In Anaheim, the police department shifted the way they approach prostitution. Rather than arresting women, they began to target pimps, and send women to social services.”In 2010, Anaheim reported 76 prostitution-related arrests, the fewest of any year in the previous three decades.” Other police department’s have adopted “john schools.” Men who solicit prostitution have their charges dropped in exchange they must go to diversion classes. “A 2008 study found San Francisco’s program had reduced the rate of repeat offenses by 40 percent.”

Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, North Carolina's health centers are relying on old methods to reach and educate uninsured and medically vulnerable patients, many of whom don't have access to the internet. Staff are posting fliers in commonly-trafficked locations, hanging signs at health centers, taking out television ads, and asking community leaders to relay hygiene guidelines by word of mouth.

Marking a departure from other countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America, Jamaica has seen its crime rate fall after many years of lawlessness. A combination of factors helped bring this about, including putting resources toward combatting corruption, fostering community policing and also seeking help from outsiders to strengthen institutions. Progress may be tenuous if drug trafficking is pushed out elsewhere and lands in Jamaica, however many are optimistic permanent change has taken root.

Truck stops are a hotspot for human trafficking. In Arkansas, where trucking is one of the state’s largest industries, truck drivers are being trained to spot human trafficking. If they see anything suspicious, they can report to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 911, or local law enforcement.

Two Nepali relatives were trapped in the same home in the United States. One sneaked out after six months. Freeing her mother's cousin would take a little longer, but a Nepali organization was able to rescue her by providing a literal escape route.

AnnieCannons, is a nonprofit that teaches sex traffic survivors computer software skills so they can be employed as developers. It also emphasizes networking and tries to secure job placement. “I’ve never been happier ... having a steady paycheck for the first time since I was like 16 and just like actual real financial security where I know I’m going to get paid every two weeks, and I can start to like just settle into my life, finally.”

My Red Light is a brothel in Amsterdam run by sex workers. While sex work is legal in the country, exploitation and human trafficking is still pervasive. However, My Red Light tries to counter this by only hiring “people who have been thoroughly vetted to ensure they are not being trafficked, pimped or exploited.”

In the rural villages surrounding Mandalay in Myanmar, marionette puppet masters pull the strings to teach children about topics ranging from health and hygiene to human trafficking. In addition to offering memorable lessons to students, the shows offer entrepreneurial women a chance to enter a profession once reserved for males.

Miami is home to a special type of child welfare program called CHANCE (Citrus Helping Adolescents Negatively Impacted by Commercial Exploitation) that is designed specifically for youth in foster care that have been trafficked. CHANCE has an intensive curriculum that educates foster parents and clinicians about child sex trafficking and child trauma, and families are only allowed to take in one child at a time so that they are prepared for the child's unique health needs. Studies done on the program have found that the youth have significant improvement in many emotional and mental categories.

Seattle's anti-trafficking program has enabled a high number of prosecutions against human traffickers. The program's task force depends on coordinating a number of actors across agencies and gaining funding from the Justice Department.

Largely unbeknownst to the public eye, Cleveland has been battling human trafficking in various forms for many years. Recently, the city has become a leader in trying to eradicate this longstanding problem. Thanks to a small group of activists and nonprofits, using billboards and gift bags as well as other creative methods, these groups are raising awareness, conducting strip club outreach, and creating a victim support network to help make human trafficking an issue of the past.

Illicit activity is rampant in the rundown motel rooms dotting Costa Mesa’s Harbor and Newport boulevards. Officials think they finally have a plan to make some of those motels disappear: Property zoning.

Female sex workers in the United States face greater incidents of rape, drug abuse, health risks, and suicide, contributing to a high mortality rate. Incarcerating the number of prostitutes is also costly. Dallas Police Department has initiated the PDI New Life program, which catches prostitutes and brings them to a 45-day temporary shelter to receive social services, health care, counseling, and alternative employment.

Hundreds of Indian oil workers were sent to the Gulf Coast after Katrina, but their working conditions were far below any human standard. In an unprecedented response, they brought a lawsuit against the company that hired them - and won.

Part 1 of a series on solutions to freeing victims of labor trafficking around the globe. Labor trafficking is a deeply entrenched problem, woven into global economies where the victims are often hidden in plain sight. Almost everyone in the US owns some product likely made with slave labor. But there is hope - from grassroots workers’ coalitions to multilateral treaties and geo-data manipulation to new law enforcement initiatives, individuals are finding new ways to counter labor trafficking.

After 15 years of collecting dung and DNA from elephants, conservation biologist Samuel Wasser and his team were able to create a map documenting nearly all of the African elephant populations. With this in place, the information can be used to help law enforcement identify poaching hotspots and arrest ivory traffickers. Now this same process is being applied to other endangered species.

