In Montclair, Battling Slavery with Outreach and Vigilance
connected.
"I truly believe [human trafficking] is the horrific crime of our lifetime," she said. "There's a thread throughout all of that. So why not work at it from
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/242873051_In_Montclair__battling_slavery...
There may be a "modest uptick" in human trafficking around large sporting events such as the Super Bowl, according to the Polaris Project, a research and advocacy organization. Still, advocates are mobilizing around the event to sound an alarm bell about the year-round realities of modern-day slavery.
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide; 5.5 million are children and 14.2 million are victims of labor exploitation. Nationally, human trafficking was reported in all 50 states last year.
"While this is a wonderful opportunity to shine a bright light, it's a very dark corner of the world," said Patricia Devine-Harms, a Montclair resident and immediate past chair of the Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee. "We'll be fighting human trafficking long after the fans have left MetLife Stadium. We're fighting it 365 days a year, not just on Feb. 2."
The Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee was one group of many involved in the efforts to pass the Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act, signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on May 6, 2013. Its lead sponsor was Sen. Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood). It is considered one the toughest laws in the United States on human trafficking.
On the corporate and grassroots levels, the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (TRI-CRI), a Catholic advocacy organization based in Montclair, has led outreach efforts.
"There are individuals who can really move this, and we also really have to move the systems, the economic systems, involved in this horrific industry," said Pat Daly, executive director of TRI-CRI, who is a Dominican Sister of Caldwell and a Montclair resident.
Years of advocacy work with airlines, hotels, websites, manufacturers and law enforcement are starting to pay off, according Daly. The organization undertook a yearlong outreach and education effort specifically related to the Super Bowl and local hotels. This paralleled outreach and prevention work by the state Attorney General's office.
"We've seen this amazing progress and great momentum around peoples' understanding and awareness," Daly said.
This past weekend, boots hit the ground again. Devine-Harms was one of more than 400 people who participated in a volunteer outreach effort with the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking in partnership with S.O.A.P., or Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution, an organization led by Theresa Flores, a survivor of sex trafficking. Trainings took place in Teterboro or Paramus, and volunteers then went in groups to hotels around the MetLife Stadium area to deliver small soap bars wrapped in paper with the number for the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Organizers said they planned to visit about 300 hotels by week's end, and on Tuesday had reported about an 80 percent acceptance rate on the bars of soap.
S.O.A.P.'s Super Bowl 2014 effort in New Jersey and New York City, Flores said, is "the biggest outreach we've ever done."
THE ELEPHANT ON MAIN STREET
TRI-CRI, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the Junior Leagues of New Jersey, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) USA, and the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area have all been active and are working together, organizers said.
Human trafficking is different from other forms of exploitation. The distinction, always, "is a lack of freedom," Devine-Harms noted.
Elizabeth Santeramo, a Verona resident and member of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking and of the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area, reached out to Flores to collaborate. Santeramo has been active in establishing local League of Women Voters policy on the issue, which will be brought to the national league.
"Behind these closed doors, we're talking about human dignity," Santeramo said. "There's a big elephant on our community Main Street. Those of us who are free need to do something to help those who have not chosen this life."
The first indictments in Essex County under the new law occurred this month. A 15-year-old girl was alleged to be trafficked for sex between Belleville and North Bergen, and four individuals - Charles P. Torres of North Bergen, Patricia Munoz of Jersey City, Victor Reyes of Union City, and Charles B. Torres of Ridgefield Park - were all charged in a 35-count indictment that involved promoting prostitution, money laundering and other charges, according to the Belleville Times.
In October, the NJ Attorney General office's Human Trafficking Task Force launched a state hotline, which it noted in a press release would be "operational before, during and after [the] 2014 Super Bowl."
The Super Bowl puts New Jersey "at an increased vulnerability to human trafficking," the release stated, due to its high population density and proportion of foreign-born residents, the third-highest in the U.S.
For Devine-Harms, issues of poverty, hunger, disempowerment and human trafficking are all connected.
