February 14, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking! In celebration, Co-founder and Executive Director Amanda Finger reflects on the past two decades of impact. Find out how a chance meeting with Co-founder AJ Alejano-Steele sparked two decades (and counting!) of working to end human trafficking in Colorado.
From its beginning as a grassroots initiative, LCHT has evolved alongside the shifting federal human trafficking response. Amanda discusses challenges, the role of research, and the partnerships that have made lasting change possible. Join us in looking back at the journey, celebrating the milestones, and exploring what the next 20 years could look like.
How a Conversation Over Coffee Started a Movement
In 2005, I was asked to open Polaris Project Colorado, a volunteer chapter of the national anti-human trafficking organization. The Polaris co-founders asked me as one of the efforts that they could take in honor of V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against all women.
Six months later, I spoke at a conference hosted by a local hospital in Denver. That’s where I first met AJ Alejano-Steele, who was teaching women’s studies and psychology at MSU Denver. Human trafficking was one of the topics she included in her curriculum. After the conference, we sat down for coffee to talk about how she could get more involved locally.
As we responded locally to human trafficking over the next five years, we noticed that most training materials and case studies drew from border states, large cities, and port areas. But these places had different risk factors than Colorado did. We wanted to understand what human trafficking really looked like here, a state in the middle of the country, and if different solutions were needed.
AJ and I knew that a strong local response had to be rooted in research. We had passion, but we also saw the need for good data. While Polaris valued research, it was out of the scope of their mission at the time. So, in 2009, we took a leap and founded the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT). With a tiny budget but deep community connections and a strong advisory board, we set out to build a response that fit Colorado’s unique needs.
The Early Days: When Human Trafficking Was Barely Recognized
Back then, human trafficking was widely unrecognized. The national response was just beginning, shaped by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. It was the first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking in the United States. It established protections for victims and penalties for traffickers. A few years later, Colorado received federal funding to build a response.
However, most efforts focused on training law enforcement and supporting foreign national victims. The issue was framed as an international problem, with little acknowledgment that U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents were also being trafficked. Many people didn’t realize that human trafficking was happening in their own communities.
Colorado was on the leading edge of early anti-trafficking responses, though the language of the state laws made it difficult to prosecute cases. The legal language was bill-of-sale-oriented. It stated, “If a person commits trafficking, he or she sells, exchanges, barters, or leases an adult or child and receives money or something of value as a result of that transaction.” This was hard for prosecutors and judges to interpret and apply. As a result, trafficking cases were often prosecuted under different crimes.
Dispelling Myths About Human Trafficking
In those early years, much of LCHT’s work focused on dispelling misconceptions and shifting public perceptions. We educated people about the realities of human trafficking, including the facts that:
- Survivors didn’t have to be foreign nationals or immigrants.
- Trafficking doesn’t require crossing a state or national border.
- Trafficking doesn’t require physical restraint or bondage.
- Even if the survivor consented at first, it could still be considered trafficking.
At the time, media coverage sensationalized certain aspects of trafficking while overlooking others. Headlines used terms like “child/teen prostitutes” and glorified pimping. This framing was victim-blaming and missed the coercive and violent behaviors that accompanied many of these situations. To be clear, any minors forced to participate in the commercial sex industry are considered victims of human trafficking; if someone is profiting off of forcing an adult into the commercial sex industry, it is human trafficking.
Meanwhile, the criminal justice system often treated survivors as criminals rather than victims—leaving many too afraid to come forward. We worked with law enforcement, prosecutors, and service providers to help them recognize that survivors often had no choice in their situation. Alongside law enforcement partners, we trained them to ask more questions to find out if a survivor was coerced or forced.
Many professionals—such as refugee resettlement providers like Lutheran Family Services—also started making connections, such as helping foreign national victims of trafficking navigate and access services. In fact, many service providers encountered trafficking survivors but didn’t yet have the language to identify them as such. Instead, these providers considered their clients as having experienced extreme forms of child abuse, wage violations, or prostitution, not yet understanding that these individuals had experienced human trafficking.
Many of the leading organizations back in 2005 are still involved today. Professor Claude d’Estree’s work at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver was seminal in educating graduate students and educators. Other groups, like Colorado Legal Services, the Salvation Army, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Prax(us), and the Colorado Department of Public Safety, included anti-trafficking programming as part of their broader work.
The Power of Awareness: “You’re Describing My Experience”
Beyond professionals and frontline responders, we sought to educate the broader community through hosting public awareness events. Our anti-human trafficking organization tabled at events like Pride Fest, hosted film screenings, and participated in panel discussions.
The response was overwhelming. People often came up to us afterward and said, “You’re describing my experience” or the experience of someone they knew. While it may be hard to believe, many survivors of sex and labor trafficking simply had no idea that their experience met that definition until many years later. While exploitation is not new, the human trafficking laws were new at that time. We learned quickly that we needed to have resources available for public awareness events—education for the purpose of knowledge alone was not enough.
