Community members listen to a speaker during a Johnson County Human Trafficking Task Force training session in September. The task force will be holding another series of sessions on Friday.
Submitted photo
A series of community trainings and information sessions by a local task force hopes to teach the public more about human trafficking.
The Johnson County Human Trafficking Task Force is hosting an all-day workshop on Friday about human trafficking, its forms, to its signs. The task force is a group made up of upward of 27 organizations that want to teach the public about human trafficking, its signs and how to help survivors.
They are also hosting three community information sessions about human trafficking at the end of January, which is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud and/or coercion to compel a person into any form of work or service against their will. Although the media often portrays this as kidnapping or “stranger danger in a white van” concepts, this is not really what officials see on a more local level across the state, said Meagan Cunningham, a region coalition coordinator for the Indiana Trafficking Victim Assistance Program, or ITVAP.
What they do see is more of familial trafficking, which involves family members, or online behaviors through grooming and luring young people into facilitating sex acts to provide some type of commercial exchange, Cunningham said.
According to ITVAP, there are seven different forms of human trafficking:
- Sex trafficking: When someone uses physical force, threats, lies or emotions to make another person have sex for money. If the person is under 18, any exchange of sex acts for money or goods is considered sex trafficking.
- Labor trafficking: When someone is forced to work against their will for little or no money.
- Forced marriage: A marriage that happens without the consent of both people getting married. Forced marriage is often child marriage.
- Survival Sex: Engaging in sexual acts with someone 18 or older in exchange for a place to stay, food, money or other things needed to stay alive.
- Familial Trafficking: Encouragement or force by a family member for a youth to engage in sexual acts to assist with bringing income into the family either directly or indirectly.
- Online Exploitation: When a trafficker often pretends to be someone else online to encourage youth to send nude pictures or videos, which are then sold to others. The trafficker uses threats of sharing those videos with the person’s friends and family to get them to continue sending pictures and videos.
- Sextortion: A form of online exploitation that involves the use of sexually-explicit pictures or videos to blackmail individuals into providing money, goods, services or to engage in further sexual acts. The traffickers often obtain these materials through hacking, phishing or social engineering.
In 2020, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received 51,667 substantive phone calls, texts, web chats, emails or online tips reports about human trafficking. A 2019 report from the hotline about Indiana shows there were 157 trafficking cases, but this number is likely substantially higher.
The ITVAP has served over 5,000 trafficked and exploited youth under the age of 24 since 2015, data shows.
Task force origins
The task force has been in existence for a few years after ASSIST Indiana’s executive director reached out to ITVAP about creating a human trafficking task force or coalition. ASSIST is a Franklin-based nonprofit that provides advocacy, specialized services, interventions and support to trauma victims.
They ultimately opted to create a county task force, rather than a coalition, which would be made up of multiple counties, said Tracy McQueen, a victim advocate for ASSIST.
Member organizations include four law enforcement agencies, the Center of Hope at Franciscan Health, Adult & Child Health, Firefly Children & Family Alliance, Turning Point Domestic Violence Services and Allies Inc., an organization that works with human trafficking survivors. Johnson County Juvenile Detention, Valle Vista Health System, Beacon of Hope Crisis Center, the Department of Health and the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters are also represented.
Although they have upward of 27 organizations, the task force “by no means is complete,” McQueen said.
“There’s still definitely key players out there that are needed at the table,” she said.
The task force’s passion is equipping Johnson County with tools and prevention education. McQueen and Cunningham often get asked a lot about whether trafficking is here. The answer is yes, McQueen said.
“It’s like a lot of the topics that we see and we work with. They’ve always been here, they’re just starting to get recognition and attention brought to them,” she said. “We’re trying to bring awareness in a positive way, and getting out there how to be aware, what to look for, how to educate yourself.
“Public awareness is key.”
Because of the organizations that make up the task force, it also gives them direct access to resources if there is a potential case of human trafficking. This is while maintaining confidentiality, Cunningham said.
“We can directly call that person and immediately start those services, and immediately contact for those resources and have that case review and have the right people investigating that, team together,” she said.
