Human Trafficking is often referred to as modern day slavery. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to over 20 million people around the world. Traffickers use violence, threats, deception, debt bondage, and other manipulative tactics to force people to engage in commercial sex or to provide labor or services against their will. Human trafficking affects every community in the United States and spans across age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds. Human trafficking is a significant public health problem, and is the fastest growing and second largest criminal industry in the world. More than 31,600 total cases of human trafficking have been reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotlinein the last eight years. Between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked. Michigan has the 11th highest call volume to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The Oakland County Human Trafficking Task Force is developing a plan that addresses the issue of human trafficking countywide. Our partners will guide and implement these activities by engaging public and private stakeholders. The goal is to educate, create public awareness, conduct outreach to the community, and work with victims of human trafficking. To achieve this goal, we will collect and analyze information on human trafficking, host community events to prevent trafficking, and identify sources of funding to initiatives that combat trafficking in the county.

Yolanda Vazquez talks with Sekou Biddle, Vice President of Advocacy for UNCF. They discuss the organization and their mission to the community. For more information on UNCF, visit their website.