Super Bowl to be used to put spotlight on big crisis
Campaign is hoping to raise awareness of human trafficking
With eyes on Arizona this week, one organization has launched a campaign — It’s a Penalty — to raise awareness about a crisis: human trafficking.
The numbers are staggering.
Among the facts and figures from It’s A Penalty, which works collaboratively to end human trafficking, exploitation and abuse using major sports events as vehicles for global and local educational and awareness campaigns:
— One-third of detected trafficking victims in 2021 were children, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
— Arizona was the 18th-highest U.S. state for human trafficking in 2022, according to the Polaris National Human Hotline.
— More than 100,000 children are sold for sex in the U.S. each year, according to ECPAT-USA. Eightythree percent of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. are citizens of the country, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And 50 million people are trafficked and exploited worldwide, the latest global estimates from the International Labor Organization say.
“In Arizona, the average age of (victims of) sex trafficking is only 14 years old. So together we will need to be part of the solution,” said Sarah de Carvalho, CEO of It’s A Penalty, on Jan. 25 during a presentation at the Arizona Biltmore resort. “Only by working together, we can prevent human trafficking and exploitation.”
Hotels will be packed with visitors in town for Super Bowl 57. Those businesses have been given awareness kits to help employees look for signs of trafficked victims and report suspicious activity. Signs in individuals include not having control of identity or travel documents, multiple cellular phones or hotel cards, appearing to be monitored by another person when talking to someone else, indications of abuse or injury, uncertainty about where they are or how long they are staying and wearing inappropriate clothing for the climate or time of day.
“The It’s a Penalty campaign, along with our partners, will help to prevent human trafficking and exploitation in the run up to and during Super Bowl LVII, contributing toward a positive legacy in the host
city of Phoenix and beyond,” said de Carvalho in a press release. “We know from previous campaigns just how impactful they can be. Last year, our largest campaign ran during the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, which reported that 96 percent of people felt improved awareness of the issues of human trafficking and exploitation, and more equipped to make a report after being exposed to the It’s a Penalty campaign.”
Last year during the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, 14 children were identified in hotels and motels as trafficking victims. At the previous Super Bow in Tampa, 18 children were rescued.
For its Super Bowl 57 campaign, It’s A Penalty is partnering with state agencies and hospitality and tourism industry companies such as Hilton, IHG, Airbnb, G6 Hospitality, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines to display signage, air public service announcement in flights and provide public resources for identifying and reporting suspected human trafficking and abuse before, during and after the Super Bowl.
A panel of ambassadors for the campaign who spoke at the launch in Phoenix included Arizona Cardinals linebacker Jesse Luketa, who just completed his rookie season; former women’s professional football player Lois Cook and Collette V. Smith, the first Black female coach in the NFL.
Spokespeople also include Cardinals pass rusher Markus Golden, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Chris Godwin of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Andy Dalton of the New Orleans Saints and Nick Foles, the former Arizona Wildcat who led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl title the last time the Eagles appeared in the game.
The players are part of a 30-second film shown in flight on American and Southwest Airlines that highlights the fact that human trafficking is happening in all kinds of communities.
“I was aware of the issue. But the magnitude, I was not before this campaign, and that’s a testament to the importance of It’s A Penalty to educate and bring awareness to the situation,” Cook said. “You know, we live in a world that’s so oversaturated with the hustle and the bustle and to each their own, that matters like this that are so important can go unnoticed and be hidden.
“And so... education changes behavior.”
Smith told the story of her troubled youth and young adulthood, which was affected by domestic abuse.
“When I visit these domestic violence shelters. When I mentor little girls, when I visit schools, and I travel to different places, you know, I do it on my own dime, you know, and it makes me filled with a sense of purpose,” Smith said.
Mary Kim Titla, Executive Director of United National Indian Tribal Youth, shared some eye-opening statistics on indigenous people and human trafficking.
She said they make up only 1.1% of the U.S. population, yet they account for nearly 25% of human trafficking victims. “Indigenous women and girls are the least recognized and protected population,” Titla said. “In the U.S., marginalized communities, primarily people of color, are victimized at a higher rate. According to the FBI, 40 percent of victims of sex trafficking are native. Yet native women represent a tiny percentage of the general population. Racism and the historical mistreatment of marginalized communities leave minority and low income youth vulnerable to sex trafficking.”
It was fitting to have Titla deliver remarks about human trafficking and native people, as Arizona is the state with the largest indigenous population in the U.S. Titla said 96% of women and 89% of male victims report being victimized by a non-native, “yet acts of Congress and Supreme Court decisions have made it virtually impossible for tribal authorities to prosecute non-native major crime offenders.”
“These are sobering statistics,” Titla said. “We must not turn a blind eye to what’s happening under our noses.”