What We Know
Bravestone Project understands that human trafficking and/or sexual traumas can be very complex. Often times issues can surround the victims/survivors of human trafficking and sexual traumas. The facts of human trafficking and getting the appropriate data and statistics can be very challenging to say the least.
Victims often times do not come forward for help, there are many reasons for this but to list just a couple they may not know they are victims, they may fear retaliation or even death, they fear getting into trouble with law enforcement, perhaps there is an addiction involved, and the list goes on.
Victims can suffer from both mental and physical health issues, they may have suicidal ideations or have had prior suicide attempts, they may self harm because of the abuse, they may have an eating disorder, they may suffer from addictions including sex addictions, they may suffer more severe physical issues then normal because of beatings or other types of abuses.
They may have lost all hope of anything and suffer from depression, anxiety, PTSD, bi-polar, schizophrenia, OCD and more. They may be malnourished or have wounds or injuries that have not been treated. They may have had to have several abortions so they can keep working, or forced to have many babies back to back for the business AKA baby brokering. They may be undocumented and struggle with the thought of being deported. There may be language barriers that prevent them from obtaining the appropriate type of help.
Survivors may have boundary issues or not quite understanding the difference from right and wrong when it comes to relationships and love, family, or even work.There are times the victims can become the aggressor out of self preservation. There are times where a victim is pulled out of a commercial sex trafficking situation only to go back into it because it is the only way they know how to make money to survive.
Breaking the myth that “It doesn’t happen here” has been a large challenge for Bravestone Project even when working with other organizations. We continue to educate our community, collect the appropriate data that we can find, and work with survivors who are referred to us by other agencies. There are different types of trafficking and we are here to help both human trafficking survivors and those who have suffered from sexual traumas.
Why both? It’s simple. Labor trafficking is happening in Colorado and sometimes sex assaults can and has happened, used as a part of keeping the victim in line. Sex Trafficking does happen in Colorado both minors and adults are subjected to sex trafficking and exploitation online. We know the need for help for both are extremely high. It has been our expriences that has led us to building Bravestone Project for that specific purpose.
Unfortunately we do not have data for human trafficking specific on the western slope because of many factors but the two most common are not reporting when it happens and no record of anyone being formally charged with human trafficking in our court system.
The identifiers below are finds from our research in various areas such as police reports, newspaper articles, circumstances among various situations, our experiences and knowledge and they suspected human trafficking among the western slope.
Aside from the collective data of our own personal experiences you can find data for this blog on the National Human Trafficking Website, CBI website, thisishumantrafficking.com, RAINN, National Library of Medicine,
