Junior League of Birmingham’s Human Trafficking 101

Human Trafficking 101 is one of several virtual Human Trafficking Awareness Month events the Junior League of Birmingham is hosting throughout January. The commercial sex industry is a lucrative and thriving business in Alabama. The Department of Homeland Security estimates it to generate $110 million each year in the Birmingham metro area. At any given time, the Global Slavery Index estimates that 6,000 people are being trafficked in the state of Alabama and based on preliminary research from the University of Alabama, more than half of those trafficked are children. In order to create proactive conversations about how to combat trafficking, this virtual event will explore how the sex trafficking business operates, how traffickers recruit and subjugate young women and children and what you can do to help put an end to this modern form of slavery. This event will feature speakers Jessie Keating Hardy and Ellie Friedman, JLB members and attorneys who both serve on the Anti-Human Trafficking Committee. Those interested can join the workshop via Zoom. To register for the event, visit https://jlbawareness.swell.gives/. Alabamians are invited to participate in the free, educational events held by the JLB’s Anti-Human Trafficking Committee to promote awareness of the prominent issue and debunk common myths surrounding it. Tasked with addressing ways to prevent and provide education around the critical issue of human trafficking in the Birmingham community, the JLB’s Anti-Human Trafficking Committee focuses on bringing awareness and encouraging engagement from three different sectors: the community at large, area college students and the legal and judicial community. The JLB has been a leader in the Anti-Human Trafficking area for the past five years. By partnering with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), the JLB has posted awareness signage at every rest stop and welcome center in the state. Alongside their community partners, they have placed around 200 signs in ALDOT locations to date. The JLB is the official anti-human trafficking education sponsor of the 2022 World Games hosted in Birmingham and will train World Games staff and division-lead volunteers on how to spot signs of human trafficking and how to get victims appropriate help. The Anti-Human Trafficking program is one of the JLB’s 30 community projects addressing some of Birmingham’s critical issues. Because of their extensive work in the Birmingham community towards for anti-human trafficking, the JLB was honored as the 2021 recipient of the Association of Junion Leagues International Award for Public Policy & Advocacy. For more information or to register for the event, visit https://jlbawareness.swell.gives/. For more information about the JLB, visit www.jlbonline.com.