Professional Advocate, Sabrina Hannon, Talks with Gender Studies Students
Sabrina Hannon gained experience working for Love 146, an anti-human trafficking organization, founded and ran NEPA NOW (a chapter of the National Organization of Women), co-founded and co-directs Persist NEPA (an intersectional grassroots feminist nonprofit), and currently works as a Medical Advocacy Program Coordinator for the Women’s Resource Center as well as being a member of the NEPA Task Force Against Human Trafficking and Medical Advocacy Task Forces in Lackawanna and Susquehanna Counties. She took time out of her busy schedule to share her experience and her wisdom with our girls.
Sabrina discussed the importance of education and raising awareness as activism, particularly concerning Anti-Human Trafficking. She explained how Love 146 was named after a child who was trafficked and couldn’t be saved, as well as the emotional toll that intervention roles can have on those involved.
Rome reflected that one of the ideas Sabrina touched on that was surprising is that “labor trafficking often involved the elderly for motel or manual jobs.” Sabrina explained that human trafficking encompasses labor, sex, organ, and baby trafficking. Throughout and after COVID, there has been a large rise in labor trafficking with the elderly as traffickers stake out pharmacies, pay for prescriptions when the elderly can’t, then tell them they now work for the traffickers.
After Sabrina expanded on her work experiences, Kamryn commented that she was surprised that “88% of trafficking victims see medical providers while they are being trafficked, but less than 1% of trafficking victims are identified.” Part of Sabrina’s work as a medical advocate has been to develop a screening tool that is currently being implemented and is the only one of its kind, designed to help identify victims of human trafficking.
As part of her mission to continue raising awareness and education, Sabrina kindly passed on a list of socials and reliable websites for those interested to use.
WRC
Facebook: @Women’s Resource Center
Instagram: We have 2: @teenwrc and @wrcnepa
Socials for Persist NEPA
Instagram PersistNEPA
Facebook PERSISTNEPA
Human Trafficking Reliable Resources:
Rebecca Bender https://www.rebeccabender.org/
Love 146 https://love146.org/
Heal Trafficking https://healtrafficking.org/
Futures Without Violence https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/
Grier School
2522 Grier School Rd. | P.O. Box 308; Birmingham, PA 16686-0308
Phone: 814-684-3000 | Fax: 814-684-2177
Phone: 814-684-3000 | Fax: 814-684-2177
