Everything you think you know about human trafficking is probably wrong.

Dena Smiley is Chairman of the Board at Blazing Hope Ranch — a Tennessee-based Christian residential ministry that provides free two-year aftercare, equine-assisted healing, job training, and (for every graduate) a donated car and support finding a home, all for women over 30 who have survived sex trafficking. In 2025, Blazing Hope became the first gold-standard-certified safe house in the state of Tennessee.

Dena didn't plan any of this. She grew up in suburban Southern California, went to UC San Diego, got a master's in social work from the University of Denver, and spent 15+ years as a clinical social worker. In 1994, she smuggled Bibles by bicycle across the border from Hong Kong into mainland China. In 2019 she started going to Nicaragua on medical mission trips into the brothels of the third-poorest country in the southern hemisphere. In 2021 she moved her family to Tennessee (yes, she Googled "most conservative states"), turned 50, and showed up sight unseen with her three kids to volunteer at a horse camp for kids at risk of being trafficked. By that fall she was on the board. By last summer she was running it.

This is the education episode you didn't know you needed. Dena, Emily, and Courtney walk through: the recruitment tactic that isn't a white van (it's an "affluent straight-A student" and a guy behind her at a basketball game offering to introduce her to his tattoo-artist buddy); the "Blossom the Butterfly" curriculum from the Philippines that Blazing Hope uses to teach 8-to-13-year-olds about grooming without scaring them; why traffickers spike around the Super Bowl; why familial trafficking and intimate-partner recruitment are the dominant patterns (not kidnapping); the five biggest myths about who gets trafficked and where; and the warning signs to actually watch for in your community.

Also: horses as emotional mirrors, why every Blazing Hope graduate gets a car, and the kindest thing anyone has ever done for Dena (it involves a haircut).

Ways to help — beyond Blazing Hope Ranch:

🌾 Blazing Hope Ranch — Dayton, TN — BlazingHopeRanch.org
🎟️ Hootenanny for Hope — Thursday, Oct 16 at 6pm — Bryan College, Dayton, TN — free to attend, register at BlazingHopeRanch.org/events

Hotlines to know:

• 📞 National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 (24/7, 200+ languages)
• 📱 Text HELP or INFO to 233733 (BeFree)
• 📞 Tennessee Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-855-55-TNHTH (86484)
• 📞 DHS Report a Tip: 1-866-347-2423
• 🚨 Emergency: 911
• 📞 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678)

Other trafficking organizations doing the work:

• Polaris Project — polarisproject.org
• International Justice Mission — ijm.org
• Shared Hope International — sharedhope.org
• ECPAT-USA — ecpatusa.org
• Thistle Farms (Nashville, TN — survivor employment) — thistlefarms.org
• Street Hope TN — streethopetn.org
• Seattle Against Slavery — seattleagainstslavery.org
• REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade, Seattle) — iwantrest.com

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