Creating events
With awareness at the forefront of their minds, the task force began to put together information to give out to the community about human trafficking, its signs and resources. This eventually led to training sessions and community awareness events.
Their first-ever awareness event was at the Franklin Police Department, and they didn’t know what to expect or how many would show up. They expected teachers and law enforcement to show up.
The room was almost full, and was made up of CEOs and business owners, McQueen said.
“When we saw our first crowd, we knew that, OK, this is something that people are going to take seriously and they want to know,” she said.
The last few all-day training sessions have been held at Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood, a community partner that has given them a large space for the training. The space even allows for them to do sessions in a hybrid format, though they are still working on adding the virtual component, McQueen said.
“That’s one thing that we’re working on, is being able to connect virtually through hybrid to get more people into the training as well,” she said.
For the community awareness events, task force members do not want to be in the same place each year. They are strategic, holding events at a faith-based organization, a law enforcement agency and a local school, McQueen said.
All of their events have had double-digit attendance, she said.
Upcoming events
Friday’s training is made up of four sessions, and people can choose to attend one or all of them.
The first session is Human Trafficking 101, which provides a foundational understanding of what human trafficking is, Cunningham said. The second session is titled “Relationship-informed approach to working with survivors,” which teaches people about how they can work with survivors of human trafficking, McQueen said.
“In this workshop, participants will discover the role healthy relationships play in anti-trafficking work, and how they can practically implement relational strategies in their unique roles,” she said.
This is followed by sessions about the Johnson County crisis intervention team and labor trafficking.
Friday’s workshop is not the only event the task force is hosting this month. Human Trafficking 101 information sessions will be hosted at the Greenwood Police Department Training Center, Indian Creek High School and Center Grove High School on Jan. 25, 29 and 30, respectively.
The Jan. 30 session at Center Grove High School will feature a resource fair before the event. Task force organizations will have tables set up with fliers and information about what they do, McQueen said.
Going forward
Down the line, there will be other trainings that discuss protecting children from sexual abuse. The task force has done this training before, but it has since been revamped, McQueen said.
Those who would participate in this training would receive a certification for free. The task force wants to bring in good trainings that are not only locally recognized but also nationally recognized, she said.
“We just want to bring in some good stuff that is solid and provides a foundation, or a working foundation, on what it looks like moving forward so that when there are questions, and we … get feedback, that we can continue to grow upon the feedback from the community,” she said.
The community education provided by the events is valuable because it allows organizations to share their expertise, as there is a lot of overlap with the human trafficking population, Cunningham said.
“I always say it’s not a matter of if you work with [human trafficking] victims and survivors, but it’s just a matter of when you identify it,” she said.
IF YOU GO
Human Trafficking Awareness Trainings
What: Four sessions about human trafficking where the public can learn more about the issue and what is being done about it? Hosted by the Johnson County Human Trafficking Task Force.
Where: 65 Airport Parkway, Suite 110, Greenwood
When: 9 a.m to 4 p.m. Friday
Sessions:
- Human Trafficking 101: 9 to 10:30 a.m.
- Relationship-informed Approach to Working with Survivors: 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
- Crisis Intervention Team of Johnson County: 1 to 2:30 p.m.
- Labor Trafficking: 2:45 to 4 p.m.
Signing up: People can sign up for one or multiple sessions by going to forms.gle/ZpK7HS4eXbdN3Ah7A.
More information: Email [email protected].
OTHER TASK FORCE EVENTS
The Johnson County Human Trafficking Task Force will also be hosting three informative educational presentations to help educate and empower the community on the issue of human trafficking. Presentations are free and all are welcome:
- Jan. 25: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Greenwood Police Training Center, 436 Loews Boulevard.
- Jan. 29: 6 to 8 p.m. at the Indian Creek Performing Arts Center, 803 W. Indian Creek Drive, Trafalgar.
- Jan. 30: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Center Grove High School Auditorium, 2717 S. Morgantown Road, Greenwood. A resource fair will take place from 4:30 to 5 p.m.
