Saturday afternoon Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris Project, spoke to the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem community regarding modern-day slavery. Myles’ quote from the Passion 2013 Conference, “People can be one call away from hope,” is what the Polaris Project works toward—providing victims with hope and consequently, a safe haven.

Polaris is a company working to combat modern slavery regionally, nationally, and globally. Myles stated that in order to remove modern slavery there must be a safety net, prevention, awareness, political action, funding, survivor activism, economic empowerment, and gender equality. Polaris, over its 14-year run, has worked to help survivors through hotlines and textlines.

Myles stated human trafficking is the largest human rights violation throughout the world today. There are three distinct groups involved in trafficking: those under the age of 18, those above the age of 18, and those of all ages who are forced to work as a result of violence and abuse.

To understand trafficking, the pimps are as important as the victims—without pimps, the human trafficking system would collapse. The most important aspect, Myles explains, is that this is an economically driven industry. Men hope selling girls will provide them with a high profit at a low risk.

For many of those involved, however, there is little hope to remove themselves from this life. Myles shared the stories of Debra and Tori, two women trapped in Washington D.C.’s trafficking system, who were unaware of the help available to them. They had, “given up on the idea that anyone cared.”

This isolation and sense of hopelessness reduces the likelihood of a survivor reaching out for help. Myles provided the statistic, out of the 21 million survivors of slave trade only 44,000 have been found, which is less than one percent of the survivor population.

These statistics lead Polaris to define the problem as a broken bridge -- a problem they were hopeful to change. Myles described this broken bridge as victims on one side and the government/non-profit organizations on the other. The gap was, therefore, the disconnect between survivors and aids. Myles reinforces, “They had no clue how to reach out for help.”

Polaris’ mission is to fix this broken bridge. They began through what Myles denotes as their own "underground railroad." They created a hotline and textline whereby victims could call or send a message to the BeFree textline in order to send a signal for help within minutes. Through these calls and texts, Polaris, alongside the FBI and other government agencies, has been successful in rescuing women and girls. Since the advent of Polaris Project, the number of calls has increased—a sign women and girls are taking advantage of these resources. More broadly, though, these calls provide clues to officials as to where the “macro level trends” occur.

On a map projected, the states in which human trafficking was most prominent became evident. Polaris looks beyond the state trends and capitalizes on macro level trends within, what is now twenty-five industries. Myles states, “a sliver of these industries,” (some of which include hotels, fishing, and massages) include human trafficking.

Myles reminds the audience that although there is a problem, finding a solution is most important. He hopes to create a blueprint to affect change. Since the hotline and textline services are successful in the United States, Myles hopes to replicate Polaris in other countries through hotline and data infrastructure. This goal was emphasized, providing their phone calls to every country whereby they inquired whether a hotline or textline was available for human trafficking victims. Only 66 countries have implemented these services.

Myles addressed fear and security. Human trafficking victims do not have security and do have fear. Their fear is a product of their isolated lives. The Polaris Project works to end this fear and provide a safe haven.

Myles concluded his presentation through imagine statements. “Imagine a world where all twenty-one million have a hotline.” “Imagine working toward a world without slavery.”

Myles and his Polaris Project are tangible embodiments that, as human beings, we have a duty to be the voice for those who are silenced.