Anti-Human Trafficking Group is Launching Southern Illinois Branch

Les O’Dell

May 20, 2021

Kara Doan understands that people do not like to talk about human trafficking. She also realizes that even fewer people are willing to do something about it.

Fortunately, Doan is not one of those people.

The Raleigh native, along with a team of staff members and volunteers, works every day to educate and prevent human trafficking through Restoration61, a charitable anti-trafficking organization based in the Chicago suburbs.

Now, the group is kicking off an outreach effort in Southern Illinois with an informational presentation and panel discussion Saturday morning in Harrisburg.

According to a 2018 Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force report, the state ranks 11th nationally in cases of trafficking — legally defined as the act of recruiting, harboring, moving a person by force, fraud coercion for involuntary servitude, debt bondage or sexual exploitation.

Trafficking-related calls to the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services’ hotline increased steadily between 2011 and 2017 — the most recent data available— and data shows that 970 Illinois children have been trafficked since 2011, at an average age of just under 14.

Nationally, nearly 52,000 possible human trafficking cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline between December 2007 and the end of 2018.

Despite the statistics, many people are unaware or choose to ignore the problem.

A 2017 survey by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University reported that 51% of Illinois voters did not think that sex trafficking affected their area. Doan said such is not the case, stating instances of trafficking can be found in all areas of Illinois, with a vast majority of trafficking cases being sexual in nature.

“It’s really hard to pin down the scope of trafficking because so much of it is overlooked and so much of it is not tracked,” Doan explained. “It is estimated that in Chicago annually there are 16,000 – 25,000 victims of sex trafficking alone. In Southern Illinois, specifically, there is very little data, so a lot of what we have had to do is reach out to the community — to those who are involved in health care, social work and law enforcement — and ask if they are seeing trafficking. What we are hearing is that they are.”

Doan said those anecdotal reports include women in domestic violence shelters, as well as those in drug abuse treatment centers, who said they were victims of trafficking and law enforcement agencies reporting issues with teenage prostitution.

“We also have to look at things such as law enforcement cases where arrests have been made for grooming, pornography, massage parlors and those sort of things,” she said, adding though charges may not specifically be for human trafficking, they could be indicators of trafficking.

Restoration61 takes a multi-faceted approach to combating trafficking, she said. The organization often builds awareness of trafficking through presentations to law enforcement, health care entities, social services, churches, businesses and organizations. Additionally, the group provides crisis intervention directly with victims of human trafficking by providing safe housing and arranging for counseling or other treatment.

“Our first goal, in the initial 24 hours, is to get everything stabilized with the victim,” Doan explained. “They many need substance abuse, mental health or medical treatment or perhaps just a safe place to stay.”

Doan said in many cases, Restoration61 works cooperatively with other agencies and organizations to arrange for the needed services. The organization has worked in the greater Chicago area for several years.

“Every individual case is different, but regardless, we are going to work with that client for each step. We will walk with them through ‘whatever’ and sometimes that takes years,” she said.

Doan said Restoration61 has already had six Southern Illinois women referred to the organization in the last six weeks. She said Restoration61 looks to be fully functional in the region by fall, with a team of staff members and trained volunteers in place.

She said Saturday’s event is about awareness and education and will feature a panel discussion, including a former victim of sex trafficking from Chicago.

The event is set for 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday at Little Chapel Church, 3859 Illinois Route 34, in Harrisburg. The Southern Illinois kick-off is free and open to the public.

Advanced registration at www.restoration61.org is recommended.

Originally published at https://thesouthern.com/news/local/anti-human-trafficking-group-is-launching-southern-illinois-branch/article_7769ee24-f6b8-5a88-b755-811c8c03ae42.html.