Local organizations discuss prevention during Human Trafficking Awareness Month

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, but the issue remains a relevant one all year long.

In 2024, there were 32,000 signals of potential human trafficking, and here in Kentucky, there were hundreds of reports and signals that led to the identification of 138 cases.

According to a local nonprofit, one root cause here in south-central Kentucky is the location.

Traci Schandel, the president of Phoenix Rising, tells us, “We live on an interstate system. That’s why a lot of this is more prevalent than you would say. In most rural towns, it’s essential to be aware of your surroundings. Number one for yourself, so that you’re not trafficked but also just to keep an eye out for children.”

Phoenix Rising, a group based in Bowling Green, works to raise awareness year round, along with providing outreach and donations to those affected.

Remaining aware not only helps you but it can also help those around you.

Kentucky State Police trooper Katan Parker says, “It is the stuff it gives you. These kinds of feelings that make you want to just be more cognizant about your own. Just kind of like what to look for. Like if somebody doesn’t have identification or if somebody is now able to make eye contact with you and stuff like that, that kind of stuff, like it’s kind of, of that you need to look for.”

The effects of trafficking are not small, and they can affect people differently.

Schandel also says, “When you have been trafficked, whether it be sexually or just exploitation at all, you come back with, trust issues. You do not trust anyone. You’re angry. You’re just more inward, you know, in it, it is more along the lines, an I don’t care kind of attitude, which most people don’t have that before, they’ve gone through a trauma.”

Parker also shared additional tips.

Parker says, “ It’s our natural instinct to get away from that or go the opposite direction, kind of just as people are just kind of like keep their head on a swivel, because, I mean, people don’t always think about human trafficking and stuff, like it’s never at the forefront of anybody’s mind. So this month is it’s always good to remind people.”

For more information on how you can help stop human trafficking, Phoenix Rising has a volunteer interest meeting on Jan. 15 at Q Coffee’s Waterbury Court location that’s open to the public. To learn more, click here.