ODESSA, Texas — The Odessa Police Department and Harmony Home Children's Advocacy continued their efforts to raise awareness on human trafficking Tuesday.
As the month of January recognizes child trafficking awareness, both organizations came together at this month's Neighborhood Watch Meeting, giving tips on ways a person can spot child trafficking and how a person can prevent a trafficking situation.
"So most people think for a person to be trafficked, they need to be like abducted and chipped away or chained up and taken somewhere different," Harmony Home Prevention Director Amanda Allen said. "But some teens and young adults are actually trafficked right out of their home. So some things you can really look out for is like if a teen or young adult has like really nice or expensive clothing where they typically otherwise should not or would not. Or if they're maybe constantly with another partner or love interest that they think that's maybe controlling of them or pushing them to answer questions for them."
Allen told NewsWest 9 that victims 18 years old and younger are usually not aware that they're being taken advantage of, and to approach them not as a victim of trafficking, but help them understand the situation.
To learn more about ways to stop human trafficking, Harmony Home will be putting on another community event on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Chris Kyle Memorial off of Highway 191. They'll be doing a blue sand pouring event, along with guest speakers from the City of Odessa.