National Human Trafficking Prevention Policy Momentum

When Nassau County lawmakers unveiled new anti-trafficking legislation last month, Hollie Nadel stood alongside them to help make the case.

Hollie is our Director of Advocacy and Engagement. In the past few weeks alone, she has advised lawmakers, helped introduce and advance new protections, and drawn national news coverage to this work. She is also a survivor of trafficking, and she has chosen to make that part of her public voice, on her own terms.

“Sometimes the difference between a victim being missed and being recognized is not a lack of compassion,” she said at the Nassau County press conference. “It’s a lack of training.”

That idea runs through everything we saw this past month. On three fronts at once, in Congress, in California, and in Hollie’s home community on Long Island, prevention moved from conversation to action. Here’s what’s happening, and how you can help carry it forward.

In Congress: reauthorizing the tools that work

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (H.R. 1144) would renew federal funding for prevention education and survivor services through 2030. This bipartisan bill led by Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Kweisi Mfume with 24 additional bipartisan cosponsors because protecting people from trafficking isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a human one.

You can help move it forward: urge House leadership to bring H.R. 1144 to the floor for a vote. → https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1144

In California: four bills, one week, the Governor’s desk

In a single week, four bills 3Strands co-sponsored in California reached Governor Newsom’s desk. Read together, they look like a prevention blueprint: teach the people around us to recognize trafficking, and make it easier to report it when they see it.

• AB 1918 would require body-art and tattoo facilities to post trafficking-awareness information and train practitioners to recognize the signs, using evidence-based, trauma-informed curriculum. Tattoo artists spend long, one-on-one hours with clients, which makes them exactly the kind of everyday professional who can notice when something’s wrong.
• AB 1845 carries that same idea onto college campuses. This bipartisan bill would train postsecondary staff to recognize human trafficking, add it to campus safety policies and crime reporting, and coordinate response with local law enforcement.
• AB 1766 starts even earlier, weaving age-appropriate lessons on human trafficking and online safety, including how to stay safe from exploitation and deepfakes online, into California’s K-12 health curriculum.
• AB 1946 would make it clearer and simpler for people to report child sexual abuse material online, and directs penalties from non-compliant platforms into California’s Survivor Support Fund.

Three of the four come down to the same thing: giving people the knowledge to recognize and prevent trafficking before it happens. That is prevention education, and it is what we do every day.

You can help: add your voice and urge Governor Newsom to sign all four. 

Email template for you to advocate: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nzWNjAgx0f8dhWPxu__6F26wIITVB29g23l50BGSiPk/edit?usp=sharing

Learn more about the bills:

→ AB 1918: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1918 

→ AB 1845: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1845 

→ AB 1766: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1766 

→ AB 1946: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1946

In New York: prevention, close to home

On Long Island, where Hollie was born and raised, she stood beside Nassau County Legislator Viviana Russell to introduce the Nassau County Anti-Human Trafficking Prevention and Victim Protection Act. It would train employees at spas and massage establishments to recognize trafficking, hold businesses that knowingly profit from it accountable, and create a fund, built from penalties, to support survivors with housing, counseling, and legal help. 

The thread that ties it together

Look closely, and the same idea shows up coast to coast. The people most likely to spot trafficking, whether a tattoo artist, a spa employee, a teacher, or a neighbor, often aren’t trained to recognize what they’re seeing. Give them that knowledge, and prevention becomes something everyone can do.

That’s the heart of our work. And none of this progress happened by accident. It happened because people with lived experience helped shape the solutions. At 3Strands, that’s by design: survivors guide our programs and policy priorities, including through our Survivor Advisory Board. When survivors lead, prevention gets sharper, and communities get safer.

At 3Strands Global Foundation (3SGF), our evidence-based PROTECT prevention education equips students, educators, and communities to recognize warning signs before exploitation happens. Legislation opens the door; education walks through it.

Three ways to link arms with us this month

• Add your voice. Urge House leadership to advance H.R. 1144, and ask Governor Newsom to sign the four bills: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nzWNjAgx0f8dhWPxu__6F26wIITVB29g23l50BGSiPk/edit?usp=sharing
• Bring prevention to your community. Learn how PROTECT can reach your school or district. → Email: AmandaK@3sgf.org
• Help sustain the work. We’re working toward 100 monthly donors through our Safety Net Campaign to protect children. → https://3sgf.org/safetynet/

Prevention is key: when people have knowledge and options, traffickers have none. Thank you for standing with survivors, and with us.

With gratitude, 

The team at 3Strands Global Foundation