Why Every Leader Needs to Understand Trafficking

24.9 million people are enslaved globally. 4.8 million are victims of sex trafficking. These are not statistics. They are people. Here is what business leaders, pastors, and parents need to know.

Most people think trafficking happens somewhere else.

In another country. In another city. To another family. Behind closed doors that do not look anything like the ones in their neighborhood.

They are wrong.

Sex trafficking is happening in Spokane. It is happening in your city. It is happening in communities that look completely ordinary from the outside - in hotels, online, and in circumstances that begin with something as simple as a teenager feeling unseen at home.

I have spent years working alongside survivors and law enforcement. What I have learned is that the people most equipped to prevent trafficking and identify it early are not always the experts. They are parents, coaches, teachers, pastors, and business leaders - people who are close to the situations where grooming begins.

But most of them do not know what to look for. And that gap costs lives.

The Numbers Are Not Abstract

According to the Walk Free Foundation, 24.9 million people are enslaved globally right now. Of those, 4.8 million are victims of sex trafficking.

Detective Elijah Hayward, who works in the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Unit for the Spokane Police Department and FBI, told me directly: when they encounter someone in a trafficking situation, they often cannot find safe resources for that person in the community. Since 2019, his team alone has passed along more than 40 cases for state and federal prosecution in the Spokane area.

This is not a distant problem. It is a local one.

How Trafficking Actually Starts

The image most people have of trafficking - a stranger grabbing someone off the street - is not the most common picture. Most trafficking begins with grooming. And grooming begins with relationship.

A trafficker identifies a young person who is vulnerable. Maybe their parents are going through a divorce. Maybe they feel like they do not fit in at school. Maybe they are looking for attention, validation, or a sense of belonging they are not finding at home.

The trafficker offers exactly that. Attention. Affection. Gifts. A sense of being chosen and special. Over time, that relationship becomes manipulation, then control, then exploitation.

I have a close friend named CJ who was trafficked beginning at age thirteen after her parents divorced. She was groomed by a man in his thirties who made her feel seen and valued. By the time she understood what was happening, she was in a situation she could not escape on her own. She was beaten when she was not compliant. She was branded by her trafficker.

CJ’s story is not unusual. It is the pattern.

What Leaders Need to Know

If you lead people - whether in a business, a church, a school, or a family - here is what I need you to understand.

Traffickers are looking for the gaps. They look for the kids who are not being seen at home. They look for the young adults who are financially desperate. They look for the vulnerabilities that systems and families leave unaddressed.

The best prevention is not a program. It is presence. It is adults who show up consistently, who know the young people in their sphere, who create environments where someone who is being targeted feels safe enough to say something. And awareness is the starting point. You cannot protect against something you do not understand.

What You Can Do Today

Download our free eBook at helpingcaptives.org. It covers how traffickers groom children and what parents, educators, and community leaders can do to prevent it. It is practical, honest, and built from years of working directly with survivors and law enforcement.

Share this post with the parents, pastors, coaches, and leaders in your network. Awareness is one of the most powerful tools we have.

And if you suspect someone is being trafficked or has been trafficked - reach out to Helping Captives or contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

The valley of slavery is real. And the people most equipped to invade it are often already in position. They just need to know what they are looking at.