Atlanta businesses join First Lady Marty Kemp in the fight against human trafficking

WSBTV.com News Staff
·2 min read
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Advocates fighting to end human trafficking joined Georgia’s First Lady Marty Kemp to unveil new data that could change the way these cases are investigated.

Atlanta still has one of the highest human trafficking rates in the U.S.

Keisha Head is from the west side and was just 16 when her life as a foster child led her down a rough path.

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“For me, it was the vulnerability of homelessness. Not having access to things that I needed. I reached out to someone that was not a safe person,’ Head said.

That person trafficked her but she survived.

Head told Channel 2′s Justin Carter that she now owns a company that advocates for children that were once like her.

“Reaching out to the community to see how we can collectively dismantle the systems of oppression and find pathways of opportunities for survivors,” Head said.

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It was just last week that eight people including a former Atlanta Falcon were arrested in connection to a trafficking investigation in Gwinnett County.

It’s still happening and it’s why the Polaris Project, a national anti-trafficking organization in Atlanta, is talking about it.

“Georgia has a pretty interesting mix of sex trafficking and labor trafficking,” CEO of Polaris Project Catherine Chen said.

Chen unveiled findings from their first-ever national survivor study. They worked in partnership with Atlanta-based IHG hotels.

”We’ve been able to reach 500 victims and survivors in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Chinese to be able to talk firsthand about the experiences they’ve had before and during their trafficking experience,” Chen said.

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A data-based approach to figure out what exactly drives human trafficking and how it’s changed over time.

“There’s a lot of misinformation, a lot of rumors out there, and fear on social media. We want to make sure that people have a place to go where they can see what the truth is,” Chen said.

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