The Atlanta metro area was named as one of the 14 states with the highest rate of trafficking (Humantraffickinghotline.org). Trafficking happens in big cities, in the suburbs, and in rural areas. Trafficking happens in every community. Young ladies are taken away from their families and the people who love them. The nature of the problem is that the cases of sex trafficking are rising every year. Being that Atlanta is the home of the busiest airport in the country, it attracts a larger number of people. Human trafficking is prevalent in Atlanta, Georgia. This is because Atlanta has the busiest airport globally, featuring an average of 260000 travelers daily. For this reason, it is an accessible place for traffickers to smuggle individuals across Georgia and county borders without drawing much attention to themselves. These perpetrator can also quickly maneuver around the city and its suburbs using interstates like I-85, I-75, I-20,and I-285. Nearly 65% of the men that buy sex with young girls do it in the areas inside and in the neighboring suburbs of the I-285 circle. Young ladies are lured to the Atlanta metro area with promises of jobs, housing, money, a better life, and fame in the movie industry. Instead, these girls are taken against their will and forced to do unimaginable things. Cases are increasing daily. The Polaris Project reports that the top three ways young ladies are lured into this situation are by online dating, in the community, and through social media. (www.polarisproject.org) According to the US Department of Justice in 2021, there were three defendants for youth sex trafficking in Georgia and five defendants for forced labor.  (www.justice.gov/humantrafficking),these numbers do not truly reflect the real number of female victims being trafficked each year. Once these young ladies are rescued from this tragic situation, they are often left homeless, in a fragile mental state, often pregnant, and with nowhere to turn. The Edify Teens Recovery Program (ET) believes that it is time to do something to save our daughters.

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