by William Crum
A number of providers of social services got together Friday in Kansas City, Kan., to discuss human trafficking in Kansas City, Kan.
Trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, provision or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjecting the person to involuntary servitude or forced labor.
Aggravated human trafficking includes recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, a person under 18 years of age or with or without force, fraud or threat or coercion to encourage him in forced labor, involuntary service or sexual gratification.
The forum at 2900 Minnesota Ave. was sponsored by the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Justice and the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
“It is our purpose at this forum to get together with various social service organizations in the local community,” said Lucy Bloom with the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
“This is a very serious problem in Kansas and other states as well,” she said. “We want to encourage people to get involved. We have been doing these forums all over the state of Kansas. Combining this with local community support and local law enforcement agencies we can all help solve that [problem that] plagues our state and other states, as well later on this afternoon we will be meeting with the local law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office as well.”
If you need help or suspect someone is a victim call 800-922-5330 or call 911. The website is humantrafficking.dcf.ks.gov or call the national Human Trafficking Resource Center at 888-373-7888.
