Zonta club to host human trafficking survivor.

Theresa Flores

Zonta club to host human trafficking survivor.

LUDINGTON — The Zonta Club of Ludington will host Theresa Flores, a human trafficking survivor on Friday, April 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, 107 S. Harrison Street. The free event will also feature Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole.

Flores was sold in an underground crime ring in an upper middle class suburb outside Detroit from the time she was 15- to 17-years-old.  She will talk about what can happen to a victim physically and emotionally when being trafficked. As a result her efforts, the Theresa Flores Law was passed in Michigan in 2014 that eliminated the statute of limitation for children who have been trafficked.

Flores has been a licensed social worker for over 20 years. She was appointed to the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission in 2009 and has testified before the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate in support of human trafficking legislation.

Sheriff Cole will also be sharing what he has witnessed in our the local area.

Michigan law enforcement takes more than 1,000 reports of missing children every month. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicates one in seven runaways are likely victims of child sex trafficking.  According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Michigan had 305 human trafficking cases reported and 962 contacts made to the hotline in 2017, an increase from 249 and 843, respectively, in 2016.