January 2021 – National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
In 2007, the U.S. Senate designated January 11th as National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness. The measure was never passed by the House of Representatives. Anti-trafficking advocates have continued to recognize this day, though. This was further supported by President Obama declaring the month of January to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This culminates with National Freedom Day that is recognized on February 1st. On the last day of 2020, the White House reaffirmed, through proclamation, that both of these important events are supported by the United States government.
At the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCEDSV), we would like to honor the work that community and faith-based organizations are doing to provide services to survivors of human trafficking. We also want to take a moment to reflect on the work that we as domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) agencies continue to do, as we see human trafficking to be often co-occurring alongside DV and SA. MCEDSV believes that human trafficking occurs through the same power and control dynamics and, like DV and SA, human trafficking relies on victimizing individuals and groups who are in vulnerable positions. MCEDSV will spend the month of January considering some of the aspects of human trafficking and how we as DV and SA advocates might further our crucial work of support for survivors.
In the coming weeks we will be looking at several of the questions posed by the toolkit. This will give us a chance to consider a bit more deeply some of the ways that we, as advocates and individual citizens, can make progress in anti-violence work. Often the first step is to take a moment and reflect on our own role in how violence is perceived, and how other forms of violence are made invisible.