UPPER LAKE, Calif. – In a return engagement, noted human trafficking speaker-educator Elle Snow spoke to a sold out event on June 30 at The Lodge at Blue Lakes. UPPER LAKE, Calif. – In a return engagement, noted human trafficking speaker-educator Elle Snow spoke to a sold out event on June 30 at The Lodge at Blue Lakes. 

Olga Martin Steele, president of the Soroptimist International of Clearlake, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg and Redwood Community Services, the largest provider of foster care and children's mental health services in Lake County, worked together to bring Snow back to Lake County.

Snow is herself a human trafficking survivor who, after escaping forced prostitution, founded Game Over, a nonprofit that fights to protect other girls from the misery she went through.

Game Over provides advocacy, training and education on the subject of human trafficking.

In her presentation, Snow emphasized that traffickers are growing in numbers. She said one in five missing children are likely victims of sex trafficking.

She also stressed that foster care children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, with an estimated 60 percent of victims coming from foster care.

There is a national toll-free hotline available 24/7 to connect trafficking victims and survivors to critical support and services to get help: 1-888-373-7888.

Falkenberg and Sheriff Brian Martin made opening remarks at the event, also expressing concern about the growing problem of human trafficking in rural communities, noting it’s also a growing concern in Lake County.

The event was also sponsored by The Lodge at Blue Lakes, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Lake County Supervisors Tina Scott and Jim Steele, R Vineyard and Monica Rosenthal, and Lake Family Resource Center.

Community Leaders were well represented at the event including the Clearlake City Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the Lake County Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney’s Office, Victim-Witness, Lakeport Mayor Pro-Tem Mireya Turner and Redwood Community Services.