Our club’s campaign for raising public awareness of the tragedy of Human Trafficking targeted numerous persons using two different forms of media for publicizing the problem.
In November 2018 SI Elk Grove approached the Elk Grove Police Department about raising awareness of Human Trafficking in the community. In December 2018 SIEG met with and partnered with the Elk Grove Police Department to post “Stop Human Trafficking” artwork on the 50’ tall Elk Grove Auto Mall electronic billboard. The sign is potentially viewed by more than 5,000 car passengers per day travelling on the Highway 99 freeway in both directions in south Sacramento County between Sacramento and Stockton.
Our second method included placing -49- 11”X17” posters in Regional Transit (Etran) buses in the Elk Grove, California area. The posters had potential views from 85-100 bus passengers weekly for 4-6 weeks. A few club members went to a bus stop to take pictures of the posters. (See below)
This campaign was the first of its kind for Elk Grove and the surrounding area.
It was critical to our campaign mission to have the publicity in place by January 2019 (Human Trafficking Awareness Month). The impact of the campaign may not be measured in number of trafficked victims saved as yet, but it does bring an awareness to the community on a noticeable and broader measure.
The campaign brought community awareness to the Soroptimist presence in the Elk Grove area. Which will assist the club in promoting our SIA mission. Soroptimist clubs in the greater Sacramento area and the Sierra Nevada Region should be able to partner with various law enforcement and transportation agencies to promote similar “Stop Human Trafficking” campaigns.
The five (5) SI Elk Grove members involved spent about 40 hours on the project. The tasks included drafting the project, meetings, phone calls and emails to the Police Department and travel to bus sites and spent $95 total on this project for printing the posters.
The Auto Mall Sign (below) shows the artwork and logos. It has the Hotline Phone number and the website information.
The Bus Posters (below) have the artwork, logos and phone number with the following wording: “THE ELK GROVE PD IS PROUD TO PARTNER WITH SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ELK GROVE IN SUPPORT OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS MONTH”
Stop Human Trafficking Auto Mall sign SIEG Stop Human Trafficking Campaign Auto Mall Sign Stop Human Trafficking Sign SIEG Stop Human Trafficking Campaign Bus Posters in 49 e-Tran busses
Graphic-Partnering with EG Police Dept. L-R: Pamela Harris-Ball (SIEG), Jason Jiminez, EGPD; Betty Matsui (SIEG), and Tracey Edwards (SIEG)
