King County Metro partners with human trafficking prevention campaign

Credit: King County Metro

In observance of Human Trafficking Awareness Month (January), King County Metro has announced that it has partnered with transit authorities in Washington, U.S., to prevent human trafficking with the ‘Not Alone’ campaign.

For the first-ever state-wide initiative, cities, counties, transit authorities, airports and seaports across Washington and beyond are combining forces to encourage victims of human trafficking to seek help.

Launched by Rebekah Covington, a survivor of human trafficking and the Corporate Relations Manager at Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST), Not Alone aims to raise awareness about human trafficking and help victims and survivors to get connected with services by calling the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Not Alone is one of the first campaigns to focus on victim and survivor self-identification, rather than general public awareness. Surveys of trafficking victims have found that 38 per cent travelled by plane at some point during their exploitation, 63 per cent reported using mass transit during their exploitation and 26 per cent reported that public and mass transportation played a role in at least one exit attempt.

“Every person has the right to be safe, and that’s why King County has partnered with the state-wide Not Alone campaign to help to raise awareness of the life-changing resources to prevent human trafficking with in-language materials and signage in highly-visible locations across the Puget Sound region, including King County Metro’s transit network,” said King County Executive, Dow Constantine.

As part of the campaign, 26 partner organisations are hanging multilingual signage throughout the state, including at transit facilities, on buses, in terminals, in restrooms and at airport and seaport facilities, as well as in buildings serving vulnerable populations. In addition, BEST is offering free human trafficking prevention training for employees throughout the month of January 2022.

“The upcoming state-wide campaign represents a significant, coordinated effort to increase awareness of human trafficking,” said Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Councilmember at King County. “As a region with a major international port and international airport, and being close to an international border, it’s crucial that King County continues to find new and creative ways to combat trafficking and make the region a safer place for all to live and work,” she further explained.