KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It's a hidden issue that needs a spotlight, so it can be stopped. That's according to those on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking in East Tennessee.
An annual report by the group Engage Together, in partnership with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Human Trafficking Task Force, shows upper East Tennessee, a region encompassing Knox, Blount and Sevier counties, was at severe risk of human trafficking in 2023.
The report also concludes that nonprofits carry 77% of the burden in the region to address the crime, followed by the government at 13%. All other sectors landed at less than 5% of engagement efforts.
Meanwhile, the caseload for East Tennessee's main agency fighting human trafficking continues to grow.
For 13 years, the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking has been helping survivors.
"Each person's trauma is different, each person's experience is different, each person's need is different. What it takes to make one person whole looks different from another person," said Tara Davis, CCAHT's community relationship coordinator.
"We're not even really seeing an increase or uptick in what we think are the actual human trafficking numbers. We just are seeing more reported cases," Davis said. "People are becoming more aware of what it is, what it looks like, what's happening to them."
That awareness is what Davis and others at CCAHT spread across the region.
"People have had a hard time recognizing that this is actually criminal," she said. "In our area, particularly, there's kind of a mentality of this is how it's always happened in a relationship with like a mom, who maybe has a drug habit and sells her kids."
Davis said these are the scenarios happening most often in neighborhoods across East Tennessee. It's a sad reality that Hayley Griffith teaches people about across 33 counties.
"Human trafficking doesn't happen the way that we expect it to, or that we often think that it does," she said. "Trafficking really happens with people that the victim knows and trusts and loves."
Griffith said it almost never happens the way it's depicted in movies or on social media, and stranger danger shouldn't be the focus.
"There is a great need to have a more nuanced conversation about what human trafficking is and what it looks like," she said.
In 2023, CCAHT served 383 people in East Tennessee. Almost half were under 18 years old.
According to the Engage Together report, the biggest factors associated with human trafficking in East Tennessee are sexual assault, domestic violence and drug offenses. Rep. Sam McKenzie (D - Knoxville) said the state can do more to support nonprofits such as CCAHT.
"The state of Tennessee absolutely can give more and can do more," he said. "It boils down to the people on the streets, and those are the non-profits, people that are passionate about it, that are giving their everyday attention to that, and what we can do is support them financially."
"Love grows here is [a] term that we use around here, but it's so true," Davis said. "We do lead with love."
CCAHT provides free education training to groups and individuals across East Tennessee. To learn more about how to help in the fight against human trafficking, contact hayley@ccaht.org.