When you hear someone mention human trafficking, your initial thought might divert overseas, or maybe you imagine an elaborate scenario played out by Liam Neeson in "Taken." However, it's important to realize that human trafficking is a very real issue within the United States, especially in North Carolina.

North Carolina is currently ranked number eight out of the 50 states for most frequent occurrences of human trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 221 human trafficking cases and received 854 calls from North Carolina alone during 2017. Of the cases reported, sex and labor trafficking top the list, followed by cases of combined sex and labor trafficking.

In answer to the obvious need, Project No Rest began in 2015 as a statewide effort to address prevention and awareness of human trafficking in North Carolina—specifically as it relates to children and young people who are in the foster care system. By partnering with the UNC-CH School of Social Work, the project is dedicated to reducing the number of people who are trafficked and also aims to assist those who have been victims of trafficking.

Melissa Jenkins, a graduate student studying social work at UNC-CH and interning at Project No Rest, explains that the project and its eight pilot sites rarely interact directly with “clients” (i.e. victims). The project focuses on creating informed communities that understand how to recognize what trafficking is and when it’s taking place, as well as making sure victims know what resources are available to them. Resources include hotlines to call, refugee organizations, and local law enforcement phone numbers and locations.

Although the Project began with a focus on child sex trafficking, No Rest is currently working to expand its research and impact to child and adult labor trafficking, which can be a more tricky issue to identify and prosecute.

The law enforcement side of trafficking is another important aspect of improving the issue in North Carolina. Aside from police force training that many units are implementing, there are also investigators and search and rescue personnel that are called in on a case-by-case basis.

Brad Dennis, a retired Navy Seal with 32 years of search and rescue experience, now uses his veteran skills to track down victims of human trafficking.

This career shift began in 2004, when a troubled girl who Dennis knew through a youth program he directed at his church went missing. Local law enforcement asked Dennis to join in the search, which resulted in the rescue of the 14-year-old from a motel where she was meeting with a 60-something-year-old truck driver whom her pimp had set her up with. The 14-year-old victim spent the following two weeks in a hospital undergoing treatment for internal damage to her body.

Dennis reinforces Project No Rest's concern for foster children, “Children have needs… they’re either running from or to something,” says Dennis. He also explained that if children’s needs aren’t being met in the situation they find themselves in, they’ll go to what they believe is the best alternative resource. It’s not difficult for a savvy perpetrator to groom a child by offering what he or she needs or wants. Before the child knows it, they’re trapped. It’s not a difficult process.

There’s a lot that can be done to prevent these situations from ever being a possibility, but it takes awareness to address the issue. Project No Rest provides lists of conditions and behaviors to look out for when attempting to identify a potential trafficking victim. The main categories are work and living conditions, abnormal behavior, poor mental and/or physical health, and lack of control.

Situational awareness, in order to identify signs, is one important aspect of prevention and keeping yourself, as well as others safe, but it’s not the only way to have an impact on the issue. There are a number of local organizations to get involved within North Carolina. Aside from Project No Rest, there are many other organizations in the Raleigh-Durham Area such as Project FIGHT and the Dream Center Network.

There are organizations everywhere doing what they can to decrease the number of incidents, but it takes action on the local and individual level to enact change and see results. We each have the power to be those change agents.