SANTA CLARA, CA, CA, UNITED STATES, March 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — “As a survivor of child sex trafficking, I remember being terrified of what would happen next, and not knowing where to turn to for help,” recalls Executive Director of In Our Backyard (IOB), Cheryl Csiky. “If what we do can bring hope and help to even one child, it is all worth it.”
Csiky’s opportunity came during a January 31st at a Missing Children Public Outreach, which led to an immediate sighting of a missing child. Big Game host city. One volunteer reported, “A store clerk said they saw one of the kids featured in the book this morning. We arrived just after noon and made a report.”Authorities were notified immediately and have recovered the child.
The Missing Children Public Outreach, now in its 17th year, continues throughout the week, primarily through Safety for the Bay, and IOB’s Convenience Store Partners, across the Bay Area and more than 52,000 convenience store partners nationwide. IOB’s Outreach reflects a coordinated prevention-focused approach that brings together technology, trained frontline workers, and community engagement. to strengthen efforts to help locate missing children and reduce the risk of exploitation.
Over the years, there has been much debate about whether there is an increase in trafficking surrounding the Super Bowl. An empirical study from December 2022 [1] stated that during the Super Bowl, “February 1-8, 2020, the incidence rate of daily ad posting potentially linked to sex trafficking was on average 1.6 times greater than the incidence rate of daily ad posting in other periods that year.”
[1] https:doi.org/10.1007/s12117-022-09472-z
As part of the January 31 awareness event, volunteers distributed anti-trafficking resources and books featuring missing children to more than 200 convenience stores in the Big Game host city. “A store clerk said they saw one of the kids featured in the book this morning. We arrived just after noon and made a report,.” said a outreach volunteer.
The store sighting on January 31 is a direct result of the awareness-to-action focus that IOB has in raising awareness of the issue of human trafficking and how people can join the fight against it. With approximately half of the U.S. population visiting a convenience store every day, convenience stores are well-positioned to share important messages that employees and customers can use to raise awareness against trafficking and help victims. Recognizing this critical access point, IOB launched its community program, Convenience Stores Against Trafficking (CSAT), in 2017 to equip store teams with training and resources to identify and safely report concerns. Today, more than 51,000 convenience stores nationwide participate in CSAT, reaching 8 million people every single day.
The Big Game outreach effort supports a larger operation where over 100 volunteers and survivor leaders at In Our Backyard leverage technology and data to help find missing children connected to sex ads that are being posted online every day. To date, over 187 missing children have been recovered through collaborative efforts supporting NCMEC.
“The excitement of the Big Game coming up fuels the opportunity to encourage the community to be involved for a positive cause. We are looking for missing children at risk of being trafficked, here, in our community,” said Cheryl Csiky, executive director of In Our Backyard. Convenience stores are the eyes and ears of the community, and we encourage community members and businesses to join the effort by volunteering or helping to place missing children booklets and resource materials in convenience stores and other community-facing businesses. Our biggest win is when collective efforts are made to protect missing children.”
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In Our Backyard (IOB) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit leader dedicated to the fight against sex and labor trafficking. Established in 2009, each year IOB works with the host city of the Super Bowl to help law enforcement identify victims, which has led to many recoveries over the past 16 years. Visit www.InOurBackyard.org to join the event!
Cheryl Csiky
IN OUR BACKYARD
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