One of several virtual Anti-Human Trafficking Awareness Month events the Junior League of Birmingham is hosting throughout January, Human Trafficking 101 features speakers Jessie Keating Hardy and Ellie Friedman, two JLB members serving on the Anti-Human Trafficking Committee who are attorneys in Birmingham. This virtual event seeks to begin proactive conversations and answer questions on how to combat trafficking. Topics will focus on how the sex trafficking business operates, how traffickers recruit and subjugate young women and children and what you can do to help put an end to this modern form of slavery.

Led by the initiatives of the JLB’s Anti-Human Trafficking Committee, the free, educational events seek to promote awareness of the prominent issue and debunk common myths surrounding it. Tasked with addressing ways to prevent and provide education around the critical issue of human trafficking in the Birmingham community, the Committee focuses on bringing awareness and encouraging engagement from three different sectors: the community at large, area college students and the legal and judicial community.

The JLB has been a leader in the Anti-Human Trafficking arena for the past four years. Because of these efforts by the League, 34 area mayors have signed awareness proclamations which led to seven area municipalities declaring themselves as TraffickingFree Zones in 2020; Birmingham International Airport signage was installed into every bathroom stall across the airport; and multiple awareness events and trainings have been held reaching over 1,200 people. Partnering with other entities across the state, the League supported 2019’s legislative efforts, including HB 261 that now requires all commercial drivers to take a human trafficking awareness class in order to obtain a license. The JLB also offers Anti-Human Trafficking training materials and education programs to other Junior League organizations throughout the nation.

The Anti-Human Trafficking program is one of the JLB’s 40 community projects addressing some of Birmingham’s most critical issues. For more than 98 years, the JLB has been a positive force for change in Jefferson County with its 2,200 trained volunteers collectively donating more than 55,000 hours of direct community service each year.

For more information or to register for the event, visit https://jlbawareness.swell.gives/.