Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that Louisiana has been awarded a $1.2 million dollar grant from the U.S. Dept. of Justice Office for Victims of Crime to improve outcomes for child victims of human trafficking.
The grant will be used to implement a multi-year federal project known as the Louisiana Child Trafficking Collaborative.
Watch the video below:
In addition, Gov. Edwards has declared January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Louisiana.
Louisiana is one of only seven states to receive this funding—since 2015. The grant will be implemented over a three year period. In 2016, Shared Hope International ranked Louisiana #1 in the nation for its anti-trafficking laws.
In February 2018, The Dept. of Children and Family Services annual report to the Legislature revealed that there were a total of 681 confirmed or prospective victims of human trafficking here in Louisiana. 641 (94.1%) of those were sex trafficking victims 29 (5.1%) were sex and labor trafficking victims. Of all reported victims 356 (52%) were identified as juveniles again which was a 77% increase from the previous year. The saddest piece of data given was that 72 of those sex trafficking juvenile victims were ages 12 and under.
The Louisiana Child Trafficking Collaborative will be implemented by the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, which is led by Executive Director Dr. Dana Hunter.
“Louisiana is very progressive in its efforts to identify, treat, and prevent human trafficking,” said Dr. Hunter. “We want children and families to be aware of the ways in which pimps recruit victims, but we also want citizens to know that we are doing everything possible to increase public safety.”
Click here to read State of Louisiana Child Sex Trafficking Project Report.
