Theresa Flores is an American survivor of and campaigner against sex trafficking, and the creator of Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (S.O.A.P.), a nonprofit organization that aims to help prevent sex trafficking.

Early life and trafficking

As a child, Flores' father was a business executive and his job required their family to move from city to city. When she was 15 and living in Detroit, Flores was allegedly drugged and raped by a male classmate at Birmingham Groves High School. The rapist's older cousins had taken pictures of the attack, and used it for

sexual blackmail Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...

that lasted two years. After two years of abuse her dad was transferred to another city and the trafficking stopped. It took Flores many years to speak about her experiences. Flores received her bachelor's degree from

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...

Social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

and continued her education at the University of Dayton in Ohio, getting her Master's degree in Counseling Education, specializing in Human Development so she could help people who have gone through the same or similar things she has.

Activism and legal influence

Flores is a licensed social worker and the founder of Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (S.O.A.P.), which gives motels and hotels bars of soap labeled with phone numbers that victims can call for help. In 2009, Flores was chosen for the Ohio Attorney General's Commission to study human trafficking. She has presented evidence on the problem of human trafficking to the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate. In 2010 her testimony was a major part of the passing of Senate Bill 235 in Ohio, making human trafficking a felony in the state. Flores received one of the first "Courage" Awards from Gov. John Kasich in Ohio in 2012, and received the "Ruby Award" in 2009 from

Soroptimist Soroptimist International (SI) is a global volunteer service organization for women with nearly 72,000 members in 121 countries worldwide. According to Soroptimist.org, their mission statement says that, "Soroptimist is a global volunteer organiza ...

. Enacted in 2015, Michigan Senate Bill 584 included a subdivision named "Theresa Flores' Law," which extended the statute of limitations for the crime of human trafficking from 6 years to 25 years. (In its originally proposed form, which was passed by the Michigan Senate without amendment in 2013, the bill would have entirely removed the statute of limitations for human trafficking.)

Published works

* ''The Sacred Bath'' - iUniverse, 2007 * ''The Slave Across the Street'' - Ampelon Publishing, 2010; Random House, 2013 * ''Slavery in the Land of the Free'' - Ampelon Publishing, 2016

References

External links

*
Article about S.O.A.P.
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Theresa Ball State University alumni University of Dayton alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)