The Human Trafficking Awareness Team
Human Trafficking Awareness is at the intersection of working for long-range change in the areas of racial justice and homelessness, and responding to immediate needs through our community outreach team.
When did Messiah begin its journey with Human Trafficking Awareness?
In 2023, we held an information night with a variety of speakers: detectives from the city of Madison police and Dane county sheriff's departments, Jan Miyasaki with Project Respect, Diane Hanson with United Madison Christian Givers, and Jevon Diming with Pierre Outreach Safe House. We learned just how much human trafficking happens in Dane County, Wisconsin, in the United States and in the world. We learned that due to generational trauma, some people are more vulnerable than others.
In addition in 2023 we made a site visit to Project 16:49 in Janesville to view their successful homeless teenage program & shelter.
If you are interested in being a member of this group in order to receive information and possibly take action steps, please contact Elizabeth Crummy.
You may be asking yourself “What is Human Trafficking?”
Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception in order to be exploited. In every region of the world, traffickers exploit vulnerable women, girls, men, and boys of all backgrounds for profit. Even without knowing, we might have come across its victims. Traffickers often use violence, blackmail, emotional manipulation, removal of official documents, fraudulent employment agencies, and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.
Human trafficking takes place for many exploitative purposes:
Recent News
Internet Crimes Against Children Update
Online threats toward children have skyrocketed over the last couple of years. Wisconsin's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) is a leading force in the country, tracking down criminals that prey on our children.
Three bills were heard last week to improve the ICAC task force's ability to protect children. The bills include a public awareness campaign, increased funding, and additional staff positions.
Assembly Bill 966 requires the Department of Justice to conduct a public awareness campaign about the dangers they face online. Too often, especially with social media, kids are unaware of the risks. With this bill, the Department of Justice will begin more outreach to educate children and families.
The following pair of bills will grow the ICAC Task Force by about 40%:
Assembly Bill 957 adds $400,000 to ICAC’s budget.
Assembly Bill 958 provides four new staff positions to ICAC. Two will be criminal analysts, one will be a digital evidence examiner, and one will be an outreach specialist.
If you have other Human Trafficking Awareness informative articles to share with our group please send to Nancy Battist, battistnancy@gmail.com.
How to Get Involved at Legislative Level?
There are many bills and proposals circulating at various levels of government.
We have created a Google doc titled Human Trafficking Awareness Team Call to Legislative Action. It will be periodically updated with information.
Recent postings:
- Wisconsin Department of Justice is sounding the alarm about a dramatic surge in Sextortion cases targeting primarily teenagers, with reports more than nearly quadrupling from 2023 to 2025.
- Recent legislation related to human trafficking
- Wisconsin legislative bills that will be coming out of the bipartisan “Speakers Task Force on Human Trafficking.
Use 5Calls to contact your elected officials.
One of the easiest methods to use is the 5Calls app/website at 5calls.org. You set your location, select an issue from the sidebar and then the names and contact information of your elected officials pops up along with a suggested script which you can use verbatim or as a starting point. You can work your way through all of them or skip and select who you want to contact.
Calling
your representative is the best way to make your voice heard
before they take a public stance because
congressional staffers tally phone calls right away.
Other kinds of messages take longer.
- Emails have to be manually read and sorted.
- Faxes have to be digitized and emailed.
- Letters and postcards take time to arrive and get processed.
Our Partners
The problem of human trafficking is multi-layered, but one thing we know for sure is that youth with limited resources and without a strong support system often fall prey to it. We have partnered with several organizations who are simultaneously building resiliency and extending a helping hand.
Safe Harbor
Visit https://www.safeharborhelpskids.org/ for more details about the organization.
- Safe Harbor reduces trauma and promotes healing for children and adults with intellectual disabilities who are victims of or witnesses to crime. To accomplish our mission, Safe Harbor provides a trauma-informed, safe, child-friendly environment for best practice forensic interviews; immediate and ongoing advocacy for affected children and families; coordination and support of multi-disciplinary investigations and responses.
- Visit the website for more details about the organization and ways to support it.
- Director Jennifer Ginsburg spoke at Messiah February of 2026 about human trafficking awareness at Safe Harbor. Each year they support over 400 families with children and teenagers who have been victims of abuse and crimes. Stay tuned for an opportunity to donate snacks and art supplies.
The Briarpatch Way: Walking Beside Youth
Visit https://www.briarpatch.org for more details about the organization and to see the complete November Newsletter.
- Briarpatch Youth Service offers a broad array of services to youth who have runaway, are experiencing homelessness, and/or facing other challenges. Briarpatch works closely with local governments and other non-profit organizations to provide unique programs that fill service gaps in Dane County. Each year, Briarpatch serves approximately 2,000 youth.
- In the past 2-years Messiah members have toured Briarpatch and heard how they work with teens and their families to work things out and make better choices; and donated a couch for their family room where they meet.
- Director Jill Pfeiffer and her staff will be speaking at Messiah June 2026.
POSSH - Pierre Outreach Safe Home
Visit https://www.possh.org/ for more details about the organization.
- Pierre Outreach Safe Home seeks to provide hope, healing and acceptance for girls of color who have gone through generational trauma unique to their culture; helping them to get to the baseline of society so they can blaze their own trails. Pierre Outreach Safe Home works simultaneously with families to help stop the generational cycle of trauma.
- Founder Jevon Diming has received donations from our year-end surplus funds 2 years in a row as well as benefited from several collections after speaking to us about her programs.
- Jevon is currently mentoring 8 young women aged 19-30 who are enrolled in college, creating a short bio-documentary with participants sharing their stories with honesty and power, running wellness labs to provide support for middle & school girls and their mothers. Jevon is continuously building community partnerships, most recently with CarePortal, UW Foundation, Summit Credit Union and United Way of Dane County
