Human Trafficking Happens Everywhere

Target Audience: Public transit is said to be a prime vehicle to inconspicuously transport victims of human trafficking (HT). A 2018 Polaris study of 104 HT survivors found 33% were trafficked on public buses. Our target audience is anyone who can see our roving billboards or messaging on board the buses and trains with our frontline employees being in a prime position to notice Human Trafficking, our social media viewers, along with our website visitors. Short, easy-to-read messaging in multiple languages is directed toward Santa Clara Valley's diverse population of over 1.8 million people.? Just as important, the messaging was for the people being trafficked to provide them with resources and give them hope.

Strategy Objective:The goal was to call attention to the broader marketing campaign with speakers from local entities fighting Human trafficking, including the District Attorney's Office, survivor service providers, County elected leaders, Mineta Transportation Institute researchers, and a light rail operator who went through awareness training. The press conference was streamed on Facebook Live for maximum exposure to news media and the public. Each speaker made a statement about how their work is advancing the fight against human trafficking, then answered reporters' questions. We had a VTA bus wrapped with the campaign collateral at the press conference, with a driver who could do interviews in English and Spanish about her experience and what she looks for while on duty.

Situation Challenge: According to the U.S. DOT as many as 27.6 million men, women, and children are held against their will and trafficked into forced labor and prostitution. Traffickers may recruit victims from bus and train stations and will use transit to transport victims to different places. Bus and train stations are also sites of recruitment as runaway youth and homeless individuals may frequent these transit hubs.?We received a 350K grant from the Federal Transit Administration to continue educating and training our employees on the signs of human trafficking and create a public education campaign.

Results Impact: The press conference drew coverage from 6 broadcast outlets and two print publications, with coverage in English, Chinese and Spanish. The wrapped bus and driver drew great interest from broadcast outlets who made it a central focus of their stories. The news conference also helped increase downloads of our emergency app by 28% in 2023. There was a 300% increase in security reports overall. 683 users visited our website blog posts and campaign landing page for a total of 911 views. Social posts drew 6064 pageviews with 608 engagements. 1800 front line employees are in the process of reviewing an updated training video. Bus shelters posters drew 1,084,523 weekly impressions.? Wrapped buses logged more than 2.4 million impressions.

Why Submit: VTA's Human Trafficking Awareness Training program was a model for state legislation requiring all transit agencies to train frontline employees on Human Trafficking awareness. ?Our campaign is original, attention-getting, with a message that's easy to report on and spread across the community.? Extensive work was done on this campaign through Marketing, Media Relations, internal communications, and training, going above and beyond for the successful news conference launched with a bang. Other transit agencies who saw the news coverage have asked to use our video for their own training purposes and utilized strategies from the press conference in their respective cities.