MU professor Kathleen Preble received a $100,000 grant from the Missouri Collaborative Against Human Trafficking.
Preble will use the money to fund her research on how to eliminate Missouri’s status as a top destination for labor and sex trafficking. She is working in collaboration and Andrea Nichols, a professor at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park.
Missouri is considered a prime location for human traffickers due to the intersection of multiple major federal interstates.
Claire Hundelt, a liaison from MCAHT, said the organization selected Preble and Nichols because their research will raise awareness about human trafficking in Missouri.
“The great part about this is it shines a light, thoughtful, evidence-based light, on the issue,” she said. “Then there is long term stewardship of this information going forward.”
Preble and Nichols launched their year-long project in January of this year. They hope to identify what services are currently available for trafficking victims and survivors in order to develop an action plan to combat exploitation in Missouri.
“This grant is vitally important to better understand what is going on in Missouri,” Preble said. “Instead of relying on anecdotes or logic or best feelings, we are developing evidence in order to be able to strategically channel our efforts in ways that will really make an impact.”
The research project will be broken into three stages and will be shared with human trafficking organizations in Missouri once completed.