Volunteers work to combat human sex trafficking

New business plan in works as group spreads awareness

NEW HAVEN » It’s been five years since the group’s founding, but the Elm City Abolitionists are reorganizing and setting bigger goals for their future.

The Elm City Abolitionists, a group of volunteers dedicated to spreading awareness about human trafficking in New Haven, has launched a new website, and the group is in the process of creating a new business plan for their future, according to the group’s chair David Mahan.

Mahan said he has been committed to finding ways to end sex trafficking in Connecticut since he first started working five years ago with the Elm City Abolitionists, a volunteer team for local nonprofit Love146,. The first motto of the group was “Not in Our State.”

“It was and continues to be a group of concerned citizens who want to do something proactive about human trafficking,” he said.

The state Department in Children and Families reported earlier this year that the number of referrals of potential domestic minor sex trafficking cases reached more than 200 in 2016. The number of referrals has been steadily increasing for the last eight years, according to Tammy Sneed, who directs the Human Anti-trafficking Response Team at DCF. Since 2008, and through the first quarter of 2016, 485 children were referred to DCF as possible victims of sex trafficking, according to the agency’s website.

Victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are those whose bodies were sold in exchange for anything of value, according to the agency.

According to the data from DCF, of the 201 unique referrals of domestic minor sex trafficking in Connecticut last year, 183 victims were girls.

Mahan said he has two daughters, which really makes the idea of sex trafficking of young girls even more horrifying for him and fuels his passion for working with the Elm City Abolitionists.

“The thought of them suffering what girls suffer in our own state is unthinkable,” Mahan said.

The Elm City Abolitionists is one of seven volunteer teams that works directly to support the mission of Love146, a nonprofit based in New Haven that works to end sex trafficking around the world and provide support for survivors.

The nonprofit began as a grassroots effort, so the continued help of volunteers helps further the mission and extend the outreach, said Heather Fischer, the volunteer coordinator at Love146. Fischer said other volunteer teams are based in East Hampton, Middletown, Norwich, Rocky Hill, West Hartford, and at the University of Connecticut.

“We have witnessed how powerful it is for small groups to come together to take action,” Fischer said.

Fischer’s role is to help provide materials for training and outreach to volunteer groups. She said volunteer teams help raise money for Love146 and will hold backpack campaigns during which they create backpacks of goodies for known victims of sexual abuse who work with Love146 social workers in the Survivor Care program.

Fischer said volunteer groups will also do outreach to hospitality businesses and truck stops about the potential for sex trafficking in those locations.

“The are the vehicle in which we can get resources and other information into the community,” Fischer said.

For Lauren Manna, a recent graduate of Quinnipiac University who hopes to make a career out of fighting human trafficking in North Africa, being the secretary of the Elm City Abolitionists is a “great honor,” she said.

As secretary, Manna will be a part of creating the new business plan for the Elm City Abolitionists, which she said will help set firm goals for the group in fundraising and outreach efforts. She said the group is also hoping to hold a 5K run in a few months.

Manna said she loves the mission of the abolitionists and Loves to “debunk a lot of myths” that have to do with trafficking in the U.S. and particularly in New Haven.

“It’s not always people being kidnapped and shipped abroad,” Manna said. “And people don’t realize that.”