A new coalition has been formed in the Rainy River District to help fight back against human trafficking.
Following a meeting of the minds earlier this year, last Tuesday, April 9, 2024, saw the initial meeting and planning session of a Human Trafficking Coalition that is aiming to tackle the occurrences of human trafficking within the region by bringing together various organizations and service providers to share knowledge between themselves and to reveal areas where action needs to be taken.
Brandis Oliver is the Memengwaawag Liaison and Case Manager for Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services, and one of the leading figures in the formation of the Human Trafficking Coalition. Herself a survivor of human trafficking, she said the new coalition already got off to a strong start during their day-long session last week.
“What we started the day with was actually doing a thing called a community chain event,” Oliver said.
“Basically, we went around the room got everybody’s information and discussed with them more about the coalition in detail… finding out who does what, where does everybody work, and what kind of help they would be to the coalition, basically. We were able to actually go through and everybody was able to notice the holes we have in services and the things that we really need to aim to alleviate to better help victims of human trafficking, due to the wait times or no transportation. We looked at different services and what they can and cannot help with when it comes to human trafficking.”
Oliver estimated there were roughly 20 different groups or organizations who took part in the initial meeting of the coalition, though there is still plenty of room for other groups to join and help better network services together and identify weak points or areas where there are gaps through which a victim could fall. In fact, she noted that the coalition itself came about largely because of feedback from the previous Human Trafficking event held in February, after participants returned a survey, and it was identified that there was both a need and a drive for such a gathering.
“The February event being the first time we had a lot of high level people actually join a human trafficking event, and when we got the surveys back after that dinner, almost every single survey said that we need to start a coalition in this area,” Oliver said.
“It was a very short turnaround, but because there was so much passion about this type of human trafficking and stuff that is happening in our area, and people are getting more aware that it is happening right here, that’s why the quick turnaround was able to happen as fast as it did. It was also to keep everybody on that high of wanting to help and wanting to support the coalition, so trying to make sure that everybody who was at the dinner had an opening to come to the coalition.”
While the group is working to identify areas that are lacking and how to better support those experiencing or surviving human trafficking, Oliver said part of the coalition’s goal is also to get more awareness of human trafficking in the area by engaging with higher levels of organizations and government.
“It is an action piece that I’ve been trying to work on; what can we do at the higher levels to actually make this a more known occurrence that is happening here?” she said.
“How can we get those high level people to agree that it is an issue? How can we get them to work with us to make those changes that need to be made? I am right now formalizing the actual list of participants that will be in the coalition and making sure they have seats, and then I will be having a first meeting with them, hopefully in the next month or two to be able to start discussing what areas we want to target first for making those changes and creating that action.”
Oliver said she’s hopeful the coalition will help to spread more awareness that human trafficking isn’t something that just happens to other people, or in far away places like large city centres, and that the work they do will help to protect and support the entire region going forward.
“I have a lot of passion towards making these changes and making people realize that it can happen to anyone,” she said.
“It is out there, and anyone can be involved in it, anybody can get caught up in it. There’s a lot of our girls that are being unfairly treated and we want to make those changes to help them. I feel really proud to see it come into fruition and really proud that I’m able to be part of this change that is happening. The coalition itself will be the bridge between Thunder Bay and Kenora for area, and this coalition will hopefully represent everybody in between those two bigger cities.”
