(Jackson, Mn.)– An agency that serves a number of counties in southwest Minnesota is raising the awareness of sex trafficking. Allan Bakke of the Southwest Crisis Center says they serve an 11 county area. He says the statistics are alarming…
“The interesting thing, while we do have the second smallest regional population of only 140,000, we actually have the second highest number of youth who are experiencing sextortion, sexual exploitation, sex trafficking and at high risk of experiencing sex trafficking. So there’s only one other region, you can guess, it’s in the Twin Cities, it’s a metro region, the west metro, has a population of 1,512,000 plus people, compared to our 140,000. And yet we are second to them only by 98 people less, they served 530 in a year, we served 432. That’s an amazing number when you think about how many are up there and how many are down here.”
Bakke says they’re embarking on a community response campaign as a first step in addressing the issue…
“What’s everybody doing? What’s the media doing to talk about this? What is the school doing in terms of education? What is law enforcement doing in terms of protection and intervention? So this is actually the very first step, creating awareness. And during the month of January we’re going to be doing a number of different things. This is the first start where we’re doing radio spots across the counties we serve. We’re also going to be putting up ribbons up and down the streets, the ribbon color is blue and it talks about hope, that we can provide a vibrant future for the young people in our communities instead of the violence that’s going on. We’re actually going to be doing a training in Worthington. We’re having some subject matter experts, individuals who have been trafficked, and talk about what that looks like, what services are essential for them, and how communities come together having gone through that horrible, horrible experience. They’re really great to be able to help us formulate those things.”
Bakke adds they will also be introducing curriculum in schools throughout southwest Minnesota to address the issue with youth. He says it will include online safety.
