Our Aims, Objectives, and Strategy: How we will raise awareness and seek solutions

Aim & Objectives Strategy Report

Trying to resolve the problem of human trafficking is a daunting task for the government of the United States, let alone a group of college human rights advocates. None the less, we have taken on this human rights violations and attempt to eliminate trafficking in our communities. While reviewing available research and information about the subject of human trafficking, we became aware of limitations of the current research. One area of human trafficking that has been seemingly overlooked by public officials and academic researchers is the issue of sex trafficking in America. In addition to a lack of research on the topic, there is also a lack of awareness of the situation by the general public. To a certain point, it has been so ignored that the American people have been kept in the dark about the subject all together. To help fill the gaps in available academic research and to raise awareness of the trafficking epidemic in the United States, our campaign will launch a call to academia and the public to increase their attention and awareness on this issue.

Most of the research done on this subject has outlined the horrific nature of the sex trade in developing countries. While those articles can be beneficial in giving us more knowledge regarding the topic as a whole, we demand more research on our domestic situation. Our main objective is to raise awareness and, in doing so, create a call to action by the public to law enforcement and law makers. We will also, in turn, encourage more research on human trafficking in the United States to be done, leading to more solutions. We want to inspire people to get involved by arguing that this is not a problem in other countries, but is in own backyards.

As this is a human rights violation that affects everyone the world over, we want to have this problem reach people of all walks of life. We want everyone to get be involved. However, starting with a smaller audience would allow us to focus in on a segmented group and influence their beliefs and behaviors more affectively. Since we have chosen to raise awareness primarily through the use of a blog, it is important to answer the following questions: what types of people use the internet; who is the heaviest users; and how we can cater our message to inspire them to get involved. For this, we will push the people’s call to action. We have chosen to initially begin with college and university students, and plan to design our campaign to reach this demographic effectively. It is this campaigns intent to expand our target audience in the future, and hopefully reach individuals of all demographics in the future.

We believe our initiative will revolutionize awareness of the very real issue of sex trafficking that proliferates in our cities’ underground brothels and private homes that are using enslaved women and children for sexual activities. Although the majority of research on modern day slavery exists in the study of the victims themselves and typically focuses on the developing world, our campaign will not only inform the population in general of this atrocity, but also attempt to target potential traffickers and explore the demand for sex slaves in America. With increased awareness on the part of the public, they will be better able to report potential cases, and put pressure on traffickers and potential clients to leave our cities and end their illegal activities. The long term goal of this campaign is to increase the demand for research on the topic of trafficking in the United States and to help put an end to the practices in America that create a market for sex slaves in our cities. We also hope to evolve the American value of privacy, and call upon Americans to report possible cases of trafficking of persons. Without public awareness and active involvement in reporting suspicious activities, law enforcement and legal approaches would be unable to fully eliminate this epidemic.

The strategy for our campaign is made up of a three tier approach. Each tier offers a unique opportunity to reach our audience and initiate behavioral change in the community at large.

Tier One: Blog

By providing the community with a comprehensive information source on the issues of sex trafficking in the United States, we will help the public become aware of the issue and grow in their desire to be part of the solution. We will provide viewers with information on the epidemic, websites and other sources of information on sex trafficking, and contact information to report possible trafficking cases. Additionally our blog will keep visitors up to date on our campaign’s work in human trafficking, as well as volunteer oppurtunities and event information (as explained in “Tier Three”).

A blog, for our purposes, is one of our best options, for it is a great way to access a large amount of people in a relatively short amount of time. It is user friendly, free for internet users, and will effectively create a dialogue about the issue. This may, in turn, ignite political action and increase research, which is the long-term goal. We are trying to expose the public to the very serious problem of human trafficking in this country. Our aim is to raise public awareness, and the blog is the vehicle for this goal. We want to inspire people to do further research, share the information they found with others, and help to spread awareness of this problem that until now has not received the proper attention. We would also hope it would hold accountable those who are benefiting from the lack of attention and enforcement of the issue (i.e. those who purchase slaves, public officials who ignore the epidemic, and those traffickers working within our boarders and beyond).

Tier Two: Advertisement

In order for our campaign to effectively reach our target audience, we must implement certain advertisement strategies into our work. We have chosen our campaign to be student based, and thus our target audience exists in the realm of universities and colleges. Because this is our selected target audience, our first advertising attempt will be made through the popular social networking site, Facebook.com. We will create a “group” on the site, which will be meant to point people to our blog as a source of information. After inviting our facebook “friends” to join our group, we will then suggest that they invite their friends as well. Through this networking strategy, we can quickly reach a massive audience in a short amount of time. The intent is, that these people will then direct their attention to our blog (of which a link will be provided on the facebook group page). Socially networking is ideal for our campaign for both the scale of people we will be able to reach, and the cost effectiveness of it. Having a facebook group is free to host, and therefore it is an appealing first approach.

Other advertising strategies will need to be implemented later on in our campaign in order to continue to raise awareness and influence academia and public policy on the issue. Our group plans to call public attention through the media and gain coverage of different events and activities we hope to organize in the next few months. With increased media attention our issue can be spread at a faster rate, and we could reach those beyond our initial target audience. Fortunately, the media is very receptive to student organized events in the Los Angeles area, and we are confident that coverage of particular activities could be achieved.

In Los Angeles we have a unique opportunity to reach out to international celebrities to help represent our cause. Although they are not experts of sex trafficking in America, celebrities offer the opportunity to gain public attention by using their likeness in ads, and to speak on the issue. Just as the student movements “Save Darfur” and “No H8” campaigns have gained public attention with the use of celebrities, our campaign will hope to do the same.

Tier Three: Activities and Events

As we are a student movement, we believe that campus wide events would be a useful way to gain media attention and increase the awareness of our campaign. CASTLA and Freetheslave.net have offered their assistance in helping organize campus events at Loyola Marymount. With their experience in such undertakings, they can provide us with the necessary resources to ensure the success of our events. Some possible events that we are hoping to hold in the next academic year include:

- Hosting speakers on campus to educate students on the issue of sex trafficking.

- Selling t-shirts to raise awareness with slogans that simplify our message, but also work to increase dialogue on the issue of trafficking.

- Create a film to educate young adults and others on the issue of trafficking in the United States.

- Hosting a student run “27 hours of silence” event for those 27million slaves who have no voice. This event would follow with an organized reflection session with participants and other interested students.

- Campus candlelight vigil to be held in memory of those who have perished through the inhuman treatment of modern slaves, and to call on students to realize the scale of the epidemic.

- To work with government officials and other public figures to work to create a comprehensive list of behaviors and characteristics to help clarify who may be a potential victim of trafficking and who may be a trafficker themselves. Following this we would attempt to educate the public on these traits and behaviors, and offer information on reporting suspected victims and perpetrators.

- Call on Loyola professors to offer courses on the epidemic of Sex Trafficking, and to engage in research endeavors on the topic.

It is our hope that with the successful implementation of our strategy, we can begin to influence public opinion and increase academic research on the issue of sex trafficking in America. Our campaign is formulated to focus on a niche within the cause, which, if ignored, could be fatal to the overall success of policy and other trafficking elimination strategies.