According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), children make up 25% of trafficking victims globally and 1 in 6 endangered runaways in 2022 were likely victims of sex trafficking. In San Diego, 90% of high schools researched across San Diego County reported cases of sex trafficking (The San Diego Trafficking Prevention Collection. 2023). Human trafficking is a human rights issue that touches all people groups on a global, national, and local level.

So, what makes someone more vulnerable to experience human trafficking? There are multiple factors that can increase an individual’s risk of experiencing human trafficking including economic hardship, involvement in the foster care system, experiencing homelessness, identifying as LGBTQ+, and using substances. Although these risk factors can increase someone’s vulnerability, human trafficking can impact people of all genders, ages, socioeconomic statues, and cultures.

To combat human trafficking, it’s important to learn the warning signs and education yourself and others. Warning signs can include an increase in isolation from family and friends, unexplained injuries, sudden possession of money or gifts, and a lack of control over personal documents. Human trafficking prevention can look like educating caregivers, schools, and workplaces about the signs of trafficking to help identify potential victims and providing resources to the community.

At SDYS, we aim to fight against human trafficking by providing resources and services both at the prevention and intervention level. Our prevention work includes education youth and caregivers about the warning signs, recruitment tactics, and vulnerabilities of human trafficking as well as providing trainings to different organizations in the community. Our intervention work includes providing therapeutic and case management services to address the mental health needs of human trafficking survivors and to increase their overall wellbeing by accessing basic needs like housing, medical care, and social support networks.

This January, our goal is to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking and to respond with a call to action. To celebrate National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, which is normally on January 11th, please join us in wearing blue on Friday January 10th!

Additional information, resources, tools, and events:

• SDYS Website Human Trafficking Awareness and Recovery: We recently revamped our webpage to include relevant statistics and educational resources (PDFs available) to provide to youth, families, and providers in the community to increase awareness
• Federal Human Trafficking Report 2023: Review the key findings from the human trafficking report which breaks down a variety of demographics of both survivors and traffickers from 2023.
• NYC Child Trafficking Prevention Conference: 18 free virtual training opportunities offered between 1/9-1/31.
• ASU School of Social Work: Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research, 6 free virtual trainings in January 2025.
• OVC Human Trafficking Awareness Month: Two webinars available held in Eastern Time.