"I truly believe [human trafficking] is the horrific crime of our lifetime," she said. "There's a thread throughout all of that. So why not work at it from different angles?"
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/242873051_In_Montclair__battling_slavery...There may be a "modest uptick" in human trafficking around large sporting events such as the Super Bowl, according to the Polaris Project, a research and advocacy organization. Still, advocates are mobilizing around the event to sound an alarm bell about the year-round realities of modern-day slavery.
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide; 5.5 million are children and 14.2 million are victims of labor exploitation. Nationally, human trafficking was reported in all 50 states last year.
"While this is a wonderful opportunity to shine a bright light, it's a very dark corner of the world," said Patricia Devine-Harms, a Montclair resident and immediate past chair of the Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee. "We'll be fighting human trafficking long after the fans have left MetLife Stadium. We're fighting it 365 days a year, not just on Feb. 2."
The Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee was one group of many involved in the efforts to pass the Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act, signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on May 6, 2013. Its lead sponsor was Sen. Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood). It is considered one the toughest laws in the United States on human trafficking.
On the corporate and grassroots levels, the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (TRI-CRI), a Catholic advocacy organization based in Montclair, has led outreach efforts.
"There are individuals who can really move this, and we also really have to move the systems, the economic systems, involved in this horrific industry," said Pat Daly, executive director of TRI-CRI, who is a Dominican Sister of Caldwell and a Montclair resident.
Years of advocacy work with airlines, hotels, websites, manufacturers and law enforcement are starting to pay off, according Daly. The organization undertook a yearlong outreach and education effort specifically related to the Super Bowl and local hotels. This paralleled outreach and prevention work by the state Attorney General's office.
"We've seen this amazing progress and great momentum around peoples' understanding and awareness," Daly said.
This past weekend, boots hit the ground again. Devine-Harms was one of more than 400 people who participated in a volunteer outreach effort with the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking in partnership with S.O.A.P., or Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution, an organization led by Theresa Flores, a survivor of sex trafficking. Trainings took place in Teterboro or Paramus, and volunteers then went in groups to hotels around the MetLife Stadium area to deliver small soap bars wrapped in paper with the number for the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Organizers said they planned to visit about 300 hotels by week's end, and on Tuesday had reported about an 80 percent acceptance rate on the bars of soap.
S.O.A.P.'s Super Bowl 2014 effort in New Jersey and New York City, Flores said, is "the biggest outreach we've ever done."
THE ELEPHANT ON MAIN STREET
TRI-CRI, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the Junior Leagues of New Jersey, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) USA, and the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area have all been active and are working together, organizers said.
Human trafficking is different from other forms of exploitation. The distinction, always, "is a lack of freedom," Devine-Harms noted.
Elizabeth Santeramo, a Verona resident and member of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking and of the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area, reached out to Flores to collaborate. Santeramo has been active in establishing local League of Women Voters policy on the issue, which will be brought to the national league.
"Behind these closed doors, we're talking about human dignity," Santeramo said. "There's a big elephant on our community Main Street. Those of us who are free need to do something to help those who have not chosen this life."
The first indictments in Essex County under the new law occurred this month. A 15-year-old girl was alleged to be trafficked for sex between Belleville and North Bergen, and four individuals - Charles P. Torres of North Bergen, Patricia Munoz of Jersey City, Victor Reyes of Union City, and Charles B. Torres of Ridgefield Park - were all charged in a 35-count indictment that involved promoting prostitution, money laundering and other charges, according to the Belleville Times.
In October, the NJ Attorney General office's Human Trafficking Task Force launched a state hotline, which it noted in a press release would be "operational before, during and after [the] 2014 Super Bowl."
The Super Bowl puts New Jersey "at an increased vulnerability to human trafficking," the release stated, due to its high population density and proportion of foreign-born residents, the third-highest in the U.S.
For Devine-Harms, issues of poverty, hunger, disempowerment and human trafficking are all connected.
"I truly believe [human trafficking] is the horrific crime of our lifetime," she said. "There's a thread throughout all of that. So why not work at it from different angles?"
