Source: Sun Sentinel
Broward Human Trafficking Coalition a forum for law enforcement, community workers
Andy Rodriguez and Cynthia Tapia-Rodriguez, Broward County Public Schools… (Brett Clarkson/South Florida…)
Adriane Reesey remembers that small, first meeting in a church back in 2008.
There were about seven people, all of them gathered to discuss an age-old issue – slavery – that was beginning to be viewed in a new context.
And so that Broward Human Trafficking Coalition was born.
"We started out as a working group," said Reesey, a Broward Sheriff's Office community specialist and chair of the coalition. "I wanted to take it to the next level. It needed to have everybody sitting around the table."
On Tuesday, about 65 people sat around a series of tables arranged in a giant horseshoe in a meeting room at Central Broward Regional Park, near Sunrise Boulevard and State Road 7 in Lauderhill.
"It's a blessing to see the room full of people," said Cynthia Tapia-Rodriguez, a family counselor with Broward County Public Schools who has been attending the coalition meetings for four years.
The focus of the meetings? Human trafficking, or, as law enforcement would say, the exploitation of victims through force, fraud or coercion for financial gain.
Among those attending Tuesday were representatives from law enforcement, shelters for at-risk youth and adults, schools, the justice system, and others whose work puts them in contact with potential victims of a crime that President Barack Obama highlighted in September as "modern slavery."
Their goal is to get the public thinking about the crime and its victims: young people preyed upon by coercive pimps, adults recruited falsely into jobs that turn out to be forced sex work, labor trafficking victims forced to work on farms for no pay, or women forced to perform sex acts in brothels posing as legitimate massage establishments.
Other victims can be found in restaurants, hotels, nail salons, or virtually any other business, law enforcement and human trafficking experts say.
"Some of our victims don't even know they're victims," said Aggie Pappas, founding executive director of the Pace Center for Girls Broward, a counseling center for girls between the ages of 11 to 18.
Pappas was referring to situations involving vulnerable young women and girls who are lured or "groomed" by an exploiter who showers them with gifts and affection – then pimps them out. The victims, some of whom love their trafficker, don't realize they are being coerced and exploited.
"There's definitely a Stockholm Syndrome that is taking place," Pappas said.
But the awareness is starting to trickle down from law enforcement to even the youngest among us, noted one Broward Schools counselor whose 11-year-old son started asking questions recently.
Andy Rodriguez, a family counselor, said his son Gabriel became curious about human trafficking after hearing about Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey's recent trip to India. Dickey traveled to Mumbai in January to bring attention to child sex trafficking in India.
Rodriguez, who has experience working with kids exposed to gang activity, said students who are aware of a human trafficking situation – but might not feel comfortable talking to police – should feel safe talking to a teacher or counselor.
"They should go to a safe person," Rodriguez said. "They need to be aware they can go to somebody."
bsclarkson@tribune.com, 561-243-6609 or Twitter @BrettClarkson_
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