Young People Learned More
Prevention education gave young people clearer language for recognizing exploitation, manipulation, and risk.
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UNITAS established the foundation: prevention education for young people, professional training, survivor-informed expertise, and partnerships with schools and public institutions. UNITY Prevention brings those parts of the work together under a clearer prevention-focused identity.
UNITAS established the foundation for this work. UNITY Prevention carries that work forward with a clearer focus on prevention.
Prevention education gave young people clearer language for recognizing exploitation, manipulation, and risk.
Educators, social workers, law enforcement, and other professionals strengthened how they recognize concerns and respond.
Work with schools and public systems helped move prevention beyond individual awareness and into practice.
Lived experience has informed prevention education, training, and program development across UNITAS's work.
The transition from UNITAS to UNITY Prevention reflects a clearer public identity for the organization’s next stage of work.
UNITAS established the foundation. UNITY Prevention carries that foundation forward with a name that is easier to understand, easier to access, and more directly aligned with the organization’s prevention-focused work in the United States.
The change is not about starting over. It is about making the mission clearer.
UNITY Prevention continues the legacy of UNITAS while expanding the organization’s focus on practical, community-based prevention infrastructure through youth education, professional training, survivor-informed support, and UNITY Centers.
UNITAS began with a belief in the power of unity: that exploitation cannot be prevented by one organization, one school, one agency, or one intervention alone.
Over time, that belief became a model of prevention built through education, partnerships, curriculum development, professional training, survivor-informed support, and coordinated response. UNITAS developed LIGHTS, a prevention curriculum designed to help young people understand trafficking risks and recognize where to turn for help. The organization also trained adults and institutions to identify warning signs, strengthen response protocols, and better protect the young people in their care.
Today, UNITY Prevention is carrying that work into a new phase.
The organization is focused on making prevention more accessible, more coordinated, and more connected to community. This includes continuing youth education and professional training, while also developing UNITY Centers as place-based prevention hubs that help young people connect to trusted support before harm deepens.
UNITY Networks extend prevention into local communities by strengthening referral pathways, case coordination, and connections to specialized services. The first, UNITY Detroit, is being developed for young adults ages 18–21.

Meet the dedicated professionals leading UNITY Prevention's prevention education, survivor support, and community partnerships









Fractional COO of UNITY Detroit
Diane Johnston
Senior Vice President, UBS Wealth Management Financial Advisor | Endowment & Foundation Consultant
Dr. Coralanne Griffith-Hunte, PsyD, C.C.T.S.F
Founder and Chairwoman of Created for Greatness Leadership Group
Dr. Charles Harris
Acute Care Surgeon with Inova Health Systems
NYC Department of Education
Washington DC Public Schools
NYPD Human Trafficking Squad
NYC Administration for Children’s Services
Brooklyn DA’s Human Trafficking Unit
Queens DA’s Human Trafficking Unit
NYC Office to End Gender-Based Violence
New York Foundling, The Phoenix Project
ESD Global: Empowerment Self-Defense
The Jewish Board: Bridging the Gap
The Bowery Mission
The Woolf Group
Moe Ross
Founder & Director, The Unscripted School of Healing
Agnes Jamora
President, Cold Flame Spirits
Steven Procopio
Chloe Akahori
Domino New York
Theresa Flores
Esther Rodriguez Brown
Jessica Kay
Dawn Albert
Tonya Turner
UNITAS President + CEO, Harvard Certified
Lamont Hiebert, CLC
Lead Trainer, Love146 Co-Founder
Dr. Coralanne Griffith-Hunte, PsyD, C.C.T.S.F
UNITAS Board Member
Psychologist, Clinical Trauma Specialist, NY State 2019 “Woman of Distinction”, Senior Legislative Advisor
Steven Procopio, ACSW, LICSW
Expert on male sex trafficking and exploitation; U.S. DOJ and HHS Consultant
Theresa Flores, LSW, MS
Speaker, Author, Survivor; Founder of S.O.A.P. Project; Founder of Traffick Free
Andrea Powell, EMLE
Founder of Karana Rising; Founder of FAIR Girls
Erika L. Ewing, MFA
Got To Stop Founder & CEO
Toni D. Rivera
Speaker, Author, Activist
Survivor Contributors
Additional survivors were contracted and played a key role in informing LIGHTS.