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/242873051_In_Montclair__battling_slavery...There may be a "modest uptick" in human trafficking around large sporting events such as the Super Bowl, according to the Polaris Project, a research and advocacy organization. Still, advocates are mobilizing around the event to sound an alarm bell about the year-round realities of modern-day slavery.
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide; 5.5 million are children and 14.2 million are victims of labor exploitation. Nationally, human trafficking was reported in all 50 states last year.
"While this is a wonderful opportunity to shine a bright light, it's a very dark corner of the world," said Patricia Devine-Harms, a Montclair resident and immediate past chair of the Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee. "We'll be fighting human trafficking long after the fans have left MetLife Stadium. We're fighting it 365 days a year, not just on Feb. 2."
The Junior Leagues of New Jersey's State Public Affairs Committee was one group of many involved in the efforts to pass the Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act, signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on May 6, 2013. Its lead sponsor was Sen. Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood). It is considered one the toughest laws in the United States on human trafficking.
On the corporate and grassroots levels, the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (TRI-CRI), a Catholic advocacy organization based in Montclair, has led outreach efforts.
"There are individuals who can really move this, and we also really have to move the systems, the economic systems, involved in this horrific industry," said Pat Daly, executive director of TRI-CRI, who is a Dominican Sister of Caldwell and a Montclair resident.
Years of advocacy work with airlines, hotels, websites, manufacturers and law enforcement are starting to pay off, according Daly. The organization undertook a yearlong outreach and education effort specifically related to the Super Bowl and local hotels. This paralleled outreach and prevention work by the state Attorney General's office.
"We've seen this amazing progress and great momentum around peoples' understanding and awareness," Daly said.
This past weekend, boots hit the ground again. Devine-Harms was one of more than 400 people who participated in a volunteer outreach effort with the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking in partnership with S.O.A.P., or Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution, an organization led by Theresa Flores, a survivor of sex trafficking. Trainings took place in Teterboro or Paramus, and volunteers then went in groups to hotels around the MetLife Stadium area to deliver small soap bars wrapped in paper with the number for the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Organizers said they planned to visit about 300 hotels by week's end, and on Tuesday had reported about an 80 percent acceptance rate on the bars of soap.
S.O.A.P.'s Super Bowl 2014 effort in New Jersey and New York City, Flores said, is "the biggest outreach we've ever done."
THE ELEPHANT ON MAIN STREET
TRI-CRI, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the Junior Leagues of New Jersey, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) USA, and the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area have all been active and are working together, organizers said.
Human trafficking is different from other forms of exploitation. The distinction, always, "is a lack of freedom," Devine-Harms noted.
Elizabeth Santeramo, a Verona resident and member of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking and of the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area, reached out to Flores to collaborate. Santeramo has been active in establishing local League of Women Voters policy on the issue, which will be brought to the national league.
"Behind these closed doors, we're talking about human dignity," Santeramo said. "There's a big elephant on our community Main Street. Those of us who are free need to do something to help those who have not chosen this life."
The first indictments in Essex County under the new law occurred this month. A 15-year-old girl was alleged to be trafficked for sex between Belleville and North Bergen, and four individuals - Charles P. Torres of North Bergen, Patricia Munoz of Jersey City, Victor Reyes of Union City, and Charles B. Torres of Ridgefield Park - were all charged in a 35-count indictment that involved promoting prostitution, money laundering and other charges, according to the Belleville Times.
In October, the NJ Attorney General office's Human Trafficking Task Force launched a state hotline, which it noted in a press release would be "operational before, during and after [the] 2014 Super Bowl."
The Super Bowl puts New Jersey "at an increased vulnerability to human trafficking," the release stated, due to its high population density and proportion of foreign-born residents, the third-highest in the U.S.
For Devine-Harms, issues of poverty, hunger, disempowerment and human trafficking are all connected.
"I truly believe [human trafficking] is the horrific crime of our lifetime," she said. "There's a thread throughout all of that. So why not work at it from different angles?"
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/242873051_In_Montclair__battling_slavery...