Students Opposing Slavery (SOS), a youth education program of the Washington D.C. historic site, President Lincoln’s Cottage, was awarded the Presidential Award of Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons on Monday, October 24th, 2016, at the meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the White House.
Founded by students in 2012, SOS is a network committed to empowering youth leaders and raising awareness about human trafficking among young people—one of the demographic groups most vulnerable to human trafficking. President Lincoln’s Cottage, located in Northwest Washington, D.C. adopted the program in 2013 and established the annual SOS International Summit, a signature, award-winning program. Over the past four years, President Lincoln’s Cottage has hosted 110 participants from across the United States as well as 16 other countries spanning five continents at the multi-day summit.