Making a difference begins when you lend a hand

Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world. According to the International Labor Force, the money illegally acquired through human trafficking is estimated to be more than $35 billion.
Ohio has been the site of much of this illegal activity. The state has ranked as high as fifth in total reported human trafficking cases in the United States, and Toledo is the fourth-highest ranking city in the nation for recruiting victims into the trade.

In the face of such overwhelming statistics, change may seem hopeless. Where does one even begin to tackle this global crisis?

For the past 12 years, the University of Toledo has been the site of the Annual International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference in an effort to educate others about basic human rights and improve the human condition.

This year’s conference will be hosted by the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition and the UT Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institution.
Sessions will be held at UT on Sept. 22-23 beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the Student Union’s Ingman Room and will run until 5:30 p.m.

Each session will last one hour, with numerous sessions being held at the same time in different rooms throughout the Student Union.
This two-day event will include 91 presentations by researchers, professors, students, politicians and many others.

Presenters will speak on a wide range of topics including survivor experiences, children’s rights, exploitation in the media and advocacy and social action.
Sandra Sieben, this year’s conference planner, said this event is the oldest academic human trafficking conference in the United States and is a great way to learn more from experts in this field of research.

“I would encourage you to attend the conference and feel free to speak with attendees and presenters,” Sieben said. “There is a lot of great knowledge and expertise present during the two-day conference.”

Sieben said through the years, the trafficking conference has welcomed presenters from 31 states and 15 countries to educate social service, health care and criminal justice professionals on human trafficking and the needs and risk of victims, as well as their customers and traffickers.

The conference was started back in 2004 by Celia Williamson, a social work professor and director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute.
Williamson, who has been working in the field of human trafficking for over 20 years, says that having the conference here in Toledo provides a huge opportunity for global change.

“If I had a conference here, not only could I bring people together to learn from each other and go back to their communities and build things, but I had the advantage of making my local community so incredibly educated,” Williamson said. “So that’s really now using the conference as a vehicle to get powerful people to create the change that we need.”

Williamson will be facilitating a university collaboration against trafficking meeting during the first day of the conference and will also host a meeting of global scholars.

She says the main goal of the conference is trying to answer the questions of how to help victims recover effectively and how to prevent people from being trafficked.

“If you answer one of those two, you’ve done a better job than anyone has done in the US so far,” Williamson said. “We are hoping to answer both of those. But if we answer one of those, we have done something significant.”

Along with gaining pertinent information regarding human trafficking, attendees will also have the chance to make a direct impact.
Over 30 vendors will be present including service providers, local, state and national resources, as well as products available for purchase made by survivors to help support survivors.

Event registration will begin at 8:00 a.m. in the Ingman Room and will include a continental breakfast. Lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m. each day in the Student Union Auditorium.

Admission is free for all international attendees, presenters, UT students, volunteers and previous or current trafficked or exploited persons. General attendance is $90 per person per day and $175 for both days.
For registration details, the conference schedule, and more information, please visit traffickingconference.com.