The City of SeaTac successfully championed a $140,000 state budget proviso to combat human trafficking.
Now SeaTac, will join other agencies and cities in Businesses Ending Slavery & Trafficking statewide human trafficking awareness campaign aimed at helping victims and survivors.
“The I-5 corridor is the West Coast’s largest trafficking hub, and it runs right through our 33rd District,” Representative Tina Orwall (D) said. “We must find a way to reach people who are being trafficked and exploited so that they can receive the help they need to heal, and the tools and resources to build a new life.”
BEST is a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides human trafficking awareness training and helps survivors find employment. They ran the successful 2019 human trafficking awareness campaign in King County, which saw calls from Washington residents to the National Human Trafficking Hotline increase by 33 percent over the previous year.
In this year’s Legislative Session, the Washington state legislature allocated $140,000 to BEST to combat human trafficking through job readiness services, employment opportunities and a human trafficking awareness-raising campaign. The Not Alone campaign will use $80,000 of that allocated funding. The campaign will run during January 2022, National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
“The Not Alone campaign will feature the National Human Trafficking Hotline and was conceived by and designed with the consultation of experts who have lived experiences of trafficking,” Dr. Mar Brettmann, the CEO and executive director of BEST said. “Their consultation was crucial to making sure that when people in the state of Washington who are being exploited see these posters, they will recognize that there is help available for them.”
The posters will be accessible to the public at airports, bus stations, seaports and anywhere a person who is being trafficked may see them.
Senator Karen Keiser (D) and Orwall partnered with the City of SeaTac and other King County cities to spearhead the effort to fund a new campaign. Sen. Keiser and Rep. Orwall represent the 33rd district, which covers Seattle’s southern suburbs, including SeaTac, Des Moines, Kent and Burien.
“Traffickers prey on vulnerable people in order to coerce free labor from them,” Keiser said. “Raising awareness of forced labor is crucial, especially among communities that have been historically excluded from conversations about fair work practices.”
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