Local summer camp hosts Human Trafficking Awareness workshop
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – Human trafficking is becoming a more familiar topic. Camp Bays Mountain is raising awareness about the growing concern, as many do not realize when human trafficking is happening in their communities.
“Human Trafficking is actually very pervasive in East Tennessee,” said Hayley Griffith, the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking (CCAHT). “We tend to think of it happening in another country, in another nation, in a major U.S. city. But not something that’s happening in our own communities and neighborhoods.”
On Sunday evening, Camp Bays Mountain partnered with CCAHT to host a community Workshop about this topic, which Camp director Jeff Wadley said he has personally seen.
“One of my bivocations is search and rescue,” said Wadley, a volunteer with the Backcountry Unit Search and Rescue. “And some of the time we search for people who are missing and some of those could have been people who have become lost or perhaps kidnapped or something else has happened to them.”
The workshop covered points such as myths vs. reality, different types of trafficking, and the signs to look out for. Griffith also addressed the most common misconceptions of labor and sex trafficking.
“They may think that human trafficking is about smuggling someone across a state line or international borders,” said Wadley. “But this happens right here in our community; it does not have to require a movement across the border.”
“It’s usually an intimate partner or a family member who’s acting as a trafficker, and becoming more aware of that and what it actually looks like in our region is really important,” said Griffith.
Griffith said her goal for the workshop is that community members, both in and out of positions of influence, can become more aware of these signs in their daily lives.
“We’re really hoping that with more education and with more people being aware of this and kind of being on the lookout for it,” said Griffith. “That maybe we can increase those referral rates and see more reports and referrals from those more rural counties.”
Information about CCAHT and their resources can be found on their website.
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