Bringing the Task Force Back Together


Since the Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking funding ended in October 2024 there have been questions as to whether the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force would continue. Several key players had people move on to different positions and so I was really debating if we should continue the task force. I met with colleagues at the Legal Aid Society office in Decatur and we agreed to continue the task force with Millikin and the lab organizing the agendas and minutes from the meeting and then Legal Aid Society would run the meetings. Then in early September we sent out a survey to members to ask if they wanted to bring the task force back together and the response was an overwhelming yes. So now we are working on the results and preparing for our next meeting in November. I think there are a lot of expectations on what the task force should do so we are going to have to bring those in line with a largely volunteer task force but I am hoping we can continue the good work of the task force that began back in 2017!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Human Trafficking Awareness Month Panel Discussion on Education

Image
We just wrapped up our fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Month panel discussion at Millikin University and the event was a huge success. Around 40 students, faculty, staff and community members came out before the big snow storm to learn about the intersections of human trafficking education and training. We hosted Matthew Fuller, Human Trafficking Training Specialist at the Center for Prevention of Abuse in Peoria, Cindy Kuro, Prevention Educator from the Set Free Movement-Macon County, and Cheris Larson, Program Manager at Project OZ in Bloomington. The panel discussion focused on the educational opportunities, prevailing pedagogies on human trafficking, challenges to teaching about this hidden crime, and how to combat disinformation through learning opportunities. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Set Free Movement-Macon County and the Department History and Political Science at Millikin University. We are thankful for our wonderful advocates and educators in Central ...
Read more

Community Assessment for the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force

Image
The Community Assessment for the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force is completed and available to read here .   The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin would like to thank all the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force members who took time to fill out this survey and provide a valuable evaluation for the future of the task force. We would especially like to thank Sara Sefried and Matt Fuller and other Steering Committee members who provided valuable feedback in the pretest versions of the community assessment survey. The survey was administered in Qualtrics and we would like to thank Linda Collinsworth and the Behavioral Sciences Department at Millikin University for their assistance gaining access to this software. The statistical analyses were performed in Stata12, the network analysis was constructed with NodeXL, the maps were formulated in Tableau 2018, and the frequency analysis and qualitative coding were constructed MAXQDA 2020. Respondent...
Read more

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

Image
For the past few weeks, I have been working on sending Freedom of Information Act (or FOIA) requests to different counties in central Illinois. By sending these requests, we are hoping to receive the jail bookings and arrest data in these counties over the past twenty years as they relate to human trafficking cases. Though most counties accept a letter of request, some have specific forms they require to be filled out in order to receive the information we require. Thus, I have been doing research on each county to determine not only if they have specific forms required, but to determine which office would best be able to fulfill my request, as each request cannot be sent to the same offices in each county. Most State Attorney’s offices are able to help us with our requests, but not all. For some counties, the Sheriff's office holds this information. So, through trial and error, I have worked to send out these requests to whichever office is best suited to help us. Due to the natur...
Read more