Making Connections in South Dakota

Over the past few weeks I have been able to attend different events and meet anti-trafficking stakeholders in South Dakota. It is hard to start over again in a new state where people are not familiar with your work but having served on different task forces in Kansas, Georgia, and Illinois, I am confident that I can make some good connections for our research and for guest speakers in my human trafficking class.

Last Tuesday I attended Call to Freedom's CommUNITY Breakfast and was able to listen to the Governor Larry Rhoden and Attorney General Marty Jackley speak about trafficking. The breakfast in Sioux Falls brought around 1200 other community members to raise awareness to the work of Call to Freedom a local anti-trafficking NGO in South Dakota. It was mainly a fundraiser but it was interesting to hear stories from a survivor who worked at Call to Freedom and see some of their work. 

They had a slide that said that according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2023 South Dakota had the 9th highest number of confirmed trafficking victims in the United States. This is a statistic that is not entirely accurate. The statistic comes from the Joslyn Law Firm in Ohio and though it is based on data from the census and the National Human Trafficking Hotline number of cases identified in each state the calculations are from a criminal defense attorney. They also forgot to include the per capita designation and the way they present it here makes the problem in South Dakota seem bigger than it actually is which is common with anti-trafficking NGOs that relay on donations. It was good that they cited all of their sources though as I have seen lots of stats just thrown at you without an explanation.

Most of the outreach work was for sex trafficking and with the Governor and Attorney General present I think they missed a great opportunity to advocate for better laws in our state. Especially with the current funding landscape with the DOJ. On October 1, 2026 over 100 human trafficking service grants ended and replacement grants are being delayed by the DOJ which means that there is a gap in funding for people working with survivors. According to Freedom Network USA, last year, 113 victim services grants ended on the same day, and the DOJ is still withholding the funds to replace them. This means over 200 victim service providers have had to either drastically cut back services or close their doors. Only 95 active DOJ-funded grants are left to serve survivors. You can send a letter to the DOJ and OVC that oversees these grants here. Hopefully these discussions are happening behind the scenes but I just felt like with 1200 people present it was a missed opportunity to discuss the current challenges in the anti-trafficking movement.  

One of my students was there with her Dad and got to sit at the Governor's Table so I took a picture of the table. 

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