Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

Millikin published a nice article on the Celebrations of Scholarship and the poster symposium showcasing performance learning, student research, and student/faculty collaborative research. Ngabo presented our Human Trafficking Research Lab project entitled "Human Trafficking Adjudication in Central Illinois" at the 29th Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and the Judith & G. Richard Locke Poster Symposium today at Celebrations of Scholarship at Millikin.  His poster won first place in the political science category and he received a ribbon and award money for his work. This is the second time a poster from our lab has won an award at the poster symposium and we are so happy to share our work with the campus community. Ngabo's research was also supported by an Undergraduate Research Fellowship at Millikin University in the summer of 2021 so it was also an opportunity to showcase the work from that important student research funding opportunity at Millikin.

I recently had the pleasure to attend the 79th Midwest Political Science Association Conference with the other members of the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University. We had the opportunity to share our paper on human trafficking adjudication in central Illinois with other political scientists not only in the Midwest area, but those who had traveled from other states or countries to be in attendance. It was a wonderful experience to be able to share the research we have been working on for more than a year with other scholars and academics. Though we had not completed our research by the time of the conference, we were able to present the findings that we had at that point and were able to get feedback on said research.  I feel that through the feedback from others as well as their questions regarding our research, I was able to understand even better both our work and the importance of it by defending it. We were also able to meet other political scientists and hear thei

We hosted the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services' new Decatur team and Sara Sefried  from the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force at the Human Trafficking Research Lab in early April. We talked about labor trafficking in Central Illinois and opportunities for cooperation in the future. Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services won a $2 million grant to fund and expand legal services and outreach to agricultural workers in Central and Northern Illinois who are at risk for human trafficking. The grant, funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, allowed them to establish a new physical location in the heart of Illinois’s agricultural district. The attorneys will assist clients in reporting trafficking cases to law enforcement, provide victim rights advocacy, assist in immigration matters including T-visas, work with federal agencies on wage claims and workplace violations, and file civil litigation to recover lost wages and damages.   We are looking f