Bucks County proclaims January 2025 Human Trafficking Awareness Month; BCAT and NOVA outline 2024 outreach

The Bucks County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 8 issued a proclamation declaring January 2025 Human Trafficking Awareness Month and recognized local anti‑trafficking partners for outreach and victim services.

Commissioner Diedre Almo read the proclamation on the board’s behalf, saying the county “hereby proclaim[s] January 2025 as human trafficking awareness month throughout the county of Bucks.” The proclamation cited the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and national estimates from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in framing trafficking as a public‑health and criminal issue.

Jamie Pfister, training coordinator for NOVA’s Training Institute and a long‑standing BCAT member, briefed the commissioners on the coalition’s 2024 work. “I want to start out by extending my utmost gratitude to chairman Robert Harvey vice chairwoman Diana Ellis Marceglia and secretary Jean deja Rolomeo,” Pfister said, and outlined outreach metrics: BCAT educated about 700 participants across nearly 30 community engagements and provided outreach to more than 16 hotels and motels in southern Bucks County.

BCAT said hotels and motels are a focus because national data show many survivors have had interactions at lodging establishments. Pfister described efforts to train motel staff on recognizing signs of trafficking and to connect survivors to trauma‑informed services such as The Well (a project of Worthwhile Wear) and Haven House of the Y.W.C.A.

Danielle DiIulio, NOVA’s human‑trafficking victim advocate, described collaboration with law enforcement, the district attorney’s office and children’s services. “Through this collaboration with Bucks County Children and Youth, law enforcement, and the Bucks County Children’s Advocacy Center, NOVA has conducted 18 CSEC assessments through the year with children and young adults under the age 21,” DiIulio said, using the acronym CSEC for commercial sexual exploitation of children. She said two of those assessments led to law‑enforcement investigations and one case is pending prosecution.

DiIulio also credited coordinated operations that recovered survivors from hotels in Falls Township and Bristol and urged continued multidisciplinary responses in schools, medical settings and social‑service agencies.

The board presented a formal copy of the proclamation and invited coalition members forward for a photograph.

Why it matters: Local coalitions and service providers described measurable outreach in 2024 and asked that the county and community sustain training and multiagency coordination to identify victims and support prosecutions and services.