‘Not going away on its own’: Truckers Against Trafficking hosts awareness building event

Truckers Against Trafficking, a nonprofit human trafficking awareness company, recently hosted an event at the Bridgestone Tower in Downtown Nashville.

The “Coalition Build,” − an event to connect businesses, especially those in industries with a stake in trafficking prevention − was cohosted by Bridgestone, Pilot Company and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. It was a day-long summit aimed at educating people about human trafficking.

“The whole point of the coalition is to create a connectivity within a community and The Coalition Build is the easiest step one: get everybody together and talk about the problem,” said Josh Holland, Truckers Against Trafficking board member and vice president of dealer development and mobility solutions for Bridgestone. He helped put on the event and said what really becomes important is what happens after events like a Coalition Build: that is, applying the knowledge and awareness learned at the event to everyday situations in hopes of lessening the problem that is human trafficking.

Though Truckers Against Trafficking's mission is education about human trafficking, not necessarily hands on preventative work, its trainings have helped people rescue victims of trafficking, Holland said.

“They have a high number of examples, unfortunately, where someone has done that,” he said. “They're not on their own an organization that's going out to solve these problems – they're not doing the investigations – but they partner with law enforcement agencies. They partner with businesses and just focus on the training.”

At the event, Truckers Against Trafficking held presentations, panels and training exercises out of its Freedom Drivers Project mobile exhibit trailer, which Bridgestone said in a press release “provides a glimpse into the realities of domestic sex trafficking, how the trucking industry is driving change, and simple actions the public can take to fight it.”

Holland said it's particularly important for companies like Bridgestone and Pilot Company, a truck stop company, to encourage awareness within its employee population.

“From an organization standpoint, the focus is on bringing education and awareness, starting at the root with the trucking industry,” Holland said. “Because of the fact that our roads are used for a lot of the transportation and you get into the settings of truck stops and things, it just makes sense.”

Just within Bridgestone, Holland said almost 30,000 of the company's employees nationwide have taken the Truckers Against Trafficking awareness training.

“The feedback has been outstanding,” Holland said. “Teammates were just blown away at the information. I don't even think most people realize how big of a problem it is.”

He said the nonprofit makes it very easy for businesses to get their employees involved and get them trained.

“The importance in this is that this isn't a crime or a problem that discriminates against anyone,” he said. “This can happen to anyone and it happens more than we're aware and, again, it's something that the more we all are engaged, the more we can put it into the problem because it's not just going to go away on it's own. Again, it could happen to anyone. We shouldn't ignore the issue.”