Illinois Statewide Human Trafficking Conference

This week we attended the first ever Illinois Statewide Human Trafficking Conference in Peoria. It was a great educational and networking opportunity. The conference was organized by the Children's Advocacy Centers of Illinois (CACI), Illinois State Police Investigations, Illinois Department of Human Services, and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The Human Trafficking Research Lab was also asked to present on the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force (CIHTTF) and some of the adjudication research we conducted in the lab. The panel "Lunch & Local Task Force Overview" introduced conference attendees to various task forces in the state, including two OVC-funded Enhanced Collaborative Model task forces, one statewide task force, one task force overseen by a local mayor's office, and one task force covering central Illinois. 




















The conference was attended by over 300 anti-trafficking advocates around the state and I was able to meet many of the people I know from different committees and working groups online in person for the first time. It was also great to celebrate the accomplishments of the CIHTTF with other regional task force leaders and see anti-trafficking advocates that I have worked with for years.
My student research assistant Cassidy was also able to attend thanks to some student research presentation funds at Millikin and she was impressed that everyone thought she was a graduate student already and not a second year student in undergrad. 

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