As an authentic elementary school principal, I make a statement about “stranger danger” every Friday during the morning announcements. I tell my babies to not talk to strangers online or in person and don’t take any money, food, candy, or other items from strangers. I also tell them not to help any stranger look for their pet and if someone grabs you, yell just as loud as you can, “This is not my mommy, this is not my daddy.” It is disenchanting to have to say this to our future leaders on a weekly basis, but this is the current state of our world today and I am going to do all that I can to protect my babies.
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The theme is “Be Their Voice: Stop Human Trafficking, Speak Up.” Cumberland County consistently ranks #1 in North Carolina for human trafficking and being close to the I-95 corridor makes it easy for traffickers to move in and out with their victims.
“I started the first human trafficking court here in North Carolina,” said Toni King, chief district court judge in Cumberland County for the 14th judicial district. “Our court focuses on those individuals that find themselves caught between being a human trafficking victim and having picked up charges due to their trafficker’s force or coercion.”
She added, “So what our court tries to do is identify these individuals and provide them with help and treatment. If we can dismiss the charges or minimize the exposure of the charges, that is what our goal is to do while giving them treatment, rehabilitative services and safe housing.”
Human trafficking victims experience all kinds of dismal horrors such as drug addiction, physical and sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases, inhumane conditions, memory loss, traumatic brain injuries and layers of mental, physical and emotional trauma. Traffickers seek individuals who have something that is missing in their lives, are shy and have low self-esteem.
“Human trafficking is not being done by just strangers,” said King. “They are being trafficked by family members or people that they know.”
King added that it typically starts off with people that they trust or have developed a relationship with.
“I have had mothers and daughters trafficked by their husband and father, and professionals and juveniles that have been trafficked,” said King. “The common thread in all of this has been that they all have longed for something, been trafficked by someone who they trusted and ultimately all of them have had issues with substance abuse.”
King added, “People need to understand that everyone is susceptible to being trafficked and social media is a big way of how traffickers recruit and groom individuals.”
“We have several different organizations who are combatting human trafficking in Cumberland County,” said Faith Boehmer, prevention and volunteer coordinator of the Child Advocacy Center. “One government agency is WORTH Court which stands for ‘We Overcome Recidivism Through Healing’ and it was brought here by Judge Toni King.”
Boehmer added, “They work with victims and learn about their situation in which they may have to move them to a safer place.”
“One of the things that we are going to be doing in January is we have created an Amazon wish list where the community can see it,” said Boehmer. “They will be able to click on the item to order it and the item will go directly to the victim.”
The items range from sanitary products, jogging suits, shoes, underwear, soap, deodorant and more.
“This is a way that people in the community can become aware and invest in a way to assist,” said Boehmer.
The Child Advocacy Center works with clients who may come in for an interview and may be a victim of human trafficking.
“We are a place where children come to share their story of being physically or sexually abused,” said Boehmer. “When they come there may be other things coupled with that such as drug endangerment or human trafficking so all of those other things can be factors in that one case.”
“The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department has a couple of detectives that are specifically assigned to work in the human trafficking arena,” said Boehmer. “They also work closely with WORTH Court, Gate Beautiful and there is also a therapist from Healing Minds who will provide services to those clients.”
She added, “ACS, Army Community Services, from Fort Liberty, have partnered with The Child Advocacy Center and they want to provide support, awareness and education to the community.”
“Be Their Voice” is the theme that the Child Advocacy Center has adopted for prevention awareness for the whole year for everything they have planned.
“The reason we want to be their voice is because we want to be able to bring education and awareness to our community,” said Boehmer. “Whether it is to the children in the schools that can be impacted directly themselves, to their parents, the faith community and other professionals in the community so that they know the things that need to be put in place.”
Boehmer added, “They need to know they need to have their staff trained, how to be aware and what steps to take. Maybe the members of our faith community need to be aware of what that looks like.”
The first kickoff event for National Human Trafficking Month is “Wear Blue Day.” Show your commitment to fighting human trafficking by wearing royal blue for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on Saturday, Jan. 11. Use your social media to post pictures and use #wearblueday.
On Wednesday, Jan. 15, there will be a community-wide forum at the Kiwanis Parks & Recreation Center at 352 Devers Street at 6:30 p.m. The speakers will be Bill Woolf and Brittany Dunn.
“They will be moderating the panel discussion, and we will have different people from the community on the panel,” said Boehmer. “We will have a Child Advocacy Center staff member, Judge Toni King, a human trafficking survivor and other professionals in the community.”
Thursday, Jan. 16 is a one-day conference at Temple Baptist Church in Eastover, NC from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“It will be broken into two sessions and the morning session is ‘Empathy and Action: Trauma Informed Approaches To Human Trafficking,’” said Boehmer. “The afternoon session is ‘Shield of Trust: Trauma Informed Approaches To Suspected Human Trafficking In Military Communities.’”
On the evening of Thursday, Jan. 16, Faith Community in Action will be held at the Kiwanis Parks & Recreation Center at 6:30 p.m.
“We will be reaching out to churches in the community and asking them to come and hear Bill and Brittany share what the faith community can do about human trafficking,” said Boehmer. “They need to be aware and to encourage their members and parishioners to be a part of making a difference.”
There will be a “Be Their Voice 5K Run” on Saturday, Jan. 25 at Methodist University at 9 a.m.
“This is the third year that we have done this,” said Boehmer. “It is our goal to have 300 people at the event this year.”
“We, as a community, need to speak up and be the voice for human trafficking,” said Boehmer. “We need to provide them safety, an education, teach them interview skills and help find them a job so they can be successful citizens in the community.”
The events are open to the public. For more information or to volunteer at the Child Advocacy Center call 910-486-9700 or visit www. https://www.cacfaync.org/.

(Photo: The FAST Transit system advertised National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January 2023.)