Rotary Clubs sponsor trainings, event to bring attention to sex trafficking

Mar. 30—It's called the crime hidden in plain sight.

Human trafficking, or buying and selling people — often teenage girls — for a commercial sex act in exchange for money, goods and services rarely happens out in the open. But those who know the signs can offer help to the victims of this crime, which impacts communities of all types and sizes.

In hopes of raising awareness about an issue that also affects the Golden Isles, the Rotary Clubs of St. Simons Island, Kings Bay and Brunswick hosted two days of training to law enforcement and other first responders on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Susan Norris, founder and executive director of Rescuing Hope, a nonprofit with a mission to raise public awareness about sex trafficking, educate potential victims and first responders and empower advocates and survivors, shared some of the realities of the sex trafficking industry and the ways it infiltrates every community.

"We believe it's important as citizens of this state to recognize what is going on," she said. "It's not necessarily what Hollywood shows you in the movies."

Sex trafficking happens in every county in Georgia, Norris said.

"It happens around you, sometimes right under your nose, and you don't know what you're looking at," she said.

Norris described several real life scenarios in which girls in Georgia have been trafficked through force, fraud or coercion, which is a common way girls are trafficked — even if that isn't how this crime is depicted by most media.

Traffickers weaponize social media and other forms of digital communication to coerce girls, she said. Many will use fake profiles to befriend girls online and, sometimes slowly, build false relationships with them that lead to the girls being trafficked.

"They all just want to be seen," Norris said. "And the traffickers know this, and they use it against them."

Norris aims to dispel false notions many have about trafficking.

"It happens more often than you think," she said. "There are trafficking victims that live at home and go to school. They just are required by their trafficker to come when they're called, or else. Male and female."

Sporting events and conventions that bring lots of people to an area increase the demand for sex trafficking. As a tourist destination and home to numerous big events, the Golden Isles will be a place that sees high demand for sex trafficking certain times of the year, she said.

Everyone can play a role in fighting this crime, she said.

"You're not all going to quit your jobs and start a nonprofit ... You're not all going to go to the police academy and start fighting it that way, nor do we need you to," Norris said. "We need you to do what you can, where you are, with what you have."

This includes being vigilant, learning the indicators, using influence to educate the community, fundraising or volunteering, she said.

"We need you," Norris said. "We need your time, we need your talent, we need your resources ... You will have to figure out which portion of it is yours to provide."

Dorsey Jones, a survivor and advocate, shared her own harrowing story of child sex trafficking that begins with abuse at home and leads to her being raped frequently as a child. It ends with her escaping that abuse and going to college before becoming an activist.

"I've come here today to tell you that I don't look like what I've been through," she said. "... My pain really did have purpose."

She urged all in the audience to get involved in this fight by lending their voice to the discussion.

"Teach our men that children are not for sale, they're not for lease and they're not for rent," she said.

Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins shared some local information about reported sex trafficking incidents. Lack of awareness and reporting on sex trafficking in Coastal Georgia has led to relatively few investigations despite the fact that Coastal Georgia is known to be a place where the crime happens with frequency.

"People don't want to admit it, but it's happening here," Higgins said.