As most folx know, June is Pride month. Often, when the month is over, the rainbow flags and apparel are stored away for the next 11 months, until they find their way back to center stage when the following June rolls around. However, in the anti-trafficking movement, we must continue to acknowledge that LGBTQIA+ lives…
It has been a harrowing week for the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Demonstrations around the country have highlighted the unrest our nation feels, particularly our black community members who have been fighting to dismantle systemic racism for far too long. LCHT Leadership Development Program Alumni (‘16) Heather Brydie Harris poignantly shared…
A global pandemic has exposed the deeply entrenched inequities in the structures and systems of our society. People of color are dying at disproportionate rates, lack of access to medical supplies and capacity to care for those that are ill are ongoing concerns, and growing ideological divides between economic freedoms and centering public health and…
Last month we gathered our four kids together for another stay-at-home dinner. This April, that wasn’t saying much. The days of people declaring, “It would be nice to eat together as a family more often” seem like some nostalgic bygone era. I mean, it’s kind of the only option now, right? But this night we…
The United Nations estimates that the number of international migrants in the world is over 244 million people as of 2015, nearly two-thirds of whom live in Europe or Asia. The United States is home to approximately 43 million immigrants, making up 13.5 percent of the total US population. While about one quarter of them…
Distinct Crimes on the Increase Human trafficking and human smuggling are distinct crimes that are getting increased media attention due to the refugee crises in the Middle East and Europe as well as along the U.S. southern (and increasingly northern) border. In the process, their definitions are often conflated, with dangerous policy implications. Each group…
“There is no hierarchy of oppression.” When Audre Lorde put these words down on paper more than thirty years ago she could not have known that the silos in social justice movements that were present then would persist today. That is not to say there hasn’t been progress. But in the still nascent human trafficking movement,…
When we set out in 2005 to respond to human trafficking in Colorado, very few survivors of the crime were publicly leading and informing the anti-trafficking movement. In part, this low participation was because of the very nature of how the movement evolved. Consider the fact that the first legislation defining the crime didn’t appear until…
Happy International Women’s Day! Today we celebrate the achievements of women in history who pushed for greater equality, while marking the important issues that still demand our attention today. At the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, we’re proud to mark this special day in 2017 amidst a national atmosphere of heightened civic engagement. Be Bold…
Every once in awhile, I experience a day where the multiple hats I wear as a professional and a person intersect. On November 14th, 2016 I was wearing my “higher education professional” hat as the interim Chair of the Department of Social Work. Looking toward the middle of campus from my office in Central Classroom, I…