January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Proclaimed in 2010, the month brings awareness and education about the ongoing crisis in this country.
The Youth Service Bureau, in conjunction with the Indiana Youth Services Association, is launching a social media campaign geared towards educating their community on the facts and myths surrounding human trafficking, #StopTraffickingHoosiers.
This campaign beings Saturday — the day the U.S. Senate in 2007 declared Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Men, women and children are sold into a $150 billion annual market for sex and labor. This is happening globally, nationally and locally; in hotels, restaurants and on street corners. Slavery is wrapped up in almost every industry’s supply chain, tainting the food we eat, the clothes we buy, and the electronics we love. Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and involves the movement of people by means of violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labor, servitude or slavery-like practices. It is a market-based economy that exists on principles of supply and demand. It thrives due to conditions, which allow for high profits to be generated at low risk.
A social media tool kit has been put together by the IYSA Advocacy Committee and the Indiana Trafficking Victims Assistance Program team. This kit is available to all youth services organizations.
For more information, contact Karen Branch, YSB executive director, at 765-362-0694 or email admin@mcysb.org.agency.
