January is human trafficking awareness month

 
CHICAGO – January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is partnering with The Power Project to train group home and residential care facility staff across Illinois on how to identify and prevent human trafficking among youth. Nearly 1,000 staff in 37 facilities across the state completed Commercial Sexual Exploitation 101 training in 2022. Often, victims of human trafficking do not seek help because they are fearful, ashamed of their situation, distrust law enforcement or become dependent on the perpetrator. The Illinois Safe Children Act assures that those who are coerced into human trafficking or prostitution are innocent and immune from criminal prosecution.
“As a former youth in care, I realize that I could have very easily become a victim of human trafficking when I was younger, and now it’s my passion to look for ways to prevent youth from being trafficked in the first place. It is so much easier to keep a kid from being broken, rather than trying to put them back together,” said The Power Project Founder and CEO Mieko Taylor.
Illinois DCFS also maintains strong partnerships with the FBI, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center to help locate missing or runaway youth who are at risk of falling victim to human trafficking and ensure appropriate services and housing are in place when a child victim is rescued.
“Human trafficking is not something that only happens to adults in other countries; it occurs every day across Illinois to children whose average age is 14,” said Illinois DCFS Director Marc D. Smith.
KNOW THE SIGNS. A trafficked child might:
Have an adult control them by speaking for them.
Seem out of place given the time of day or night.
Look disheveled or dressed in clothes that they could not afford to buy.
Show signs of physical abuse such as bruising or red marks.
Not possess any form of identification.
Perform inappropriate work for their age and not be compensated.
Anyone who believes a child might be trafficked, or in danger of being trafficked, should immediately call 911 and the DCFS Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-25-ABUSE (1-800-252-2873)