The Unheard Voices Benefit Concert was held on Wednesday, Feb. 4, and had the theme of Fighting Human and Labor Trafficking in Wash.

Every quarter, Unheard Voices, a program through the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (CLCE), hosts an event based off of the survey results collected from their previous event.

This time, the most popular educational topic was human trafficking.

The Washington Anti-trafficking Response Network (WARN) defines human trafficking as “the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel a person into any form of work or service against their will.”

WARN provides information on how to identify and possibly stop a trafficking situation on their web site.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated in 2014 that approximately 21 million people are being forced into labor, globally: 11.4 million females and 9.5 million males, respectively.

According to the ILO, “of those exploited [. . .] 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.”

Human trafficking is used for sex work, manual labor and other domestic work industries.

According to the ILO, indigenous people and those who are migrating to find work are more susceptible to entering into abusive occupations.

According to the Polaris Project, a non-profit dedicated to fighting against slavery and human trafficking, “victims are frequently lured by false promises of a lucrative job, stability, education or a loving relationship.”

Polaris also said, “Immigration status, recruitment debt, isolation, poverty and a lack of strong labor protections are just some of the vulnerabilities that can lead to labor trafficking.”

Labor trafficking is the most common type of trafficking found in the state.

Partnering with Campus Activities, WARN, and Northwest Justice Project (NJP), Unheard Voices hosted a benefit concert on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the SURC Pit to entertain and to inform people about the problem of human trafficking and labor trafficking specifically.

The partnership between Campus Activities and the CLCE is new this quarter. Upon finding that they had two events scheduled back-to-back, one being the trafficking program and the other a Will Evans concert, the two organizations decided to combine the two.

Head of planning for the Unheard Voices portion of the evening are program leaders Rachel Mahnke, junior economics major, and Jessica Baker, senior environmental biology major.

Both did a bit of research before planning this event.

“I didn’t realize how big of an issue it was and that was kind of shocking,” Baker said. “You kind of hear about it in the background, but it’s never been like, ‘whoa, that’s a lot.’”

Both of the non-Central organizations working with Unheard Voices are based in Yakima, a hub for agricultural business in Washington.

“There’s a really big business, I guess you could say, for having immigrants working for you, but not documenting it, not doing it the proper way,” Mahnke said. “That’s where labor trafficking comes in. And that’s the focus of these organizations.”

Involved in the entertainment aspect of this event are three performers: two student groups brought in by the CLCE and one headliner, as previously booked by Campus Activities, Will Evans. In between performances, members of WARN and NJP provided information on the topic of labor trafficking in our area.

Both organizations set up tables with staff to answer questions throughout the event in order to allow students to connect with them and get more information.

“It’s about spreading awareness for people who want to get involved.” Mahnke said. “We want to give them the opportunity to make the connections because a lot of people at the college are like ‘I really think this is bad that this is going on, but what can I do about?’”

Samantha Hayes and Stephen Heil, who are both in charge of musical programs for the department, along with Scott Drummond, Director of Campus Activities, are involved with the Campus Activities side of things.

“The idea came up, ‘would Will possibly be willing to join in on the program and I guess in a sense become the headliner of that evening to kind of bring a little extra to the program?’” Drummond said.

Will Evans, who was originally booked by the team at Campus Activities for a separate event, acted as the face of the evening.

By agreeing to play for this benefit he has signed on to present himself as an advocate for human trafficking awareness.

“[Will Evans] is going to add his name to that,” Drummond said. “He’s really willing to go ahead and do that and to kind of service that capstone piece to that evening.”

The event will not only be an example of how different Central departments can work together, but how Central as a school can bring people in to unite around a certain cause, like educating people on the reality of human trafficking.

“Unheard Voices is just an outlet for us to bring people in that are experts on the topic,” Mahnke said.