about our future of change

Our Future of Change is the global, youth-led chapter of Her Future Coalition: an organization providing rehabilitation, education, and employment programs for trafficking survivors in India, Nepal, Cambodia, and Thailand. As the youth-chapter of this organization, Our Future of Change aims to provide students globally ages 13-22 with resources to get involved in the fight against human trafficking. Since initiation in May 2020, Our Future of Change has recruited a team of over 300 ambassadors in 30 countries who are actively working to raise awareness for trafficking in their communities. 

 

After joining Our Future of Change as an ambassador, students can join one of our volunteer committees or start a club in their school or community. We have a news, design, event planning, and outreach committee: all of which play a significant role in helping Our Future of Change to expand. 

 

Our ambassador applications are currently closed, but we will re-open our applications in May 2021. Fill out the form below to receive notification when we open ambassador applications!

our ambassadors

Receive Notification When We Open Ambassador Applications!

Our global team of ambassadors is based in nearly 30 countries. View the map to see where our ambassadors represent!

"OFOC has pushed me forward to make a change, to contribute to putting a stop to human trafficking." 

-Praguni Kumar, OFOC Ambassador, India

Our Future of Change empowers students to make a difference in their communities and promotes the message that every impact counts, regardless of how small it is. 

"Seeing them work continuously and with such courage introducing humans all around the globe, leading them into working effectively demands an immense amount of courage, awareness and passion. That is more than inspiring!!!"

- Radhika Verma, OFOC Ambassador, India

our student board

Our Future of Change would not be possible without the help of our student board! Click on the images below to learn more about each student board member and her role in OFOC.

frequently asked questions

What is OFOC’s mission?

OFOC is the youth-led chapter of Her Future Coalition raising awareness for the prevalence of human trafficking and providing students resources to get involved in the fight against it. We fundraise to support the futures of trafficking survivors and 100% of the money we fundraise goes to Her Future Coalition, the 501(c)(3) organization, that provides survivors with education, employment, and shelter. Check out Her Future Coalition here: https://herfuturecoalition.org.



Who are their founders? What experience do they have with activism and anti-trafficking activism?

Lauren Bridgwater and Abigail Jones are the co-founders of OFOC. They began working in anti-trafficking activism during their 9th-grade year in high school by participating in their school’s Her Future Club which raises money to support the rehabilitation, education, and employment programs that Her Future Coalition offers survivors. During the break from school caused by COVID-19, they missed participating in their school’s Her Future Club and reached out to the Her Future Coalition leadership team to start a formal youth-chapter to unite more students around the world against trafficking.



Why/How was OFOC started? When was OFOC started?

Abigail and Lauren founded this organization because there are so many people who know about the atrocities of human trafficking, but they don’t know how to help or make a difference. So many people believe that human trafficking is unpreventable. At OFOC, we want to change this mindset and so we have decided to spread awareness among students, who will be the future’s leaders. We have been working with Her Future Coalition for about 3 years now. We became the presidents of a Her Future Coalition Club at our school this past year and this past school year we donated about $3,000 to Her Future Coalition. This money helps support the education, employment, and rehabilitation programs that Her Future Coalition provides. It also helps support the shelters that Her Future Coalition has. Abigail and Lauren felt so impacted that they decided to found their own organization alongside Her Future Coalition in May, 2020. Hence, they started Our Future of Change as the youth chapter of HFC with the hopes to support trafficking survivors and high-risk children as well as educate students globally on how they can help prevent trafficking.



How can we help prevent human trafficking?

