Human Trafficking is a scary issue that may seem relatively distant from Maine. However, it isn’t.
Over the past few years the number of phone calls to the National Human Trafficking Center from Maine has nearly doubled from 24 annually to 46– based off statistics from Preble Street Resource Center.
And in a recent statement from Daniella Cameron, manager of the Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Coalition, “Sex trafficking can happen anywhere there are vulnerable victims and people willing to exploit their poverty, desperation or hopelessness. Sex trafficking is not just a third-world problem, nor is it just a big-city problem. It is happening in our own Maine communities with alarming frequency.”
Tonight on Blunt youth Radio we will be discussing Human trafficking both locally and on a larger scale. We will be joined by:
Jon Bradley, the associate director at Preble Street Resource center in Portland, Maine; Brian Cress, who serves as International justice Mission’s Director of Youth Mobilization educating middle and high school students about violence against the poor;Donna Yellen who is the Chief Program Officer at Preble Street Resource Center in Portland, Maine; Erin Albright, the Regional Program Director for Give Way to Freedom, and previously worked for two and a half years for the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit; and Courtney Schaad, the founder and president of Give Way to Freedom, a foundation dedicated to enhancing the care and empowerment of survivors of human trafficking, and a psychotherapist for survivors of trafficking and torture.