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HopeWorks Global partners with NSTEP to add trafficking prevention to youth supports
Summary
HopeWorks Global said it offers free training and anonymous reporting options to help detect grooming and trafficking; founder Linda Awach described past rescues in Harford County and said the group has provided training to about 200 young people locally.
HopeWorks Global founder Linda Awach described her organization’s human-trafficking prevention, education and advocacy work and said partners like NSTEP help reach the same at-risk youth. Awach recounted personal family experience and said that rescue work and community education motivated the organization’s local activity. “We do human trafficking prevention, education awareness. We do advocacy. We've been involved in a couple of rescues right here in Harford County,” she said.
Awach emphasized that traffickers often groom young people — in one example she said a young person was groomed beginning at age 17 — and urged parents and community members to learn warning signs and report suspicions anonymously so authorities can investigate. She noted that HopeWorks Global provides free trainings when invited and said, “I've actually offered training for, I would say, about 200 young people within the county.”
