The Salvation Army’s Leading Individuals Gracefully out of Human Trafficking project served 64 adults and one minor in Western Pennsylvania in the past year.

One sex trafficking survivor is from Butler County and continues to be served in the area, LIGHT project director Tabitha Ceryak stated.

“Human trafficking occurs when a trafficker uses force, fraud or coercion to control another person for the purpose of commercial sex acts or soliciting labor or services against a persons will,” Ceryak stated. “Locally, we have encountered survivors of sex trafficking and labor trafficking.”

The LIGHT project provides emergency needs services, case management and transitional housing to women, men and children who are survivors of sex and labor trafficking in the surrounding 28-county Western Pennsylvania service area, Ceryak stated.

According to Ceryak, survivors have reached out to the organization directly and have been referred by other partner organizations or by law enforcement at the survivor’s request.

Among the 65 survivors served in 2023 by the Salvation Army’s LIGHT project, “46 were female, 19 were male, 37 were survivors of sex trafficking, 27 escaped labor trafficking, and there was one case of both sex and labor trafficking,” the Salvation Army stated. Twelve survivors were foreign nationals.

“Human trafficking isn’t something that happens somewhere else, labor and sex trafficking is happening in our communities and in our neighborhoods,” said Lauren Fair, divisional director of social services for the Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division.

Human trafficking is also not exclusive to urban areas.

“Many of the labor traffic survivors that we serve live in rural areas,” Ceryak stated. “Rural areas have farming industries, and this is an area that we see labor trafficking occur.”

On Saturday, Jan. 20, the Salvation Army will serve as a partner at the Survivors Speak panel discussion taking place at Pittsburgh’s City-County Building, hosted by Eden’s Farm.