Johnson County Human Trafficking Coalition: Reasons For Getting Involved with the Coalition
DVIP’s is a proud partner of the Johnson County Human Trafficking Coalition (JCHTC): a group of medical providers, law enforcement officials, attorneys, community agency providers, and education staff that are working to raise awareness on the issue of human trafficking in our community and take steps to actively combat it through education and outreach. Below you can read about one JCHTC member’s reasons for getting involved with the coalition. To learn more about how you can support the JCHTC by visiting their website at humantrafficking-ia.org
My path to becoming an advocate against human trafficking all started years ago while living in Asia. It was here that I first began to see that there were unbelievable atrocities against humans that were still occurring; exploitations and slavery were not merely a terrible past found in history books. I began to learn more about human trafficking and when I returned to the United States to start medical school I was faced with the question, is human trafficking occurring here too? As I began my career in medicine, I soon realized that human trafficking was indeed occurring in the United States, but many people were unaware of its existence. My goal was to learn as much as I could about this topic and bring awareness to the issues around human trafficking. Over the last ten years, I have learned a lot! During this time, I have worked with others in our community to plan a human trafficking conference and developed the Johnson County Human Trafficking Coalition. While there is still much work to be done, I am thankful for the community connections and partnerships that are working to educate our community and support our survivors.
Shannon Findlay, MD, MPH, CTropMed
Clinical Assistant Professor
Assistant Medical Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics