When Nancy Yarbrough was 17, she worked at a truck stop in Rockford, Ill., selling sex in order to meet her pimp’s daily quota.
“They see the vulnerabilities in you,” said Yarbrough, now 48, looking back at that time in her life.
The corridor she worked was connected to Interstate 94, an increasingly major area where human trafficking takes place.
Recently, a team of concerned community members started the I-94 Project to raise awareness of human trafficking in Wisconsin.
The program launched its efforts Memorial Day and will continue through Labor Day. It uses billboards, pamphlets and community events to educate the public about what they can do to help curb human trafficking.
Concentrated
along I-94
Interstate 94 “leads to all of the destinations where they’re taking them,” Yarbough, who now lives in the Milwaukee area, said.
The interstate links Chicago and Milwaukee, but also heads northwest, to Minneapolis-St. Paul and into North Dakota by the oil fields, said Karri Hemmig, founder and executive director of the Fight to End Exploitation, which developed and is administering the I-94 Project.
The project’s goal is to raise awareness of human trafficking in the area around I-94. Information placed in strategic locations also provides contacts for victims to use.
Human trafficking victims can be spotted at truck stops and hotels along the corridor, said Scott Abrams, kickoff committee chair of the project, if you know what to look for. Many times, they won’t have a cell phone or an ID, he said, or they might wear revealing clothing, or be dressed in a way that looks inappropriate for girls in their teens.
Children brought into the sex trafficking industry are often teenagers, with the average age of entry between 14 and 16 years old.
Sometimes they’ll have a number tattooed somewhere on their body as a way for their pimps to brand them as their property, Abrams added.
“People who might be victims are intermingling between us,” Abrams said.
Lured into trafficking
Yarbrough was introduced to the human trafficking world by her best friend’s older brother. He “Romeo’d” her, making her feel special and loved.
After being inappropriately touched as a child, Yarbrough didn’t know how to process those feelings, leaving her feeling vulnerable, she recalls.
Part of the I-94 Project is to demolish misconceptions about human trafficking, Abrams said.
Some of those misconceptions are that those involved in the sex trade want to be doing the work. That isn’t that case, he said. Most of the time they are forced or romanticized into it, such as Yarbrough’s situation, Abrams said.
A woman who groomed Yarbrough into sex trafficking later had an emotional conversation with Yarbrough, about how she didn’t need to be doing that type of work.
The woman drove Yarbrough home to Milwaukee along I-94, the same route that led her to human trafficking. A series of life events kept Yarbrough into and out of group sex trafficking and independent prostitution for years.
Education is key
About 800,000 drivers per day see the billboards along I-94 which depict signs of human trafficking and instructions on how to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 888-373-7888, to report concerns.
In 2016, the hotline received 26,727 calls, with 7,572 cases of human trafficking reported. In Wisconsin, it found 63 reported cases of human trafficking in 2016, up from 50 in 2015.
The I-94 program wants to reach women in situations similar to what Yarbrough experienced. They plan to distribute lipstick cases through advocates and agencies such as Planned Parenthood to get information to victims on how to get help.
The campaign also distributed about 4,000 posters at truck stops and hotels along the interstate which depict different types of trafficking, both labor and sex-related.
In 2016, most of the reported trafficking cases the hotline received were related to sex trafficking, including commercial-front brothels. Eight concerned labor trafficking, including anything from domestic work to health and beauty services.
Raising awareness is an important part of combating the problem.
“We know from research that education is the best way to fight human trafficking,” Hemmig said.
Advocating for victims
Yarbrough uses what she learned through her time in sex trafficking to help women in the same situations with her nonprofit, Fresh Start Learning, based in Milwaukee. It offers a variety of umbrella programs and classes to help those in need, including the Purpose Filled Purse program.
Yarbrough and her volunteers fill purses with toiletries such as tampons and deodorant and a handwritten letter of love to give as “an olive branch” to the women and children in the sex trafficking world.
By opening that line of communication, it builds trust if they want to reach out to get out of the human trafficking world, Yarbrough said.
More programs run by Fresh Start Learning and volunteering opportunities can be found at freshstartlearning.org or by calling 414-800-6269.
Local advocacy will continue with another community event in Kenosha in September.
The I-94 program plans to end with an appearance at Carthage College by Elizabeth Smart, a woman who was abducted at 14 years old.
“We’re trying different ways to be impactful and reach people this summer,” Hemmig said.
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