January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The Junior League of Lawton recognizes the need to address this issue in our local community and applauds the effort of those tackling this challenge. We are excited to partner with the RED Cord and hope we can provide some resources for you to share. Join us for a Candlelight Vigil on January 28, 2022 at 6 p.m. outside City Hall-Lawton. There will be a reading of the annual Human Trafficking Proclamation, a time of prayer and resources. The Perfect Brew (Junior League member-owned) will provide warm drinks. If you are unable to attend, but would like to support this cause, please share our event with friends and family!

Human trafficking does not happen in a vacuum. As seen in Junior Leagues’ community work nationwide, all of our impact areas are interconnected. In order to make an impact in preventing human trafficking, we need to not only change trafficking laws, but we also need to work to make changes to the foster care system to remove aging out, create systems to ensure everyone is paid a living wage, provide trauma-responsive, culturally sensitive, and survivor-based care practices, and ensure childhood education regarding online trafficking.

For more information, read this blog post by Polaris and United Way:

https://polarisproject.org/blog/2021/01/human-trafficking-does-not-happen-in-a-vacuum/

*Free Training* Human Trafficking 101 https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking-101/

Check out Busing on the Lookout here: http://www.busingonthelookout.org