New initiative takes aim at human trafficking

Editor's note Lara Wilken serves as a registered nurse and an assistant clinical nursing professor at Bowling Green State University. Tracy McGinley serves as a criminal justice professor at BGSU Firelands. Among their roles: focusing on human trafficking and bringing issues surrounding this topic to the public light. They recapped an important event happening and an initiative they recently undertook. HURON TWP. — Human trafficking is an issue impacting many lives around us, yet it often remains unseen. When they hear the words human trafficking, most people immediately think of sex trafficking. Labor trafficking, often unrecognized, may also be prevalent. As local educators, we are working hard to bring awareness to both types of trafficking to help keep people safe. It is also an issue that we have taken very seriously for well over a decade. We have partnered together to try to help community members see the unseen in a variety of ways: the first being the recent launch of the BGSU Labor Trafficking Education and Research Initiative. This initiative is a collaboration with the university's college of health and human services. It's housed at BGSU Firelands in Huron Township. The location of the initiative was chosen primarily for its: • Proximity to seasonal work and migrant labor • Demographics of where it resides, between to two major cities • High rate of tourism and festivals • Surrounding highways and waterways Hearing from experts Through the initiative, we plan to bring greater awareness and understanding to the labor side of human trafficking in conjunction with our previous work raising awareness about sex trafficking. Understanding there are several myths as well as an overall lack of knowledge when it comes to human trafficking, in general, we are working very hard to dispel the myths and present the facts in a manner that is not only evidence-based but also survivor and trauma-informed. In early April, we hosted a human trafficking conference at the Sandusky-area Kalahari Resorts & Conventions where 170 people from across the state attended. The event was made possible thanks to generous donors such as the Erie County Sheriff's Office, Shores & Islands Ohio, the Greater Sandusky Partnership, Firelands Health and the Ohio Hotel Lodging Association. The audience consisted of advocates, lawmakers, judges, health care providers, law enforcement officials, educators and more. Among those speaking and addressing the crowd on human trafficking topics: state Rep. Josh Williams; Linda Powers and Mary Kate Waggoner from the Ohio Attorney General's Office; and Joe Savarise of the Ohio Hotel Lodging Association. We discussed the importance of community collaboration. The event concluded with three of the Ohio Attorney General's Human Trafficking Initiative survivor ambassadors: Christina La Pointe Jackson, Harold D'Souza and Annette Mango. Additional guest speakers included Brad Downing of Bayshore Counseling Services alongside Melisa Faulkner of the Erie County Health Department. The two have created a community partnership with us to bring educational programs into the Erie County Health Department and the Erie County Jail Life Recovery Program. The major takeaways Historically, human trafficking has been viewed as a criminal justice and human rights issue. But it is equally important that it also be viewed as a public health issue. Between the two of us, our background and experience have helped and can help community members look at human trafficking through an interprofessional lens, which is essential to the prevention and identification of the issue as well as the empowerment of survivors. As members of the Ohio Attorney General's Human Trafficking Initiative's public awareness subcommittee, we want to assure Erie County residents that great work is being done at the state level through the initiative's various subcommittees, which are focused on a variety of issues. At the community level, residents will see more work between the two of us. We recently launched the Seeds of Empowerment, which is an Erie County human trafficking coalition. Future plans are already in the making for two conferences: one focused on culture, the other on youth as well as research efforts, bringing greater understanding and awareness to the issue of labor trafficking. With the upcoming summer festivities and events, we encourage if you suspect human trafficking and someone is in immediate danger, you call 911. If they are not in immediate danger, and you are unsure what to do, call your local police non-emergency number or the Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. The Erie County Sheriff's Office is also available to assist, and it is part of the HEAL Task Force. It's a multi-county task force which covers the counties Huron, Erie, Ashland, and Lorain — hence the shorthand HEAL. Reporting suspicions is an important part of the prevention and identification of human trafficking in our area. In the words of Annette Mango, a survivor ambassador, "If you are wrong, you're wrong. But what if, just what if, you happen to be right?" People can email empowermentseeds@gmail.com for more information or to talk with us.