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From the U.S. Department of State:
After first learning about human trafficking, many people want to help in some way but do not know how. Here are just a few ideas for your consideration.
- Learn human trafficking red flags and ask follow up questions so that you can detect a potential trafficking situation.
- In the United States, report your suspicions to law enforcement at 911, Department of Justice at 1-888-428-7581, and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888. Victims, including undocumented individuals, are eligible for services and immigration assistance.
- Be a conscientious consumer. Make socially responsible investments. Let your favorite retailers know that you support their efforts to maintain a slavery free supply chain. Encourage your company or your employer to take steps to investigate and eliminate human trafficking throughout its supply chain and to publish the information for consumer awareness. Refer to the Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
- Hire trafficking survivors.
- Volunteer your professional services to help an anti-trafficking organization that need help from lawyers, doctors, dentists, counselors, translators and interpreters, graphic designers, public relations and media professionals, event planners, and accountants.
- Donate funds or needed items to an anti-trafficking organization.
- Organize a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to an anti-trafficking organization.
- Join or start a grassroots human trafficking coalition.
- Encourage your local schools to include modern slavery in their curriculum. As a parent, educator, or school personnel, be aware of how traffickers target school-aged children.
- Meet with and write to your local, state and federal government representatives to let them know that you care about combating human trafficking in your community.
- Create and distribute public awareness materials such as t-shirts, posters, and public service announcements for radio. Or distribute already existing materials available from the Department of Health and Human Services or Department of Homeland Security.
- Host an awareness event to watch and discuss a recent human trafficking documentary. On a larger scale, host a human trafficking film festival. Several noteworthy films and documentaries have been produced in the last several years that bring attention to the plight of victims worldwide.
- Write a letter to the editor for your local paper about human trafficking in your community.
- Incorporate human trafficking information into your professional associations’ conferences, trainings, manuals, and other materials as relevant.
- STUDENTS: Join or establish a university club to raise awareness about human trafficking throughout the local community and identify victims. Request that human trafficking be an issue included in such university courses as health, migration, human rights, social work, and crime. Increase scholarship about human trafficking by publishing an article, teaching a class, or hosting a symposium.
- COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS: ensure that your staff is able to identify and assist trafficked persons.
- LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS: join or start a local human trafficking task force.
- MENTAL HEALTH OR MEDICAL PROVIDERS: extend low-cost or free services to human trafficking victims assisted by nearby anti-trafficking organizations.
- IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS: learn about and offer to human trafficking victims the immigration benefits for which they are eligible.
- EMPLOYMENT LAW ATTORNEYS: look for signs of human trafficking among your clients.