Many people don’t realize that there is something we can all do to help prevent high-risk children from being trafficked and survivors from being trafficked again. Trafficking survivors are at high risk of being trafficked again as they have little to no education and are often impoverished. Hence, even after escaping a brothel, it is very difficult for them to find sustainable employment. We can all help prevent human trafficking by donating to Our Future of Change/Her Future Coalition (by donating to Our Future of Change, you are donating to Her Future Coalition. OFOC only has its own donation site to keep track of the funds that we have brought in). Donating to OFOC/HFC will go directly to supporting the shelters as well as the education, rehabilitation, and employment programs that HFC provides for survivors. Donating goes a long way: $10 feeds a survivor for a week $30 educates a survivor for a month $50 shelters a survivor for a month $360 educates a survivor for a year $1,000 educates an entire classroom for a month DONATE HERE: https://herfuturecoalition.networkforgood.com/projects/104706-our-future-of-change OR BUY HFC JEWELRY HERE (profits go to survivors futures and all the jewelry is made by survivors): https://shop.herfuturecoalition.org The other way to prevent trafficking is to spread awareness about it. The more people that know about trafficking and how to prevent it, the more people that will donate and educate themselves. If all are ignorant to this global issue, then it will never end. Educating yourself is always of the utmost importance!



What partnerships does OFOC have and are they forming partnerships right now?

Our Future of Change is the youth-led chapter of Her Future Coalition. HFC is their only partner; however, HFC has many partners as well, and so OFOC is connected to various organizations. We are excited to announce that HFC recently started a collaboration with Michelle Obama’s Girls’ Opportunity Alliance Initiative! They also have many other partners, such as Yoga Medicine Seva and more. Our Future of Change is not currently forming any partnerships.



What is Her Future Coalition? How are we (OFOC) connected to them? When did HFC start?

Her Future Coalition is an organization providing rehabilitation, education, and employment programs to trafficking survivors in India, Nepal, Cambodia, and Thailand. It provides survivors with the resources necessary for them to earn a high wage and reintegrate into society so that they avoid being trafficked again. Her Future Coalition also provides shelter and education programs to high-risk youth who live in red-light areas where trafficking is heavily concentrated. Her Future Coalition was founded by Sarah Symons in 2005 and since has been able to provide opportunities for over 4,000 survivors and their families. Our Future of Change is the student-led chapter of Her Future Coalition. We collaborate with them when planning events, and 100% of our fundraising profits go to supporting them so that they may continue to provide resources for survivors to lead happy, fulfilling lives.



Where does the money donated to OFOC go? How does OFOC keep track of its funds?

100% of the profits donated to OFOC go to supporting Her Future Coalition so that they may continue to provide rehabilitation, education, and employment programs to trafficking survivors. OFOC receives monthly reports from the Her Future Coalition team describing how much was made and what that money was used to support. However, we can view donations at any time by visiting our campaign page. You can also see Her Future Coalitions annual reports here: https://herfuturecoalition.org/financials-and-annual-reports/ DONATE HERE: https://herfuturecoalition.networkforgood.com/projects/104706-our-future-of-change



Why should someone join Our Future of Change?

Our Future of Change helps change the lives of those who are stuck in a cycle of exploitation. You should join Our Future of Change to help stop this exploitation and to educate those around you about human trafficking.



What roles can an ambassador take on? What should an ambassador do? What is expected of ambassadors? How much time is an ambassador expected to spend on OFOC a week?

Our ambassador program provides students around the world with an opportunity to get involved in anti-trafficking activism. There are various opportunities that ambassadors can take on within Our Future of Change in order to support our mission, including joining one of our committees or starting a school club chapter. We have four committees that focus on outreach, design, news, or event planning. The outreach committee helps us to gain publicity, the design committee designs our social media, handbooks, and website, the news committee writes articles for our webpage, and the event planning committee helps us plan virtual events/fundraisers. Ambassadors who are interested in becoming club presidents can start an Our Future of Change club at their school to fundraise to support the programs which Her Future Coalition offers survivors as well as to spread our message into their communities. Ambassadors are expected to spend at least 1 hour a week dedicated to OFOC.



Can I receive volunteer hours as an Our Future of Change Ambassador?

Yes! We use Clockify to track volunteer hours. You will learn more information about this once you become an ambassador.



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Lauren Bridgwater: OFOC Co-Founder

Lauren Bridgwater is a rising senior in high school in Massachusetts. She became passionate about anti-trafficking activism when she joined the Her Future Club at her school and learned about the many ways to fight against trafficking. Lauren enjoys reading, playing the piano, and acting and hopes to help empower gender-violence victims through Our Future of Change.