Northwest-KC bringing together higher ed leaders, exhibit to raise awareness of human trafficking

Northwest Missouri State University-Kansas City is working with the Kansas City region and its communities this month to bring awareness to the issue of human trafficking.

Northwest-Kansas City, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, will host higher education professionals from the Kansas City area and hear from experts and survivors of human trafficking. Attendees also will receive a call to action in hopes of reducing human trafficking in the region.

The meeting, titled the “Call to Action Coalition Summit,” is sponsored by Ad Astra and will feature presentations by Tereasa Brown, a victim assistance specialist with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations Immigrations and Customs Enforcement; September Trible and Russ Tuttle, of the Stop Trafficking Project; and Kris Wade, of The Justice Project KC.

“Northwest-KC wants to become a leader in the Kansas City region in helping communities improve,” Dr. Jay Johnson, Northwest’s associate provost of academic operations and development and the interim director of Northwest-Kansas City, said. “We want to help our community grow through workforce-relevant academic programming and community-minded action.”

In conjunction with the summit, Northwest-Kansas City will host “The Apathy Effect,” a traveling exhibit that immerses its audiences in international stories of resilient young survivors of human trafficking and empowers participants with a response to issues of exploitation. The multimedia journey is presented through original film, photography and artifacts.

The exhibit, sponsored by iEmpathize and Ad Astra, is open at Northwest-Kansas City between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Feb. 25-27. Thirty-minute guided tours of the exhibit are encouraged and available at https://iempathize.org/events/apathy-effect-exhibit-northwest-missouri-state-kansas-city/.

For more information about the “Call to Action Coalition Summit” and “The Apathy Effect,” visit www.nwmissouri.edu/kc/events/coalitionsummit.htm.

Northwest-Kansas City, which is located at the Northland Innovation Campus in Gladstone, offers opportunities to complete undergraduate completion programs in applied science, business, marketing, communication, education, health science, psychology and technology. Northwest-Kansas City also provides client-based training and partners with a variety of organizations to offer credit, non-credit and continuing education professional development opportunities. For more information about Northwest-Kansas City, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/kc/.