Bucks Coalition Against Trafficking (BCAT)
Mission
Human Trafficking can occur anywhere, and it happens here in Bucks County. The Bucks Coalition Against Trafficking welcomes all community members to get involved in the mission to end human trafficking. Join a subcommittee, volunteer with us, or sign up for our email list.
Interested in learning more or joining?
Contact Kir O'Hanlon at kir.ohanlon@novabucks.org.
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Quarterly Meetings
Please check back or join our mailing list for more information about the next quarterly meeting.
Everyone is welcome!
BCAT is comprised of four subcommittees:
Victim Focus
The Victim Focus subcommittee is focused on prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation for victims of human trafficking. It is also concentrated on collaboration with existing organizations to utilize available resources as well as identifying unmet needs to effectively help victims.
You’d be a good fit for this committee if:
- You are a service provider coming into direct contact with survivors of human trafficking
- You work in a field where you may come into contact with survivors of trafficking (such as nurses and other medical professionals, social workers)
- You want to collaborate with other professionals in the field and have a fuller understanding on what is going on in different aspects of the work across Bucks County
Community Outreach
The Community Outreach subcommittee is focused on educating the community about the prevalence of human trafficking in Bucks County. This subcommittee also empowers the community to spread awareness, address demand, and respond to potential trafficking situations.
You’d be a good fit for this committee if:
- You’re passionate about fighting back against human trafficking
- You want to learn more about the issue
- You want to educate other members of the community
Law Enforcement and Prosecution
The Law Enforcement and Prosecution subcommittee is focused on training and empowering law enforcement and prosecutors to effectively identify and respond to human trafficking situations and victims.
You’d be a good fit for this committee if:
- You work in law enforcement or work closely with investigators
- You want to connect with other professionals to gain a fuller understanding of the scope of the issue across different parts of the legal sector
Legislation and Public Policy
The Legislation and Public Policy subcommittee is focused on identifying public policy issues and opportunities to influence legislative initiatives related to human trafficking as well as educating the coalition and the community on current proposed legislation.
You’d be a good fit for this committee if:
- You’re passionate about fighting human trafficking
- You’re interested in advocacy and shifting legislation to best meet the needs of survivors and protect those most vulnerable
About Human Trafficking
What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of a person for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. Commonly regarded as one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time, trafficking occurs across the world. Despite popular belief that it primarily happens in other countries, trafficking occurs all across the United States, including here in Bucks County. It does not discriminate, impacting every community across age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds, though some individuals are more vulnerable.
Human Trafficking is distinguished into two categories: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 USC § 7102).
Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (22 USC § 7102).
What's the scale?
Source: Polaris Project https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/facts
Who is being trafficked?
80 percent of the people being trafficked are women and children. 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+; these youth are at a higher risk of trafficking. People of color are also at an increased risk for being trafficked.
Why don’t more people know?
The stories we hear about human trafficking and what we see about it in the media are often misleading and do not show the reality of many trafficking experiences. When people expect to see these largely sensationalized experiences, it makes it harder to identify trafficking when it really is happening. Additionally, growing acceptance of the sex industry, and myths around the idea of choice allow trafficking to happen in plain sight. This is why it is so important to get accurate information to the public.