One of LCHT’s earliest public awareness videos:
Why Policy Matters in Driving Systemic Change
One of the most significant shifts over the years has been in policy—an area where LCHT’s research and advocacy have played a key role. In 2014, our work contributed to Colorado strengthening its anti-trafficking laws and establishing the Governor-appointed Colorado Human Trafficking Council, which has helped bring more survivor voices into policy discussions and identified gaps in the state’s response.
Policy changes matter. For example, before 2017, Colorado’s child welfare system was only sporadically involved in trafficking cases involving minors. It wasn’t until a new law included human trafficking as a form of child abuse and required all 64 counties to respond to child trafficking that systemic change took hold.
These moments have brought more stakeholders to the table, shifting anti-trafficking work from a few organizations into a coordinated statewide effort. Our Colorado Project research reports have been part of this shift, too, bringing people across the state together through three different iterations over 10 years.
Integrating Labor Trafficking into the Broader Anti-Trafficking Movement
One of the biggest shifts in anti-trafficking efforts has been the growing recognition of labor trafficking, an extreme form of exploitation for labor. Early investigative efforts primarily focused on a response to sex trafficking, particularly of minors. Today, there is greater awareness of labor trafficking and stronger collaboration between service providers and law enforcement.
Despite this progress, labor trafficking remains underreported and under-addressed. Over the next 20 years, demographic shifts—including increased migration and climate change—could drive higher rates of labor exploitation, particularly in agricultural work. We must ensure resources, outreach, and enforcement efforts extend beyond urban areas to rural and mountain communities.
We also now have a deeper understanding of the complexity of human trafficking. Many survivors have experienced both sex and labor trafficking. Others have fallen through the cracks of outdated systems. By building trust with survivor leaders and communities, we are encouraging more people to share their experiences to strengthen prevention efforts.
A Movement Built to Last: 20 Years of Progress
Looking back, I find tremendous value in the commitment we set early on: purpose and good data. We’ve stayed the course through shifting federal mandates and evolving understandings of human trafficking. Over two decades, we’ve built sustainable infrastructure to ensure this work continues.
I’m most proud of how we’ve learned and evolved as an anti-trafficking organization and movement In 2005, terms like “modern-day slavery” dominated awareness strategies, but as our understanding deepened, we recognized the need for more survivor-centered language and to respect the very real differences between.
Systemic change takes time. Twenty years in, we’re still here, doing the work. Our anti-human trafficking organization isn’t just a passionate group of activists—it’s a community here for the long run. I get to reconnect with people at events who I haven’t seen in a decade or hear from former interns 15 years later about how the experience impacted them. Longevity matters, and there’s comfort in knowing that this movement is here to stay.
But our work is far from over…
Read our 20th Anniversary Gratitude Report
The Next 20 Years: Uplifting Survivor Voices & Housing Support
Looking ahead to the next 20 years, survivor leadership must be at the center, with professionals and policymakers making intentional space for their voices. While progress has been made in shifting policies and systems, lived experiences offer crucial insight into the many ways trafficking occurs—and how responses can be improved.
Another critical area of focus is housing. The lack of safe, stable housing is one of the biggest risk factors for exploitation. When individuals or families face housing insecurity, traffickers target that vulnerability. Like much of the country, Colorado has a shortage of emergency and transitional housing options. Addressing this gap in the years ahead will be essential to preventing trafficking and ensuring that survivors can access resources.
Stronger Together: Collaboration is Key
What keeps me hopeful for the next 20 years is the people I work with every day. It’s the volunteer advocates answering calls and texts to our 24/7 Human Trafficking Hotline. It’s the Board members who shape our strategic direction. It’s the colleagues who have committed years to strengthening Colorado’s response to trafficking. It’s the survivors who are advocating in many different ways. It’s anyone who doesn’t shy away from having a hard conversation.
Amidst so much polarization and heaviness in the world—conflicts, natural disasters, you name it—there’s potential for splintering and siloing. Our ability to build partnerships as an anti-trafficking movement has been one of the strongest ways to address trafficking. In the years ahead, these collaborations will be essential in building trust so that survivors feel safe accessing support.
Human trafficking is a deeply complex issue that intersects with many other challenges. The only way we’ll be able to solve it is together. That’s why we’re called the “Laboratory.” We’ll be here to test, learn, adapt, and find solutions—side-by-side with survivors, community members, and partner organizations—for as long as it takes.
The fight to end human trafficking is far from over. After 20 years of impact, we know this: lasting change takes all of us.
LCHT has been at the forefront of this movement since the beginning, and we’re not stopping now. Together, we’ve built a stronger, more survivor-centered response. But to sustain this progress and push forward for the next 20 years, we need your help.
Celebrate this milestone with a $20 gift today. Your donation will provide survivors with critical resources, strengthen prevention efforts, and fund the next wave of anti-trafficking research in Colorado.