The 13th Annual Liberator Awards - Saturday, March 13, 2027 - The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Banquet Hall - Columbus, Ohio
The Liberator Awards
The Liberator Awards highlight and acknowledge leading abolitionists and survivors across the United States. During the past few years, many have stepped up to the plate and worked hard to increase awareness, assist survivors, educate communities and prevent this crime from continuing. The “Prom” for the anti-human trafficking movement celebrates all this movement has become over the years.
About The Liberator Awards
The Liberator Awards were created by The SOAP Project to unite people from around the country who are working for the same cause: fighting human trafficking. They were also created with the hopes of highlighting the work of amazing individuals and groups. Everyone will tell you: this is hard stuff to do. We should diligently celebrate those who do it not because it is easy, but because it is right. The inspiration and namesake for this event is William Lloyd Garrison.
William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805 - May 24, 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the first abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. He promoted immediate emancipation of slaves in the United States. In the 1870s, Garrison also became a prominent voice for the women's suffrage movement.
Garrison became famous as one of the most articulate, as well as most radical, opponents of slavery. His approach to emancipation stressed “moral suasion”, non-violence, and passive resistance. While some other abolitionists of the time favored gradual emancipation, Garrison argued for “immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves”.
How the Liberator Awards Works
Nominations:
Do you know a person ororganizations who should be honored for their hard work in the fight against human trafficking? Nominations for 'Radical Abolitionists' are made by the public September 1st until December 29th. Nominations close Dec. 30th. Please be sure to have their correct contact information.
REQUIREMENTS: Individuals and organizations must be in good standing, be in compliance of any governmental standards, and do the work in the United States. They should be nominated in one of the categories: Individual, Organization, Business, Volunteer, Student or Student Organization, Law Enforcement/Public Servant, Male and Female Survivor. Once nominated, they will be notified via email and must accept the nomination and provide us with their photo and bio. If nominated in more than once category, they must select one category they would like to be in. Their information will be listed on the SOAP Project Facebook page, on the website as well as in other social media markets.
Voting:
January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month and the perfect time to honor people and organizations for their hard work in fighting human trafficking. ALL NomInees will be announced on Facebook Live on January 1st and Voting is OPEN. You may vote ONE time. We encourage nominees to promote the work their are doing and be proud of the nomination. Use this to gain traction for your work, your organization, school, etc. Toot your Horn!!
Voting is Open Jan. 1st and closes Jan. 31st. .
Determining the Finalists and Winner:
All nominees are winners in our eyes because it takes a village to fight this horrible crime. However, we would like to honor those who have gone above and beyond in this fight. This motivate us to keep going and also inspires others! Because this is not a popularity contest, we have added two more layers of determining the finalists and winner. Once the popular votes are tallied, all previous Liberator Winners will have a weighted vote worth 2x. The top 4 Finalists are then determined and they move onto another weighted vote from all previous and current SOAP Project Board of Directors to determine the winner of each category.
The Liberator of the Year is selected by the Board of Directors.
Other awards may also be given at the discretion of the Board.
Top 4 Finalists will be announced on St. Bakhita day: Feb. 8th (the patron saint of human trafficking survivors)
Accepting and Attending:
The top 4 Finalists will be invited to the Liberator Awards and provided a free ticket along with a companion ticket. They will receive a free hotel room if they live outside of Columbus Ohio. We also are looking for donors to help us be able to provide airfare for the finalists. Finalists must attend or have a proxy attend in their place. Not attending may result in losing the finalist position. We encourage all other nominees to attend as well.
Tickets
We try to keep the prices of the tickets low so that anyone can attend. Many of the attendees work for nonprofits. If you would like to attend but cant afford it, please let us know at info@soapproject.org.