IN OUR BACKYARD

Your ticket pays for more than dinner. ❤️

When you join us for our Disco Rodeo Annual Freedom Fundraiser, you’re helping put prevention education in the hands of students, training into communities, and Freedom Stickers where they can connect someone to help.

And there’s more! ✨ Enter our Pick Your Paradise Raffle for your chance to choose your dream getaway! 🌴✈️🏔️

Your night out can help protect vulnerable people and strengthen the fight against human trafficking, right here and across the country.

🤠✨ Disco meets the rodeo. Purpose meets impact.

📅 Friday, October 16, 2026
🕠 5:30 PM
🎟️ Join us and help fight for the one.

Learn more, get your tickets, and enter the Pick Your Paradise Raffle at InOurBackyard.org

🚨 79 SURVIVORS IDENTIFIED IN NATIONWIDE ANTI-TRAFFICKING OPERATION

Earlier this month, the In Our Backyard team linked arms with the New Jersey State Police Human Trafficking Unit during Operation Coast to Coast, following our World Cup outreach.

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve alongside this incredible Human Trafficking Unit as they go above and beyond to reach survivors and connect them with pathways to freedom.

Across 22 states, more than 200 agencies came together for Operation Coast to Coast, resulting in:

• 79 survivors identified — including 5 children
• 125 arrests
• More than 200 agencies engaged across 22 states
• More than $1 million in criminal assets seized

Safe House Project worked alongside law enforcement and anti-trafficking partners to help ensure survivors identified during the operation had access to safe housing and trauma-informed care.

These numbers represent people whose lives matter—and a powerful reminder of what is possible when law enforcement, survivor advocates, service providers, organizations, and communities work together.

We are honored to play a part in this nationwide effort and grateful for the dedicated teams working every day to bring hope and pathways to freedom to survivors of human trafficking.

Awareness. Prevention. Partnership. Freedom.
https://www.voa-gny.org/

Learn more about our work at InOurBackyard.org.

Back to school means new classes, new friendships, new routines, and new online connections. 📚📱

As students head back to the classroom, it’s a great time for parents, educators, and trusted adults to talk with teens about staying safe online.

Traffickers and predators can use social media, gaming platforms, and online communities to build trust and create connections with young people. Helping teens recognize warning signs and know when to reach out to a trusted adult can make a difference.

That’s why In Our Backyard’s Teens Against Trafficking curriculum gives middle and high school students practical tools to recognize unsafe situations, protect themselves and their friends, and speak up when something doesn’t feel right.

🍎 Make online safety part of your back-to-school conversations this year.

Learn how to bring Teens Against Trafficking to your school:
inourbackyard.org/teens-against-trafficking/

Do you link arms with us beyond Central Oregon?

Give your support from anywhere!

Our Annual Freedom Fundraiser: Disco Rodeo is coming up October 16, and we would love to have you join us for an incredible evening supporting the work of In Our Backyard!

Whether you join us at the Disco Rodeo or support the mission in another way, there’s a place for you in this work.

Here are a few ways you can make an impact:

✨ Join us at the Annual Freedom Fundraiser
✨ Make a financial gift in any amount
✨ Become a monthly Freedom Partner
✨ Donate an item or experience to our fundraiser auction
✨ Share our mission and invite others to be part of it

Every gift, every partnership, and every person who shares our mission helps equip communities with education, resources, and tools to prevent human trafficking and connect people with pathways to safety.

Join us. Give. Partner. Share.

However you choose to be part of the mission, you are helping make prevention possible.

Learn more and find your way to make an impact at InOurBackyard.org.

Awareness can make a difference, and sometimes, it starts with one person simply paying attention.

During our Super Bowl Missing Children Outreach, IOB volunteer Mike stopped at a convenience store to share a Missing Children Booklet. A clerk carefully looked through the photos and believed he recognized one of the children.

That moment became more than a conversation. It became a report that could help reach a child in need.

This is why we show up. This is why awareness matters. And this is why every volunteer, every conversation, and every set of eyes can make a difference.

