County Conversation Podcast: Human Trafficking Awareness | News Center

Stacy Ziebell, program manager of the Countywide Coordination Team in Domestic and Sexual Violence Services, appeared on the Jan. 25 episode of the “County Conversation” podcast. The topic was human trafficking – a timely one since January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

However, according to the Polaris Project, human trafficking is a year-round problem. In 2021, “10,359 situations of human trafficking were reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline involving 16,554 individual victims.”

According to Ziebell, human trafficking is usually broken down into two types – sex trafficking and labor trafficking – and is essentially the control and exploitation of another person's labor, or commercial sex act, through force, fraud and coercion.

There are signs that community members can be lookout for, according to Ziebell. “You don't have to be able to recognize exactly that someone is a victim of human trafficking, you just have to know if you realize someone is in need of help. Is someone's passport or documentation being held from them? Is a person free to come and go at will? If a young person starts showing up with some really nice technology. These are indicators.”