Theater bridges cultural divides and helps migrants cope with trauma. The Liquid Company, founded in 2013 in Catania, Italy, offers migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who have crossed the Mediterranean a therapeutic outlet to heal and manage their emotions. The multicultural group uses the stage and creative forms of expression to share their stories of struggle, ranging from human trafficking and shipwreck to feelings of displacement and isolation. By giving young migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers a voice, the Liquid Company empowers them to create their own narrative.

An Israeli Facebook group serves as a women's network for current or former prostitutes seeking help and support. The Hebrew-language group, called Lo Omdot Mineged, provides help in many forms, ranging from crowdsourcing money for groceries to building alliances with women struggling to find work outside of prostitution.

Online buyers of sex now have a great chance of running into the NYPD's latest initiative to combat trafficking amongst prostitution: a chatbot called Freedom Signal. Originated by an organization called Seattle Against Slavery, this bot collects solicitors' phone numbers and warns them of arrest, as well as using strategically-placed ads and text conversations with real trafficking survivors. The bot is 1,200% more productive than a full-time staff, 10 times more effective than on-the-street outreach, is currently being used in 13 cities, and makes buyers 50-80% less likely to be caught a second time.

Japan has one of the lowest death by gun rates in the world, 6 to 33599. How? The country has established strict policies for buying and maintaining guns. The police force has installed restrictions regarding the use of guns so that other non-life threatening methods are used.

In India, survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation are joining together to form support groups that aim to change community perspectives around prevention and rehabilitation efforts for young women. Not only has this created more awareness around the topic, but has also allowed those involved to gain a sense of agency and independence.

A class designed by UC Davis researchers is helping parents of sex-trafficked kids and teens learn the skills necessary for successful reunification. The first class of its kind, it focuses on educating parents through trauma and giving them the tools they need to help both themselves and their children.

In Nepal a team of people monitor border crossings to rescue young women being trafficked into brothels in India. The women are tricked into believing there are jobs waiting for them rather than brutal lives of sexual servitude. The volunteer interceptors work with the organization Love Justice, which says it makes about 90 successful interventions every month, to reconnect the young women to their families or to other organizations.

Countries around the world have been testing the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, as assistive technology to solving crimes. From creating algorithms that can identify victims of sex trafficking online to developing machine learning mechanisms that can identify and distinguish different DNA strands, officials hope that AI can help law enforcement more efficiently and effectively solve complex cases.

In Colorado, four communities are piloting a program that offers low-level drug or prostitution offenders an alternative to prison. This program, known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, matches the offender with a case manager who in turn connects them with treatment and training resources.

Human trafficking has become an increasingly prevalent problem, especially in states such as Florida that host a large tourist population. To better serve the victims, Miami-Dade County has created a trauma-focused court that directs adolescents to support services rather than prostitution charges.

Girls in India are sometimes forced into the prospects of child marriage, prostitution, or slave labor; alternatively, families often teach girls to be wives and mothers. To empower girls to make their own choices, Yuwa, an NGO based in India, introduces girls to sports for social development. Yuwa also promotes educational workshops for girls, where girls can discuss women’s rights and their thoughts about their own bodies.

Human trafficking is a rampant problem throughout the world, but the signs can often be difficult to spot. A collaboration between Catholic churches and police officers to fight the issue together takes shape.

Formed in 2013, the coalition of guest workers is recognized by the Mexican government. It gives transnational workers a platform to demand solutions to issues like recruitment fraud and trafficking.

Various courts in California are lowering repeat offenses among men who are charged with prostitution by educating them about the negative effects of prostitution.

In Colorado, a state law requiring the use of a screening tool is being used to combat sex trafficking at the individual level. The screening tool identifies and offers support and protection to victims of sex trafficking – many of whom are runaways from the foster care system – and has led to multiple prosecutions of sex traffickers.

Covenant House is Philadelphia's only shelter for older adolescents who have run away, been victims of abuse, been sex trafficked or abandoned.

Germany has identified a problem with refugees hearing lies about migrating to Germany, often from traffickers who just want to make money. 'Rumours about Germany' is a website for migrants to get the truth about Germany.

Opera theaters are struggling to sell tickets, but some productions are taking it as an opportunity to reinvent the way viewers experience Opera, bringing rise to a new opera. The University of California San Diego presented two new operas that dealt with gun violence and sex trafficking, while in New York the “The Mile-Long Opera” featured choir singers lined along the 1.45-mile elevated Highland park, while the audience walked freely amongst them. “An estimated fifteen thousand people attended “The Mile Long Opera.”

In Ethiopia, Ellita Products and its sister organization Ellita Women at Risk (EWAR), are working to end generational poverty and prostitution through comprehensive rehabilitation programs and skills training. To reduce reliance on donations, Ellita Products employs many who have been through EWAR's programming to produce clothing, jewelry, and more for wholesale retail. So far, EWAR has reached about 1,000 and 90% of those have not returned to prostitution to make ends meet.