Together, awareness becomes a lifeline.

Learn how you can get involved at InOurBackyard.org

Convenience stores can be a lifeline. 💙

In Our Backyard Executive Director Cheryl Csiky joined Chris Elliott, Executive Director of BP Amoco Marketers Association, on the Convenience Matters podcast to talk about the important role convenience stores can play in preventing human trafficking and creating safer communities.

Hosted by Jeff Lenard of NACS, the conversation highlights what can happen when an entire industry links arms, raises awareness, equips communities, and helps connect human trafficking survivors to services.

🎧 Listen to Episode 543: Fight Against Human Trafficking of the Convenience Matters podcast.

Together, awareness becomes a lifeline.

Learn more at inourbackyard.org

✨ Saddle up, Central Oregon—it’s time to Disco Rodeo! 🪩🤠

We’re excited to announce In Our Backyard’s Annual Freedom Fundraiser on October 16!

Pull on your boots, add a little sparkle, and join us for an unforgettable evening filled with great food, drinks, a silent auction, inspiring stories, and plenty of fun—all while supporting the work of In Our Backyard to prevent human trafficking, protect children, and create pathways to freedom.

Together, we can make a difference right here in Central Oregon and beyond.

🎟️ Grab your tickets, invite your friends, and come Disco Rodeo with us!

Learn more and get your tickets at www.inourbackyard.org

Human trafficking isn’t just something that happens “somewhere else.” Exploitation can happen in our own communities—and increasingly, technology and the internet can be used to reach, manipulate, and exploit vulnerable people.

But awareness is powerful. 💛

When we know what to look for, create safe spaces for honest conversations, and make sure children and adults know where they can turn for support, we help build communities where exploitation is harder to hide.

These statistics are not identities. Behind every number is a person with a voice, a future, and the right to safety, dignity, and freedom.

**Learn the signs. Start the conversation. Be part of prevention.**

To learn more about human trafficking, prevention, and how you can take action, visit **[www.InOurBackyard.org](http://www.InOurBackyard.org)**.

📣Prevention is worth the read:
Bend man arrested after alleged explicit texts to teen in undercover police operation.

Published August 20, 2026 4:04 pm

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A 47-year-old Bend resident was arrested Thursday on suspicion of luring a minor for s*xual conduct and online s*xual corruption of a minor. Collin Evan Fogel was taken into custody following an investigation involving an undercover officer.

Bend Police received an initial report on July 31 after a man approached a 16-year-old girl at a neighborhood pool. The man asked for her phone number under the pretext of hiring her to babysit his child, but subsequently sent text messages that made the teenager uncomfortable.

An officer took over the text communication with Fogel while pretending to be the teenager. Police said Fogel repeatedly sent s*xually explicit messages and images during the exchange.

At approximately 12:44 p.m. Thursday, the officer posing as the teenager agreed to meet Fogel in a parking lot in the 61300 block of South Highway 97. Officers arrested Fogel when he arrived at the scene and he was held at the Deschutes County Jail.

By Campbell Porter

https://ktvz.com/news/2026/08/20/bend-man-arrested-after-alleged-explicit-texts-to-teen-in-undercover-police-operation/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAT00RRwZG9mBWZkaWQWUM5CKqOwgSa9RCFjGlEnx6P5VGEQsGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR4LCa9KEOkVbqGnMQoVzrKsDuywyjTvkxhvY1JEdwWOBpVYfiKXpsArl5cYaw_aem_DKNfKUoPW78SLAH0x6ArlA

*xtraffickingprevention

Today is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

Prevention begins with awareness, but it doesn't end there. It grows through education, meaningful conversations, strong partnerships, and communities that choose to look out for one another.

Ending human trafficking takes all of us—parents, educators, businesses, law enforcement, volunteers, and neighbors—linking arms to build safer communities.

Today, we invite you to be part of the solution:
• Learn the signs.
• Start the conversation.
• Share this message.
• Help bring hope to someone who may need it.

Together, we can build safer communities and create more pathways to freedom.

🔗 Learn more at inourbackyard.org