Partners with Convenience Stores Against Trafficking program.
Clark Brands is pledging its commitment to help end human trafficking through a partnership with Convenience Stores Against Trafficking (CSAT), a program of national nonprofit IN OUR BACKYARD (IOB), to provide education, life-saving materials and awareness to more than 1,000 locations.
“Clark Brands believes that our locations can join law enforcement, elected officials and non-profit leaders in the anti-trafficking movement and help disrupt human trafficking,” declares Stacey Yimet, CEO of Clark Brands. “In addition to training our staff, Clark Brands is supporting CSAT with a donation so that this life-saving program can continue to grow.”
In addition to employee training on recognizing and safely reporting the signs of human trafficking, CSAT also provides Freedom Stickers which contain the National Human Trafficking Hotline number to be posted in restroom stalls—often the only place a victim of human trafficking is alone and safe enough to reach out for help.
Sara, a survivor whose story is featured in the CSAT training video, shares that she visited convenience stores sometimes multiple times a day while she was being trafficked. “I wish IN OUR BACKYARD Freedom Stickers had been in bathrooms when I was trafficked a decade ago—I could have gotten out a lot sooner,” said Sara.
“Human trafficking—commercial sex or labor induced through force, fraud or coercion—is the second-largest and fastest-growing crime in the world. Traffickers exploit the most vulnerable who live in and pass through our communities, whether adults, teens or children,” said IOB Program Director Juliana Williams.
“Convenience stores care about their communities and with more than 150,000 locations that serve half the U.S. population daily, they can be the eyes and ears in the community to spot human trafficking and save lives,” continued Williams. “We are so thankful for the support from Clark and Crown locations to be a part of the solution to this atrocity.”
Clark Brands joins convenience store industry leaders representing more than 12,000 locations across the U.S. and the addition of Clark and Crown locations expands CSAT into a total of 47 states.
Clark Brands, based in Lisle, Ill., licenses both the Clark and Crown gasoline brands.
