How You Can Help Combat Human Trafficking in 2016

Los Angeles is one of three major points of entry into the United States for victims of human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery; the prevalence of trafficking here is among the highest in the country. All we have to do is notice the headlines, “>a crackdown on pimps fuels a rise in human trafficking charges in L.A. County.  The Los Angeles Daily News covered a story about “>Board of Supervisors voted to “launch a multiagency task force to address the ongoing issue of sex trafficking involving youth in the foster care system.”  These headlines are alarming and they highlight the pervasiveness of the problem, but what’s most tragic is that behind the headlines are personal narratives that connect human trafficking with real people, illustrating the human suffering and the deep and lasting effects of this vicious crime.  And yet, most people in Los Angeles know little, if anything, about human trafficking, even about cases that occur in our own neighborhoods.

We know that awareness is a critical way to end this horrific and preventable crime against humanity. In January, the “>Human Trafficking Outreach Project to help ensure its implementation. The objective of the Human Traffic Outreach Project is to train volunteers to conduct outreach aimed at educating businesses on the requirements of the law, providing the necessary materials for posting, as well as bringing awareness and providing human trafficking victims with a way out. Our dedicated volunteers have conducted 190 visits to date. According to CAST statistics, calls to the human trafficking hotline resulting from the posters being up have increased 250% since the implementation of this project. We have made significant progress, but there remains a lot of work to be done. NCJW/LA measures the outreach project quantitatively and qualitatively; our statistics show that we have visited 24% of the mandated establishments we have been able to locate and 34% of those visited are in compliance; but only 8% of all mandated establishments on our list are in compliance.

January is human trafficking awareness month. On the evening of January 24, 2016, the NCJW/LA Human Trafficking Outreach Project teams will fill the streets of Los Angeles to conduct outreach in an event titled “>click here. Maya Paley is the Director of Legislative and Community Engagement at the National Council of Jewish Women/LA and Yvonne Winchell is a member of NCJW/LA and a Leader and Trainer for the Human Trafficking Outreach Project.