Creative Ways to Address Human Trafficking

It seems to me that people are beginning to wake up to the reality of modern day slavery in our world and our own communities. This is an exciting time, because as people become aware, they bring their particular talents, gifts and creative energies to the cause of ending human trafficking.

One such examples is the Seattle Peace Chorus. Tonight (Friday) and Sunday they are presenting a choral program to spotlight the ongoing injustice of human trafficking. Visit their website for more info about the "Our America - Breaking Free" Concerts and to purchase tickets.

For examples of other creative ideas that you can implement in your family, church, school, workplace and community, click here. The link will take you to an amazing list of ideas gleaned from the Fall Human Trafficking Workshops I helped to organize as part of my ministry at the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center. There are some brilliant (and doable) ideas on the list! And it's even more incredible that these ideas come not from an organization working on trafficking, but from everyday folks who attended the workshop and want to do something to end human trafficking.

Some examples of the creative ideas that came from the workshops:

• Affirm the media when they cover human trafficking
• Ask Archdiocese to sponsor day of awareness on a specific Sunday
• Educate internet & cable installers, plumbers, & other with access to homes
• Organize a “Walk Against Trafficking & for Victims of Trafficking”
• Share information about sex trafficking with members of Armed Forces to prepare them for what they will encounter overseas
• Train people to be court advocates for victims of trafficking
• Use Legislative Advocacy Tool via www.ipjc.org to write legislators
• Use Social Networking sites (My Space/Facebook/Blogs) to raise awareness
• Read more ideas ....
  

A note on those last two items:

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act is up for reauthorization. It was passed overwhelmingly by the house, but has been stalled in the Senate. Why not take a few moments to send an e-mail to your Senators asking them to reauthorize this important bill during the lame duck session? The IPJC Legislative Action Center does all the hard work for you.

For those of you who have a blog or Facebook profile - a category which includes many of you reading this - why not use the power of the medium to raise awareness on this issue? Social activism has a whole new meaning in the internet age!

Together, I firmly believe we can end modern day slavery.