We all thrive when we live in a world free of exploitation and trafficking. Heartland Alliance’s Freedom from Trafficking (FFT) program is centered on the idea that all human beings deserve the freedom to live safe, healthy, and independent lives.
Most often, the public perception of human trafficking is limited. People often view it as taking place in far-off lands, or, if their view is a local one, they have a narrow picture of kidnapping and forced sex work that is extreme, sensationalized, and rarely ever truly the case. This Human Trafficking Awareness Month, our FFT Team hopes to shed light on and open eyes to the realities of the survivors that we serve.
Summar Ghias on the Power of Misconceptions
Summar has spent the last seven years of her life building partnerships and systems to combat human trafficking, and she is the new program manager for FFT – managing our array of direct services to labor and sex trafficking survivors, including comprehensive case management, housing, services for minors, and mental health services.
“It often surprises me that people feel so disconnected from the issue. Yes, there are very real push and pull factors that make the most marginalized people vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking. But, the often-ignored reality is that many of us have moments of vulnerability in our own lives, too.
There is no doubt that these misconceptions negatively impact trafficking survivors. When we understand a trafficking experience as a scenario mirroring that of the movie Taken, we overlook actual lived experiences of trafficking in legitimate business venues such as in nail and hair braiding salons, in private homes, and at restaurants and factories.
What I do know: When we have a clearer picture of human trafficking as a community, we are better able to prevent, identify, and respond to situations of exploitation. It doesn’t take one program, it takes all of us.”
Sydney Strick and Catalina Gomez on the Real Landscape of Human Trafficking
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Sydney Strick
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Catalina Gomez
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Sydney and Catalina are FFT case managers, supporting survivors as they word toward their goals and rebuild their lives. In this work, they see no shortage of barriers in the fight for healing and growth – especially when it comes to educating our society.
“Even at the broadest level, the very term Human Trafficking – and society’s understanding of human trafficking – creates barriers. In most cases, people usually assume that human trafficking is almost exclusively sex trafficking. However, studies have shown that 80 percent of all human trafficking is actually labor trafficking.
We as a society are forgetting that the root of the problem is much broader than we think. Human trafficking, both labor and sexual, is a problem that violates people’s human rights and deserves all our attention in order to eradicate it. We are convinced that the first step to end this barrier is to educate our communities in detail on what human trafficking implies and the impact this has on real life. The more people we get to be trauma-informed and respond appropriately, the more able we will be able to identify risks and prevent trafficking or help survivors. It is true that human trafficking has no race, belief, culture, age, gender, and could be closer than you think–it is just a matter of learning, identifying, and uniting to fight against this reality.”
Joshua Grizzard on the Importance of Housing
Joshua is FFT’s Housing Resource Specialist and works on the Housing Justice Project, a program offering transitional and emergency housing to survivors of human trafficking. In addition to finding safe and suitable apartments, he assists participants with finding furniture, paying utilities, and developing budgets as they chart a new life of self-sufficiency and autonomy.
“Housing is always the primary need for survivors fleeing a trafficking situation. Survivors are often forced to live at the site of their forced labor – and if they are able to escape, they have few housing options to turn to. Without safe and stable housing, survivors continue to experience instability, which can lead to further exploitation and even to being trafficked again.
Immigrants are especially vulnerable to being exploited for labor, and for this reason FFT works primarily with foreign-born survivors of trafficking. As survivors often wait between two and three years to receive immigration relief and obtain work authorization, it is incredibly difficult to find income to pay for stable housing. It is truly exhilarating to be a part of a program like The Housing Justice Project, which is currently providing transitional housing for 13 survivors and their families and emergency housing for two survivors. It is a step towards the dream that anyone who has experienced trafficking can be empowered to rebuild a new life with freedom and dignity.”
Indira Imantayeva on Innovation and Mental Health
Indira is an international student at the University of Chicago School of Social Work and an FFT intern. This has been her first experience in an organization that provides services for people who have experienced human trafficking.
“The biggest surprise for me was the existence of the program itself. It’s amazing that there is such a program that helps survivors of trafficking. Providing comprehensive care ranging from housing (which is HUGE) to employment to education and wrap-around services. This is not common in many other parts of the world.
At the same time, like any community fighting for human rights, the anti-trafficking community also experiences certain difficulties. One of them is a gap in mental health services. Considering the vicarious and complex trauma that survivors experience, and the necessity for confidentiality and safety, it sometimes becomes hard to find and connect survivors to the services that meet such specific needs. This year, FFT is launching a new mental health project for survivors of trafficking, but this is still not enough to cover everyone. Our hope is to build strong sustainable services developed in collaboration with our participants and to be able to expand them for even more people.”
Jorge Daniel Atuesta on Resiliency and Hope
Daniel received an international fellowship from his home country of Colombia to train and learn about anti-human trafficking services and policy. Daniel’s been working as a case manager for our FFT program, providing comprehensive case management to foreign-born survivors of human trafficking in the Chicagoland area.
“I have been part of the FFT team for almost six months now, and it has been an incredible experience. I am so moved by the resilience behind the survivors–they teach me every day to get up when I fall and to never give up. Advocating for my participants has been a beautiful journey. I have crossed paths with incredible, understanding, kind, and loving people – even while we work together in difficult systems. During this path I have learned that human trafficking can happen to anyone, anywhere. It’s so important for people to understand what human trafficking really is and to be able to recognize the signs so we can help more people and extinguish this awful practice. To be able to see a survivor become self-sufficient and establish the life that they always wanted has been shockingly powerful for me. I have learned that these people are not victims, they are survivors. As survivors, they have a lot to offer to the world. It’s always a great feeling to see a person smile and succeed.”
