From Executive Director Monique Minkens

I personally see the abolition of trafficking as central to the work of this organization because we are reminded every day that all oppression is connected. Many people who are trafficked experience a kind of domestic violence, and repeated sexual assault. Local domestic abuse programs in Wisconsin see trafficking victims who are also victims of domestic violence. There are important distinctions to be made between these different experiences, but we know that our liberation is bound up together. This is why, as we serve survivors of domestic violence and center the lived experiences of those most impacted by all forms of oppression, we keep human trafficking as a central component of our coalition’s anti-violence work.

 

Read the latest edition of the Coalition Chronicles here.

In this issue, we hear from those whose lived experience has included trafficking through visual art, poetry and books. We have included several authors who selected books and prepared short excerpts to share in these pages. We focus on people who have experienced human trafficking, and those who advocate alongside them in Wisconsin.

American Indians Against Abuse, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the Wisconsin Office of Crime Victim Services – DOJ worked together to develop the publication.

Inside this issue we have amplified the voices of those with lived experience of trafficking, highlighted the growing Human Trafficking Community of Care, and spotlighted the work of Asia Jackson (DCF) and Julie Braun (DOJ). Intervention and prevention of human trafficking is highly collaborative, involving many more people than we could identify in this publication.

We have gathered resources, grouped into categories: Beginning Learner; Continued Learning; Assistance for Persons Who Have Been Trafficked; Assistance for Youth Who Have Been Trafficked; Legal Assistance; Labor Trafficking; and Policy and Systems. We included the collaborative Human Trafficking in Wisconsin Statement of Support, Intention, and Expectations, distributed to domestic abuse and sexual assault services providers in 2021, and concluded with the words of the executive directors of the agencies who developed this issue.

 

 

Thanks to Denise Johnson (American Indians Against Abuse), Alma Mann (Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault), Colleen Cox, Kelsey Mullins, Olivia Osborne, & Tegan Swanson (End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin) Amanda Powers (Office of Crime Victim Services, Department of Justice) and Shira Phelps.