By Ashley Afonseca
On March 27th, our Non-Profit Giving Class had the honor of welcoming Ann Wilkinson, the director of last years Non-Profit class pick, My Life My Choice. Ann Wilkinson not only left a mark on our cl
ass by describing how and why My Life My Choice is a significant organization to the community, but she also gave our class tips on how to take a look at budgets of incoming proposals that we are currently analyzing.
Ann Wilkinson shined throughout her time with us by giving us a great description of the organization. My Life My Choice prioritizes helping local minors who have been apart or is at risk of exploitation. Ann also opens up to the class by explaining how she holds the organization close to her heart because she too has also been exploited and effected by sex trafficking as a minor. My Life My Choice was discovered in 2001 after a young girl in Boston was murdered in relations to sex trafficking, and since then, the program has blossomed through their different programs to support young women who share similar experiences. They have three different components to their organization. The exploitation prevention initiative program is composed of numerous curriculums to teach young women how to prevent being a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. The second program they have is the survivor mentoring program where mentors provide support to survivors while giving them both motivation and hope to help build themselves up. The last program is the training for youth service providers where individuals are educated on how to spot red flags of exploitation and how to support women that are victims.
One of the most meaningful moments to me was when a student in the class referenced a video about My Life My Choice starring Blake Lively, and Ann respectively pointed out that although she was appreciative of Blake Lively, it did not mean too much to her because Lively was not consistently helping. Ann highlights the importance of consistency within the organization and how it is regular everyday people that leave the biggest influence on the young women by providing consistent help.
