what aspects of our culture and societal norms might be unhealthy.

We must talk about these things because when we allow manipulation on one end, we have exploitation on the other. It's the same spectrum, and If we have normalised manipulation and unhealthy relationships, then it's more likely someone will be vulnerable to exploitation on the other end of the spectrum.

We do have a lot of issues in our culture we like to just sweep under the rug, things we don't like to think or talk about because they're uncomfortable feelings.

What it comes down to is seeing the value in every single person, and no person is just one part of their story. There's a lot that we bring to the table, and so that's the work we’re doing.

Can you share some of your impact activities at the Stories Foundation and how you are specifically addressing this issue?

We have a huge passion for talking about the root causes of human trafficking and sexual violence. We are talking about the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships with teenagers and young people so that they can spot problematic relationships.

We are educating our first responders, law enforcement, medical professionals, and teachers on how to see people experiencing trauma and discussing what it means to be trauma informed. This is so that when we see someone who is in a trauma response because of their abuse, we don’t push them into a corner but instead lean in and be curious and caring to each other.

We are building a pathway for survivors and vulnerable people. At least where I live, we don't have supportive resources or wraparound services for survivors of abuse and exploitation. We don't have near enough housing, but it takes six touch points for someone who is being trafficked and exploited to feel safe to leave the life they're in.

Even then they must have somewhere to go, and we don't have housing or any future for them to see, so we're creating that pathway for them. We're working now to build a give back cafe, which would be a social enterprise. The profit from the Storyteller Café (which will sell food and coffee while also providing a boutique event space) will support our work, and then it also has three apartments.

This means we will provide housing, jobs, and job training through our business activities, but it will also be a hub for the community. That's our big dream, as I've been doing this awareness and prevention work, I'm encountering survivors and talking to law enforcement. We are going to help people live the flourishing lives they are meant to live, and we need to create this reality for them to see themselves that is sustainable.

That's why I think business is so crucial when married with non-profit work, because if we don't have funding then we can't offer people the resources and help they need to change their circumstances.

It's not that we're saving anyone, but I can paint a picture for them and provide a platform where hopefully they can see a way out and they don't have to just survive abuse. Instead they could thrive in a safe and healthy environment, and we’re showing them that through using a social enterprise.

What common misconceptions regarding human trafficking have you encountered through your work?

There are a lot of misconceptions, but I think the biggest one that comes to mind is people don't think human trafficking happens in a way that impacts them.

A lot of human trafficking and exploitation goes unnoticed because people don't recognise it for what it is. We have human trafficking in every part of the world. If you have access to the internet, there's human trafficking there. Anywhere there are people, anywhere there is industry, there's human trafficking.

If we don't think it's happening, then we're not going to have the eyes to see it and we're not going to think it's our issue to be solving. That’s one of the things that breaks my heart a little bit is that people think it's so big that it doesn't impact them and that they can't do anything about it even if it does. Those are just lies to keep us paralysed and immobilised in coming together to create change.

I'm passionate for when we all come together and do a seemingly small thing, because done together it creates a big change. If we believe the lie that this isn't happening, it's too big of an issue for us, and it doesn't impact us, then we can't come together and we can't create change.

Do you see opportunities for collaboration between non-profits, social enterprises and other entities such as governments and mainstream corporations to make a difference?

There is so much opportunity for collaboration, and I honestly don't believe we can create sustainable change without it. At the same time, collaboration is difficult. With human trafficking, something people don't realise is we've only recognised this issue as a crime in maybe the last 20 years.

That means we don't have the infrastructure in our legal systems to work together. It's like we're playing catch up, and it's just a relatively new crime. Even though it's been happening forever, we haven't recognised it as a crime forever, so then we don't have ways to fight it. Everyone is just putting out fires and nobody's talking to each other because everyone's under resourced and understaffed.

We must collaborate and there are so many opportunities for non-profits, governments, and countries to all work together. That is happening at some levels, but there is so much opportunity for that to be happening more, especially because this is such a complex issue no one organisation or entity can solve.

A lot of people think, "well, isn't the government handling that?" My answer would be, “no,” and even if they were doing their utmost, they can't do it alone. That's a human thing we can do too, is say "well somebody else is taking care of that.”

We then push it off onto someone else, but the reality is we desperately need to collaborate, and all do our little part to not only prevent human trafficking, but also to support those who have been trafficked and exploited.

There is so much opportunity, and I hope that in 20 years we will see more partnerships and resources aimed towards collaboration when it comes to this issue.

What key piece of advice would you give to an aspiring change maker seeking to make a difference through their work?

I'd say don't give up, because it's going to be way harder than you ever thought it would be. Don't quit, that's my first piece of advice. My second piece of advice is seeking out the people doing the work already.

When I started, I knew nobody who was doing any work like this. 10-12 years later, I'm meeting amazing people who are doing this work. I feel so grateful to have their support now, and I wish I had known about them at the beginning. Find the people who are doing impactful work and be their friend, because you're going to want those allies as you do this work.

You're not going to necessarily find friends in your neighbourhood, they're not always going to be in your local community. You might have to go outside of who you know to find those people, but you need to find them.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across creating a positive change?

Right now, I'm a part of a cohort of non-profit leaders who are focusing on ways to improve our fundraising, funding and sustainability. It's been fun to hear about all these projects and inspiring to see people taking risks. There's one organisation who are supporting parents whose kids have cancer, paediatric cancer families.

There's another project trying to eliminate inequity in the medical system where people of different races don't get the same opportunities for transplants. They're using science to give people equal opportunities for transplants, lifesaving medical intervention.

It's just amazing when people take their own experiences and see there's a need to make a difference. Then they're stepping into that space and choosing to take it on, it’s beautiful and encourages my heart.

To finish off what books or resources would you recommend to our audience?

At the beginning of my journey, I read Half the Sky, and that's a book which opened my eyes to the inequity in our world at large. I would always recommend that book and the documentary also. The other book I've read more recently is Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers, and why I like that book is he shows us that to trust each other is human.

In my work, what happens with trafficking is somebody trusts somebody else, and then that trust is exploited and used against them, so you might think you shouldn't trust anyone ever again.

The reality is it's human to trust and we can’t have healthy communities, societies, or businesses without trusting each other. When somebody is a victim of being exploited or abused, they weren't wrong to trust someone, but the person who exploited their trust is the one doing an inhumane thing.

It is human to trust, our societies are built on trust. I loved how he explored the power of the human story, connection, and why it is valuable for people to seek authentic relationships and be vulnerable. Even when the world is horrible and horrible things happen, try to make the world a better place and choose to trust people.