At the time of the organization’s founding in 2002 and subsequent opening of our CT office in New Haven, people still heard about “trafficking” and thought we were talking about vehicle traffic on Routes I-91 and I-95. Unlike today, “human trafficking” wasn’t a term folks were familiar with. 

In 2010, we began human trafficking awareness and prevention efforts with youth in Connecticut, reaching thousands of youth across the state with education on how to reduce their risks and equip them to respond. We developed our own curriculum by 2014, and some of the first youth reached by Not a Number were in Connecticut. Today, this child trafficking prevention curriculum is being used by hundreds of organizations in dozens of states. 

In 2014, we also started providing Survivor Care services in Connecticut, and through this program we have supported hundreds of victims of child trafficking to-date, reaching youth who’ve been victimized in every county and corner. But when we first started as an organization, most of these youth would not even have been regarded as victims in Connecticut. In our organization’s early years, we got pushback from many in the state when we said that children being purchased for sex were victims — not criminals. In 2010, we were a part of finally getting “Safe Harbor” legislation passed in Connecticut that made into law what we felt clearly right: Children being bought for sex must be treated as victims of human trafficking and should be provided with services. Since 2014, Love146 Survivor Care team has grown from a single person to a staff of 23 and is now a statewide program reaching young people who’ve experienced trafficking and exploitation.