Anti-human trafficking advocates want to see more from lawmakers in 2024
LAKELAND, Fla. - Some Bay Area anti-trafficking organizations are looking back at the year of progress they had in fighting human trafficking, and nonprofit One More Child said 2023 was a record year.
January marks National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and Lakeland-based nonprofit One More Child looked at its numbers this week, finding it was a banner year for its anti-trafficking program.
"For the state of Florida, we served over 600 survivors throughout the state. We also increased how many survivors we were serving by over 150 percent," said Jodi Domangue, the executive director of anti-trafficking at One More Child. "People would be surprised at the prevalence of human trafficking."

Deputies arrest accused human trafficker.
Human trafficking is crime that led to bust after bust across counties in the Bay Area in 2023. In October, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies arrested six men for traveling to meet a minor for sex. In Polk County, deputies arrested more than 200 people in September.
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One More Child works closely with sex trafficking survivors and provides a variety of services and help including mental health, food, clothing and more.
"We’ve seen an increase in services year over year. We’ve seen an increase in need year over year but we’re also seeing the trend of more awareness out there. That’s been very beneficial," said Domangue, adding that she believes that’s a combined result of more people in the state, work from law enforcement and more reporting of the crime.

Deputies arrest accused human trafficker.
New anti-human trafficking state laws passed last year also helped.
"We’ve seen a lot of gains when it comes to creating privacy for our survivors, protections for our survivors," she said.
While they pushed forward, there’s more progress anti-trafficking advocates want to see from lawmakers.

"Session is about to go in and some proposals we have for 2024 that we really want to get behind include increasing penalties for first-time buyers, creating devices that are safer for our children," said Domangue.
READ: Tampa police rescue 17-year-old girl from human trafficking
One More Child said its representatives will go to Tallahassee for two days during the upcoming state legislative session at the state capitol on January 16 and 17. They will talk with legislators about how important human trafficking prevention and awareness efforts are.