Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

I am teaching my human trafficking class again and so our first assignment was participating in the Red Sand Project on campus and around town. I first learned about this all the way back in 2015 in Atlanta when I participated in human trafficking workshop geared towards college students at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta The Red Sand Project is a participatory artwork created by Molly Gochman that uses sidewalk interventions and earthwork installations to create opportunities for people to question, connect and take action against vulnerabilities that can lead to human trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitation . Every time I teach my human trafficking I use this project as a starting off point to critically discuss human trafficking awareness projects and what we can do to improve them. So if you see some red sand around campus that is from my students. Here are a few of my favorite photos from students in my class this year from around Millikin!

Big  human trafficking policy news in Illinois! Governor Pritzker signed the Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response Human Trafficking Act into law last week with several other bills. This law  focuses on improving prevention and intervention efforts while and establishing standards for survivor support services within several state agencies ( Illinois State Police, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL), Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ), Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board (ILETSB), Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), the Office of the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, the Illinois Secretary of State, and other stakeholders ).  Part of the law requires the development of a single statewide plan to identify and respond to survivors and we have already been working on that all summer as ...