Office of the Mayor

Proclamation

Lawrence, Kansas

WHEREAS:   Human trafficking, a modern form of slavery, is one of the largest and fastest-growing criminal industries in the world, and is based on recruiting, harboring, and transporting people for the purpose of exploitation; and

WHEREAS:   Sex trafficking and labor trafficking occur in Kansas, and both adults and children of any gender, socio-economic status, age, race, sexual orientation, or geographic location can become victimized; and

WHEREAS: Human trafficking includes sexual, verbal, emotional, economic, and physical abuse and exploitation, and all forms of abuse carry long-term complex trauma implications; and

WHEREAS:   Kansas human trafficking laws define commercial exploitation of children, which does not require a showing of force, fraud, threat or coercion and references the existing statutory definition of human trafficking and aggravated human trafficking; and

WHEREAS:   The effects of human trafficking reach for beyond its victims and perpetrators, causing disruption in our schools, places of work, and neighborhoods; and

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mike Amyx, Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, do hereby proclaim the month of January, 2017 as

human trafficking awareness month

and urges the citizens of Lawrence to speak out against sex and labor trafficking and exploitation, to support survivors of these heinous crimes, to encourage community leaders to hold offenders accountable, and to make preventable efforts a priority by hosting events, by creating policies at work, school, and home, and by supporting and participating in programs designed to reduce and eventually eliminate human trafficking as a societal problem.

                                                          Mike Amyx, Mayor

January 3, 2017