Shared Hope International
Mikayla Simeral, MSW, MA, currently serves as the Director of Training Advancement at Shared Hope International, a position held since December 2022, after progressing through roles including Senior Manager of Training & Promotions and Training Program Manager. In addition, Mikayla has been an Independent Musician and Ethnomusicologist since July 2015, providing expertise as a professional singer-songwriter and ethnomusicology consultant. Prior experience includes positions as Victim Services Coordinator and Regional Advocate at More Too Life, Inc. from January 2019 to December 2022, and Local and Global Outreach Director at Grace Community Church from January 2017 to January 2019. Educational qualifications include a Master of Social Work from the University of South Florida, a Master of Arts in Musicology and Ethnomusicology from Liberty University, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Teacher Education from the University of South Florida.
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Shared Hope International
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Shared Hope International strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore victims of sex slavery, and bring justice to vulnerable women and children. We envision a world passionately opposed to sex trafficking and a community committed to restoring survivors to lives of purpose, value and choice – one life at a time. In 1998, while still a member of the U.S. Congress, Linda Smith traveled to Falkland Road in Mumbai, India—one of the worst brothel districts in the world. The hopeless faces of desperate women and children forced into prostitution compelled Linda to found Shared Hope International. SHI was established to support shelter and service creation for sex trafficking survivors using a comprehensive model for restoration. Today, Shared Hope works to Prevent sex trafficking through training, including our nationally renowned JuST Conference, and our volunteer training program, Ambassadors of Hope. Shared Hope's Restoration initiatives support partners in 4 countries who work to serve and empower survivors of sex trafficking. And finally, Shared Hope is committed to Bringing Justice to perpetrators of sex trafficking, and to get justice for survivors. Shared Hope regularly advocates at the state and federal level for strong laws to protect victims of child sex trafficking and hold perpetrators accountable. SHI's Justice initiatives include the Protected Innocence Challenge, a yearly report card and legal analyses, examining the strength of each state's laws to fight child sex trafficking, and the Stop the inJuSTice Campaign, designed to engage the public & lawmakers in improving our laws to address domestic minor sex trafficking.