Wear Blue effort in Las Vegas raising awareness about human trafficking

The campaign, #WearBlueDay, is meant to highlight National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the U.S. and the trafficking awareness day, held annually on Jan. 11.

Local nonprofits — including Signs of HOPE, The Shade Tree, The Cupcake Girls, Safe House, The Embracing Project, Dress for Success Southern Nevada, Olive Crest and Juvenile Justice Impact — work with law enforcement, resorts and other hospitality organizations to engage, prevent or identify someone who may be exploited or coerced into exchanging sex for money or other things of value.

The advocates emphasize that, like many other aspects of interpersonal violence, human trafficking is based on control dynamics and the exploitation of vulnerabilities. The most common risk factors for children to be exploited include prior experience with sexual abuse; time in foster care and other situations with unstable housing, according to a news release from the local nonprofits. People are often first groomed and recruited through their own social networks, neighborhoods, club or bars, the internet and at school.

Daniele Staple, executive director of Signs of HOPE, said despite these commonalities, people have misconceptions about the topic.

“One of the biggest ideas is that any of us as organizations are engaged in rescuing anyone,” Staple said. “That is not what happens. These are individuals who have been engaged and involved in situations for extended periods of time and have a lot of enmeshment and entanglement with the trafficker. Even the idea that people are physically restrained most often is not correct. It really is much more of a psychological and emotional bondage, if you will.”

Several resort properties across the Las Vegas Strip will display blue in support of the cause on Tuesday, Dawn Christensen, spokeswoman for the Nevada Resort Association, said. For instance, The Venetian will light up its towers in blue all day and provide wearable blue ribbons to its staff.

Industry members take training and seminars, work with law enforcement and develop best practices toward addressing trafficking. Each property may do something different to address the issue day-to-day: Some may have the national trafficking hotline number in bathroom stalls, while others may give additional training to bouncers and security guards on red flags to look for.

The advocacy campaign is particularly instrumental in showing how everyone can help identify potentially unsafe situations, Christensen said.

“At the end of the day it’s all of our responsibilities — in the vein of, ‘if you see something, say something,’” Christensen said. “The more people that are aware of trafficking and what it looks like, the bigger impact that will have.”

One of the best ways for the community to support the topic is to support professionals that offer the resources needed to trafficking victims, advocates said. The services they provide — such as housing, education, legal assistance, tattoo removal and career training — can help the victim move past the situation that led to their trafficker.

“As much as these traffickers are individuals who may be part of the community, it doesn’t mean they’re not or can’t be very dangerous individuals,” Staple said.

If you have concerns that someone you know is being trafficked, reach out through the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Dr. Miriam Adelson, the majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates The Venetian.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.