How Community Support Fuels the Fight Against Exploitation - Resilience & Relationships - Stephanie Olson & Dylan YeomansHow Community Support Fuels the Fight Against Exploitation - Resilience & Relationships - Stephanie Olson & Dylan Yeomans
Resilience in Life and Leadership
Stephanie Olson and Dylan Yeomans talk about how fundraising, community partnerships and innovative programmes fuel prevention education against human trafficking. The conversation highlights the value of every donation and outlines new initiatives designed to protect youth and support survivors.
37:47•29 Jul 2026
How Community Support Powers Trafficking Prevention with Stephanie Olson & Dylan Yeomans
Episode Overview
- All donations, whether small monthly gifts or large one-off contributions, are valuable and directly support prevention work.
- Consistent donations help the organisation plan and budget, while larger single gifts enable major initiatives and expansion.
- Prevention education has shown measurable impact on youth understanding and behaviour around exploitation and online safety.
- New programmes like Students Against Trafficking and the Empower Toolkit aim to equip both students and survivors with practical tools and support.
- The Set Me Free Project centres its work on teaching every young person that they have intrinsic value and deserve respect and safety.
“"You want this information now before you need this information."”
What drives someone to seek a life without exploitation and stand up for vulnerable young people? This episode of *Resilience in Life and Leadership* zooms in on how community support and funding keep The Set Me Free Project moving forward in its fight against human trafficking. Communications director Dylan Yeomans chats with Stephanie Olson about why donations, large or small, are far more than just money in a bank account.
As Stephanie puts it, "There is never a gift that's too small or too big," and a monthly donor giving £3 means just as much as a major lump sum. You’ll hear them unpack the difference between one-off and recurring donations, and why both types matter for planning programmes, hiring facilitators and reaching more youth. The conversation then shifts from pounds and pennies to impact.
Stephanie explains that young people face risks "other generations never imagined" through social media and online gaming, and shares results from their Ready to Stand curriculum, where up to 97% of participants report better understanding and many report positive behaviour changes. Her core message is simple: "You want this information now before you need this information." Listeners get a look at new initiatives too.
The Students Against Trafficking programme brings peer advocates onto school and university campuses, including those where students are turning to sex work to fund education. The upcoming Empower Toolkit will blend gamified learning on healthy relationships and tech safety for youth, plus practical tools for survivors such as financial literacy and job-readiness support. Throughout, Stephanie returns to the organisation’s foundation: every young person has intrinsic worth and deserves safety and respect.
Whether someone becomes a financial partner, hosts an event, offers an endowment, or simply spreads the word to one more friend, the episode shows how each action can push trafficking out of one community after another. If you could help shift just one more community towards safety, what role would you want to play?
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