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#WearBlueDay: New Life Refuge Ministries educates community to help end child sex trafficking

Jan. 11 is #WearBlueDay to raise awareness and end human trafficking.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Texas Department of Family Protective Services wants you to wear blue today.

Homeland Security's Blue Campaign's largest initiative is #WearBlueDay on January 11th.

To raise awareness of human trafficking, everyone is invited to take photos of themselves, friends, family, and colleagues wearing blue clothing and share them on social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – along with the #WearBlueDay hashtag. 

In Corpus Christi, there is a place for those who have been affected by human trafficking to heal. 

New Life Refuge Ministries is a place of specialized, long-term, therapeutic care where child sex trafficking survivors can heal and process through their trauma. 

"Every man, every woman, every teen and child -- there is not any one person that is not vulnerable to this," Tina Canary with New Life Refuge Ministries said. 

The safe place is expanding their campus this year to help more victims, thanks to a substantial Valero grant and help from the Corpus Christi Charity League. 

"That will be helping us expand our transitional living village," Canary said. "That is for the children who turn 18 while they're in our care so they continue to heal, grow, go to school and college, start working and really transition into that healthy adult life."

The non-profit organization also provides community education on how to spot and stop child sex trafficking. The most important thing anyone can do is help recognize and prevent human trafficking. 

"We are local to Corpus Christi, but we can train anyone remotely, online, up to 250 folks. So we provide training and awareness so that you can identify those things that are going on that don't seem quite right, that you can also know who and where to report them," Canary said.

To learn more about New Life Refuge Ministries, visit their website here.  

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