TAT September 2020 Newsletter

Volume 11 | Issue 9

September 2020

Human trafficking in the news

Girl, 12, among sex trafficking victims Toronto police identified

A 12-year-old girl. She’s the youngest among the more than 215 sex trafficking victims the Toronto Police Service came into contact with since forming the human trafficking enforcement team in 2014.

How vigilant truckers can disrupt ‘modern-day slavery’

Confronting the truth about human trafficking in America isn’t easy, but for properly trained truckers, spotting it and taking action can be as simple as picking up the phone.

“It is indeed modern-day slavery,” said Kendis Paris, about human trafficking, the practice that inflicts forced labor or rape onto unwilling participants. As executive director and co-founder of Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), Paris seeks to stop the problem through awareness and training, which at times may seem too massive and pervasive a problem to stop.

Chattanooga’s Street Grace tapped for nationwide training of

National Beer Wholesalers Association in campaign to combat human trafficking

Chattanooga's Street Grace, a faith-based organization with a mission to end Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children throughout the U.S., has been tapped to lead the training for the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s more than 140,000 beer distribution employees in the U.S. to help them recognize and report signs of human trafficking.

Click here to read these articles on our website

Virtual Coalition Builds prove popular in pandemic environment

With Covid-19 restrictions still in place, TAT’s Coalition Build (CB) program has pivoted to virtual bridge events, with the first two held in August. Hosted by partners in the Washington, DC area and the other by partners in Pennsylvania, each CB attracted more than 100 participants. These 90-minute online events feature a Human Trafficking 101 session, led by the Attorney General’s office, a survivor perspective by a TAT field trainer, an expert law enforcement panel and breakout sessions for each industry sector to discuss training options and strategies for working together locally.

Many of the outcomes of these events include future virtual speaking opportunities for TAT at industry events, conferences, and human trafficking task force meetings, such as:

The Prince George Human Trafficking Task Force invited TAT to speak at its virtual conference in January and plan to distribute and encourage training with TAT's Law Enforcement Training video and TAT's Addressing Demand video.
The American Public Transportation Association agreed to host a human trafficking awareness webinar with Busing On The Lookout (BOTL) in late 2020.
The Rhode Island Trucking Association is featuring TAT in their upcoming newsletter and encouraging members to become TAT trained.
Three more virtual coalition builds are being planned for Fall 2020.

“Even though the original in-person coalition was canceled, thank you for not canceling the conference all together,” commented Corporal Zena Black from the Pennsylvania State Police. “This was a great opportunity to learn from other resources, even a resource in my own department I was completely unaware of!”

“We need more innovative approaches like TAT to identify and respond to human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. Finding new ways to partner with stakeholders who might come in contact with the victims of these crimes would help prevent continued abuse,” opined K. Tony Korol-Evans, Ph.D., a statewide trainer for the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence.

One hundred percent of participants that filled out the survey following the meeting said they plan to share the information they learned with their company/agency/organization and will strive to take a victim-centered approach with any potential victims they encounter.

Until in-person events can resume, TAT's CB program will continue to hold virtual bridge events that convene stakeholders across the country in an attempt to close loopholes to traffickers.

TAT releases new state agency toolkit

TAT’s latest training item, a new toolkit for state agencies, guides them on the steps they can take to equip their employees to combat human trafficking when it does arrive at their location, including how they can partner with TAT to implement anti-human trafficking training and policies in their operations.

Designed for those agencies intersecting with commercial vehicle license holders, such as Departments of Transportation (DOT), Departments of Licensing (DOL), Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and Departments of Revenue (DOR), the toolkit can be used in conjunction with TAT’s state-agency-specific webinar. That webinar is also cited as a useful tool in the final report of the US Department of Transportation Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking on how state agencies can partner with all modes of transportation in combating human trafficking.

“Representatives from different state agencies are often present at Coalition Builds,” said Esther Goetsch, TAT Coalition Build director. “Recognizing the key role these agencies play in the local community and that their employees might intersect with victims of human trafficking as they issue licenses or interact with the traveling public, it is imperative to train these employees on the issue. To that end, TAT created this toolkit to provide information on how agency personnel might intersect with a potential victim, specific red flag indicators to be looking for, training recommendations, case studies and best practices for agencies to consider in developing an anti-trafficking strategy.”

Driving Goodness Campaign highlights TAT/UPS partnership

As part of the Driving Goodness Campaign of Vomela Companies and in recognition of the United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Humans, TAT and UPS took part in a virtual event on July 30 to discuss how companies could use their supply chains to effect change and help aid law enforcement in the discovery and disruption of human trafficking networks across North America.

Rich McCardle, president of UPS Freight, and Nicole Clifton, vice president of global public affairs for UPS, joined Kendis Paris, TAT executive director, to discuss the “whys and hows” of the UPS partnership with TAT, which began in 2016, and which has included certifying 100,000 UPS drivers in the U.S. with TAT training. UPS also uses its influence throughout the trucking industry, and the enthusiasm of its employees to fight this crime, to raise awareness of human trafficking and encourage other companies to become TAT trained.

TAT has been working to raise up a mobile army of transportation professionals to fight human trafficking since its inception, and to date, has trained more than 922.000 people. Trucker calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline alone have been responsible for generating hundreds of cases, identifying more than 1300 victims. If 911 calls by truckers were added in, which no one tracks nationally, the numbers would probably be much higher.

In order to reach as many fleets and truckers as possible, TAT looks for every commercial intersection available with trucking. It started the TAT Shipping Partners Program (SPP) several years ago to leverage pre-existing relationships between shippers and their carriers to train even more drivers. As the customer of trucking carriers, shippers are able to use their influence to help make suppliers aware of human trafficking and how they can become part of the solution.

To give shippers and manufacturers a quick overview on becoming a TAT SPP participant and activating their supply chains for social change, TAT recently completed a three-page document – a condensed toolkit –that outlines the basics on the crime and the steps companies can take to engage with TAT and the transportation professionals they work with in combating it. This document can be obtained by contacting Laura Cyrus at lcyrus@truckersagainsttrafficking.org.

Take your employees on a Freedom Drivers Project Virtual Tour

Looking for a new tool to bring training alive for your employees? Now you can bring the Freedom Drivers Project (FDP) to your workplace for a virtual event! Experience its incredible imagery and the powerful truth it conveys about human trafficking any time, any place, via your phone, tablet or computer. The FDP is a dynamic, visual tool demonstrating both the reality and devastation of trafficking through facts and survivor artifacts, as well as the critical role the transportation and energy industries are playing in combating this crime. Preview our new virtual tour now.

To further enhance the experience, schedule TAT staff to host a webinar along with the tour. We can work with you to create a memorable and impactful training event. Interested? Send an email to hvandam@truckersagainsttrafficking.org today!

Thank you to our copper level and above individual donors!

Diamond:

Douglas Kegler

Platinum:

Anonymous

Gold:

Michael Horton, Jonathan and Jill Lim, Bob Paris, Andy and Karin Larsen

Silver:

Lou and Ronda Leeburg, Scott and Terry Koch, Grinnell Family

Bronze:

Scott Perry, Mark and Julie Mihevc, Anna McCoy, Linda Burtwistle

Copper:

George Cravens, Patti Gillette, Craig Kaplan, Dan and Emily Dykstra, John McKown, Mr and Mrs Matty Moroun, Kevin and Michele Kalczynski, Rich McArdle, Anne Moroun, Ken Johnson, Mike and Karen Kuykendall, Sarah Roark, Eric and Sarah Jorgensen, Matthew Bleach