On January 15, members of ASEZ, the Church of God University Student Volunteer Group, in California, held a crime prevention forum in the U.S. in celebration of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. President Joe Biden declared January 2023 as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month on December 30 last year, saying, “Nearly 25 million people around the world have been deprived of their safety, dignity, and freedom due to human trafficking.” ASEZ members from Los Angeles, San Diego, Escondido, and Sunland held a crime prevention forum at Haines Hall, the University of California, Los Angeles, and provided expert lectures to find the role of university students in preventing human trafficking and other crimes.
At the beginning of the forum, the presider shared the current crime situation in the region and urged the students to actively participate in crime prevention activities with interest in them, saying, “If we, university students, actively take part in preventing crime, we can reduce the crime rate.”
Michelle Guymon, the Director of the Child Trafficking Unit with the Los Angeles County
The first speaker, Michelle Guymon, the Director of the Child Trafficking Unit with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, introduced the “Safe Youth Zone,” a designated area created to ensure that teenagers who wander the streets with nowhere to go do not become victims of crime. Michelle emphasized that it is important for individuals to report crimes they witness without hiding them.
Then Simon Miller, a social activist, raised awareness of human trafficking crimes based on his own experience and garnered sympathy from the attendees. The last speaker, Sherriff Jeffery Walker from LA County, said that trafficking can happen to anyone, explaining how it occurs, including the terminology used by criminals, and then offered specific ways to prevent it.
Karina Barrera from UCLA, the presider, said, “Nowadays, the crime rate is increasing day by day. This forum gave me an opportunity to think about our role in preventing crime.” Isabel Janbahan from Pierce College said, “I felt that the key is to acknowledge and address crimes in society instead of ignoring them. I want to correctly perceive the issues we are facing and actively respond to them in order to help our neighbors.”
In order to eradicate crime that threatens the safety of society, all members of society must pay attention and take action. ASEZ, the Church of God University Student Volunteer Group, is making efforts to create a safe, crime-free future through awareness-raising campaigns and various volunteer activities around the world.
