What if the most dangerous place for your children is their own bedroom? In a revealing conversation, Becky Cunio, executive director of For The Silent, sheds light on the grim realities of human trafficking. Armed with more than 15 years of field experience, Cunio not only explains the local implications of these issues, but also dispels common misconceptions, emphasizing the dangers that lurk on the internet.
Cunio also shares the challenges of her new role at For The Silent, and the strides the organization is making, including the introduction of a mental health component to its service. Despite the major pipeline of human trafficking running through Tyler, Cunio reveals that the cases they deal with are predominantly local, making it a pressing issue for the community.
MIKE LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Sixteen years ago, an organization called For The Silent was formed in Tyler after our area was identified as a national hotspot for human trafficking. I-20, which runs from far west Texas to South Carolina, is a major pipeline for the estimated 300,000-plus people trafficked through Texas, more than 80,000 of them minors. Becky Cunio took over as the executive director of For The Silent in February, and we spoke to her back then. We wanted to catch up with her, and she’s our guest today. Welcome.
BECKY CUNIO: Thank you for having me.
LANDESS: Detail for those who may not be familiar with For The Silent, what kinds of services and support it provides.
CUNIO: For The Silent is an exceptional nonprofit located here in Tyler, Texas, and we exist to serve a vital mission. We serve victims and survivors around the issue of child sex trafficking and exploitation. So, our organization’s mission is really to empower the voices of vulnerable and exploited youth and bring an end to child sex trafficking.
LANDESS: What’s been your biggest challenge over the last 6 months since you took over as executive director?
CUNIO: Just getting settled, I would say. I’ve been in this field of work for more than 15 years, so I’m very familiar with many of the individuals who work on this issue. However, adjusting to a new nonprofit with a very specific mission has taken some time. But I’m very grateful to be back in Smith County and serving the community where I live, and it’s been a great honor.
LANDESS: What kinds of things? Are there any things that are new in terms of what you have to deal with?
CUNIO: Yes. So, although I don’t know if I can announce just yet the entity that made this possible, but I’m really grateful to share that we are building out a mental health component whereby we will be able to provide licensed professional counseling services to the youth and survivors we work with, onsite in our offices, by way of a licensed professional counselor as a full-time employee. So, that’s a really tremendous addition to what we’ve already been doing, and it’s something I’m really excited to get going and to see start. So, our new counselor will begin with us Oct. 1, and we’re very excited to see the progress that’s made.
LANDESS: You’ve been involved in child protection for more than a dozen years. What’s changed in dealing with the issues, and is it getting any better?
CUNIO: I would say so much has changed, at least with regard to my awareness and understanding. When I entered this field, I was right out of college, and I didn’t know much. So I started as a CPS investigator, and that was really my introduction into the field.
LANDESS: Child Protective Services.
CUNIO: Yes, yes, sir. This issue of sex trafficking is something that has always been especially intriguing to me, because it’s something that we didn’t as a group initially understand as well as we do now — not that anybody understands it exactly — but it’s something that, as time has gone on, there’s been, you know, policy changes and things have been statutorily defined, so we understand better than we did back then what child sex trafficking looks like locally. I remember when I started, I mean, this wasn’t even on the radar, for me at least, but after conducting more than 3,000 forensic interviews with children across a wide range of demographics and socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds, the stories began to emerge of how this issue really looks locally, here, domestically, and it’s very different, I think, the reality than what people imagine.
LANDESS: I talked about the fact that there’s this huge pipeline, that we were describing: I-20, running from Texas all the way to South Carolina, and that that was a major thoroughfare for all of that. Of course, here’s Tyler sitting in the middle of it. My question is: are you dealing with people who are outside of the area that have come into your care here, or is it people who live here in Smith County or in East Texas?
CUNIO: It’s people who live here in Smith County or in communities that are connected to Smith County. So, I think that’s maybe the misconception, as people believe that this is something that happens abroad or to other people’s kids. Any child who has unsupervised access to the internet is potentially at risk, despite growing up in a great home with exceptional parents who love and care about them. I like to give the example of-go to dinner tonight or this weekend, and sit with your loved one and in a restaurant, just look around and observe the number of families who may be dining together but who have a device in front of their faces. And it really is alarming because most of us wouldn’t recognize ourselves as parents as being disengaged or checked out. But, we all are guilty of it. Life is hard and we look to our devices as a way to take a mental break and not have to use as much brain power. And really that’s an inherent danger for youth and young adults.
LANDESS: Well, using it as a babysitter, I mean, here play with the phone for a little while, why don’t you?
CUNIO: And that really is where traffickers and predators that the internet has become the number one platform for them to access our youth and young people. So, the misconception might be of individuals being snatched or taken from their homes, but truly a child can be trafficked from the safety of their bedroom and the confines of their home, where they’re safe and loved by parents, just by way of having access to a device and the internet.
LANDESS: But I’m assuming that you work with state and local agencies. Do you get any money from them?
CUNIO: Our organization, fortunately, is 85% funded by individuals, local businesses and our community. And I think that that’s really exceptional as a nonprofit organization; however, that also means that we rely on the generous support of our community to provide such essential services for free, at no cost, to victims and survivors.
LANDESS: Any final thoughts you’d like our listeners to keep in mind as they think about your organization?
CUNIO: Yes, I just always want to emphasize the importance of building relationships with youth and young adults. It’s very difficult, especially in this day and age, to be a teenager. And it’s even more difficult to find a sense of connection or belonging in this world. And so youth and teenagers, they go through a lot and there’s a lot of pressures in their young lives, and it really is incumbent upon us, as protective and responsible adults, to build relationships and to help have hard but meaningful conversations with them, so that they know whenever they’re in a difficult position or they need guidance or they’re feeling lost, they know who they can talk to to come out of that. Just in that alone, I think we could redirect a great deal of youth who fall prey to people with bad intentions. So, I would encourage everybody who’s listening get to know the young people in your life, get to know who they are as individuals, become aware of their backgrounds and their stories and what interests and excites them, and find a way to support their dreams and ambitions. That would be the greatest advice I would offer up. It can make all the difference and change the trajectory of what’s possible for a young person.
LANDESS: Our guest has been Becky Cunio, executive director of For the Silent. For more information about the organization, you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. There you’ll also find a link to this interview to hear again or to share. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)