The group Truckers Against Trafficking launched in 2009 to enlist the help of truck drivers to spot and report cases of human trafficking, which was common at many truck stops. The group trains truckers through video tutorials using experts on trafficking to offer tips on how to spot people being coerced into prostitution. Eight states now require the training and parts of the program are used in nearly 40 states, while truckers have helped identify more than 1,000 trafficking victims.

The passage of the 2018 Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act was meant to hold accountable the online platforms where sex trafficking and sex work took place, but a year into its existence, it has shown negative, unintended consequences. The legislation has effectively shown an impact in moving sex trafficking offline, but experts now say it has moved onto the street, making it harder to track and catch.

Truckers are ideally placed to spot and report sex trafficking. “They’ve been trained to be vigilant and they’re on the city streets, pulling into areas and being put up in hotels where this happens,” says Kylla Lanier, deputy director for Truckers Against Trafficking.

Kabubbu Development Project is a reproductive health NGO in Wakiso district of Uganda that is teaching middle and high school girls to make reusable sanitary pads. Lack of pads can mean the difference between going to school or not. The school found that when some young women had no money they turned to prostitution to afford hygiene products and go to school.

Promising and innovative solutions to modern-day slavery range from labeling U.S. food products to forming joint police-NGO task forces. Each addresses a different aspect of slavery in the modern world, a pernicious problem that receives relatively little media attention.

Lane County, Oregon is one of many of the state’s counties working to create a survivor-focused network of responses to sex trafficking. The Lane County Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Multidisciplinary Team is seeking to strengthen existing organizations, like the Department of Human Services, Planned Parenthood, and mental health providers, by connecting them – creating a more efficient, effective response to a uniquely challenging issue.

A publicly available online platform launched by the New York Attorney General fills in big data gaps on guns being used in crimes and trafficked from elsewhere. “We were able to get a snapshot really quickly of where the worst guns are ending up and where they started.” The data can establish groundwork for interstate trafficking cases and also inform policy decisions and New York is happy to share the technology other communities can build their own databases.

Crushing poverty and extreme violence - fueled by drug trafficking and police corruption - are behind a mass migration of Central American children to the United States in recent months that has overwhelmed U.S. border resources and driven illegal immigration to the fore in U.S. congressional elections. But the United Nations has praised Nicaragua's security model, which includes social services to help youths in gangs find jobs as well as sport programs like little-league baseball teams.

Truckers Against Trafficking are making an impact in reducing sex trafficking in the US by educating truckers, their companies, and the law enforcement that intersect with commercial drivers on how to spot sex trafficking and how to respond. To date, this 10-year-old organization has trained more than 700,000 truckers, and does further outreach with initiatives like "Man to Man" (which trains truckers to talk to other men about the issue) and "The Freedom Drivers Project" (a mobile museum about sex trafficking that goes to events like trucker conventions).

A new law seeks to protect vulnerable guest workers and unwary businesses from unscrupulous recruiters by requiring them to register with the state and meet certain requirements.

When Emily Kennedy was a teenager traveling in Eastern Europe she saw street kids she learned were trafficked by the Russian mob and decided to tackle human trafficking in her college work. The company she launched, Marinus Analytics, created a software application that has been used by authorities to rescue hundreds of victims in the U.S. and Canada and is expanding. The data it gathers has also debunked assumptions about how and where trafficking takes place.

Part 2 of a series on solutions to freeing victims of labor trafficking around the globe. With the help of organizations like Damayan Migrant Workers Association in New York, former victims who have been freed from labor trafficking become advocates for others, demanding changes and becoming part of the solution to a vicious cycle of worker victimization.

Treating women who are coerced into human trafficking as victims provides opportunities for recovery. Alongside the passage of legislation against human trafficking in Ohio, Franklin County courts have implemented a recovery program. Changing Actions to Change Habits (CATCH), provides victims of human trafficking with support in the form of housing, food, and treatment for addiction and trauma. In exchange for participation in the program, women can have their records expunged.

To solve rhinoceros poaching crimes and catch ivory traffickers, researchers in South Africa are finding ways to use genetic fingerprinting and other DNA evidence. These methods that have been the industry standard in the human criminal justice system for decades are not just helping identify criminals. They are also helping identify particularly vulnerable trafficking areas.

Cheetah cubs are routinely smuggled through Somaliland on their way to being illegally trafficked in United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia. Although small and resource-deprived, Somaliland is taking a stand against this practice through increased regulations and punishments.

A nonprofit in India is training victims of sexual assault and trafficking to work as lawyers and seek justice for themselves or others. The program offers both counseling and rehabilitation services and formal legal education.

Ivory poaching has decreased the number of live elephants by one-fifth in the past decade. Although Kenya has ratified laws that make ivory poaching and trafficking punishable, identifying smugglers at border security is still a challenge. Airports in Kenya and Tanzania have employed dogs to sniff out ivory hidden in transit with a high success rate of 18 busts in four months at the Kenya location.