During one impactful week in April 2026, the Our Rescue Training and Prevention team brought critical education and awareness programs to two different, rural communities hundreds of miles apart. While one training took place in a small Nebraska town along a major interstate corridor, another focused on preventing child exploitation and bolstering digital safety within Indigenous communities in the Southwest. Both training events focused on rural communities, experiencing unique and heightened exploitation challenges.
Together, these events demonstrate the nationwide reach of Our Rescue’s prevention work and the importance of equipping communities with the knowledge and tools needed to recognize and prevent exploitation before it begins – in rural, suburban, and urban areas.
Building Local Capacity in Ogallala, Nebraska
From April 24-26, members of the Our Rescue Training and Prevention team traveled to Ogallala, Nebraska, to conduct a “Train the Trainer” program in partnership with New Hope Church and local community leaders.
Ogallala may be home to just over 5,000 residents, but its location creates an influx of visitors and seasonal workers. Situated along Interstate 80, the major transportation corridor in Nebraska, the town experiences significant traffic from travelers crossing the country. The area is also home to popular tourist destinations, including Lake McConaughy (Lake Mac), and a recently opened casino that brings additional visitors to the region. These factors have led to community leaders seeing more and more human trafficking, making community awareness and prevention efforts especially important.
Over two days, the Our Rescue team trained a diverse group of local stakeholders, including New Hope Church leadership, educators, healthcare professionals, law enforcement personnel, and other community members. Rather than simply delivering information, the Training of Trainers model focused on empowering local leaders to become educators themselves.
The impact of that approach was evident immediately. After completing their training, the new trainers from New Hope Church led a community awareness event sharing critical information about online safety, child exploitation, and human trafficking with members of their congregation and the broader community.
One community member reached out after the training and shared a note of appreciation with our team.
The time and energy that was put into our training is appreciated so much! It becomes more and more apparent to us the need to educate people on the dangers, the signs, and the statistics of trafficking, as it is such an uncomfortable (but real, and fast-growing) subject. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, resources and training with us! We fight with you!
The event also featured a special demonstration from Investigator Neal Trantham and his Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) K9 partner, Scooter. Attendees had the opportunity to learn how Scooter assists investigations by locating hidden electronic devices that may contain evidence related to crimes involving exploitation and trafficking. The demonstration offered a unique look into the tools and partnerships law enforcement agencies use to protect children and pursue offenders.
Most importantly, the training did not end when the Our Rescue team left town. Community leaders were provided with presentations, educational materials, and resources that will enable them to continue delivering online safety and trafficking awareness training throughout the region for months and years to come.
Addressing Prevention in Indigenous Communities
Just days earlier, on April 22, our Training and Prevention team was invited to present at the Utah Navajo Health System Sexual Assault Prevention Conference.
The presentation focused on digital safety and preventing child exploitation. Research and community reports have shown that child exploitation and trafficking can disproportionately affect children and adults in some Native nations and Indigenous communities, making culturally informed prevention efforts especially important.
During the conference, attendees learned about risk factors, warning signs, online safety concerns, and strategies for prevention. The presentation emphasized the importance of community awareness, collaboration, and education in reducing vulnerability to child exploitation.
At the conference, Our Rescue engaged directly with healthcare professionals, advocates, educators, and community leaders who are working every day to support individuals and families throughout the region.
Prevention Starts with Education
Although these two events took place in different states and served very different audiences, they reflect the same core mission of the Our Rescue Training and Prevention team.
Our Rescue equips people with the knowledge and tools to protect their families, neighborhoods, and communities, helping to prevent trafficking and exploitation before it starts. The team develops and delivers customized training, capacity-building support, and awareness materials for a wide range of audiences, including students, parents, businesses, healthcare professionals, survivors and lived-experience experts, nonprofits, advocates, taskforces, law enforcement, and the general public.
Beyond individual trainings, Our Rescue works alongside communities to identify local strengths, build partnerships, and create sustainable systems that empower people to recognize and respond to human trafficking, sex trafficking, and online exploitation.
The trainings in Ogallala and at the Utah Navajo Health System conference serve as powerful examples of how prevention efforts can be adapted to meet the unique needs of different communities while advancing a shared goal.
At Our Rescue, that goal remains clear: to help end human trafficking and child exploitation while empowering survivors to reclaim their lives and thrive on their healing journey. Through education, partnership, and community-driven prevention programs, we are working to create safer communities across the country—one training at a time.
