For nearly 25 years, Wellspring Living has walked alongside survivors of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, helping them find safe housing, healing, and a future they can call their own.

That work has taught us something the headlines often miss: trafficking is not a distant crime that happens to other people in faraway places. It happens here in Georgia, in ordinary communities, and far too often in plain sight.

Human trafficking rarely looks the way most people imagine. It seldom begins with a stranger or a kidnapping. More often, it is built on manipulation, coercion, and control by someone a survivor already knows and trusts.

The reality of trafficking shapes every aspect of our work. Before leading Wellspring Living, I spent years as a therapist, case manager, clinical supervisor, and program director serving children and families experiencing complex trauma.

What I saw then is what I see now: exploitation leaves wounds that are rarely visible from the outside, and recovery is only possible when survivors are met with safety, patience, and care that understands what they have endured.

It is a crime that works to erase a person's identity, dignity, and independence. By the time many survivors reach our doors, they are carrying profound trauma, unstable housing, financial hardship, and a deep distrust of the systems meant to protect them.

Georgia sits near the center of this crisis. In the most recent comprehensive analysis from 2022, Atlanta’s underground sex economy was estimated at roughly $300 million. As our state continues to welcome millions of visitors for major sporting events, conventions, and other gatherings, traffickers will continue looking for opportunities to exploit vulnerable people.

Let us be clear: large events do not create trafficking, but they can increase demand and draw more vulnerable people into harm's way.

Wellspring's response rests on three pillars: housing, healing, and education. In 2025 alone, Wellspring Living directly served more than 1,200 individuals through safe housing, trauma-informed care, education, and employment programs, while training more than a thousand community members to recognize the warning signs of exploitation.

This work is arduous and positive outcomes take time. Restoring a life can mean finding stable housing, securing a job, and slowly relearning how to trust. We call the people we serve survivors, not victims. What defines them is not what was done to them - but their strength, resilience, and the hope of a better future.

We have also learned that this is not work any single organization can do on its own. Disrupting trafficking takes a coordinated effort among service providers, law enforcement, hospitals, schools, businesses, faith communities, and vigilant community members.

Public awareness is one critical piece of prevention. Effective investigations are another. Just as survivors need comprehensive support, law enforcement needs every lawful tool available to identify traffickers, locate victims, and interrupt exploitation before more lives are harmed.

License plate readers have become one of those tools. When used by trained investigators with appropriate legal safeguards, they can help trace a trafficker's movements, connect suspects to criminal networks, and locate missing or exploited children far more quickly than traditional investigative methods alone.

The impact is not theoretical. This past May, a 12-year-old girl disappeared from Habersham County. Investigators entered the suspect vehicle's plate into a license plate reader system and tracked it roughly 500 miles to Daytona Beach, Florida. Within 15 minutes of locating the vehicle, deputies had it stopped, confirmed the girl was safe, and took the driver into custody.

That same speed has shown up in cases that never reach a trafficking charge but still hinge on getting to a child first. After a mother reported her 15-year-old daughter missing and then received a ransom call, the Garden City Police Department tracked the vehicle from Georgia into Louisiana using license plate reader technology and an emergency cell-phone location request. Local officers intercepted it before the girl reached Texas, and she was safely reunited with her mother.

Behind each of those investigations is a child or vulnerable person whose future may have depended on law enforcement finding them in time. When a proven investigative tool is unavailable because of cost, misunderstanding, or policy decisions, traffickers, not survivors, stand to benefit.

Trafficking is not someone else's burden, and it does not stay within city limits or state lines. But neither are we powerless against it.

Ending human trafficking will require committed citizens, strong partnerships, compassionate care, and effective law enforcement. No single organization or technology can solve this crisis alone. But together, each plays an essential role in protecting the vulnerable, helping survivors rebuild their lives, and ensuring traffickers are held accountable.

At Wellspring Living, we believe a world free from sexual exploitation is possible. Every survivor deserves the opportunity to heal, reclaim their future, and thrive. Achieving that vision will take all of us and every effective tool we have.