Los Angeles County’s war on child sex trafficking continues this week with a slate of activities aimed at raising awareness of this heinous crime and training our staff to spot the warning signs.
At today’s Board of Supervisors meeting, I’ll put forth a motion requesting $250,000 to increase training for County staff and community partners to build awareness and better identify victims. I’ll also ask for additional advocacy to increase state funding dedicated to counties to help serve the victims of child sex trafficking.
Then on Friday, I will lead an event with Metro to launch our “Don’t Be Silent” campaign, an updated awareness campaign urging metro riders to be alert to suspicious activity on buses, trains and at stations. In addition, Metro will be training all 10,000 of their employees on what to do if they encounter a child sex trafficking victim. I am glad Metro has once again committed resources to launching a new awareness campaign, which the private sector has generously stepped up to support.
We also need our state and federal partners to not just talk about ending child exploitation, but to provide the funding we need to support the victims of this horrific crime. It will take every segment of our community, public and private, working together to protect our most vulnerable children.