Lauren Hersh: Interview with a Uniter
Lauren Hersh is the national director of World Without Exploitation, a coalition to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation. We asked her why World Without Exploitation was founded and how she unites so many different organizations around one vision.
Q. What is the main thing that World Without Exploitation hopes to accomplish?
WorldWE was founded because we recognized that if we really wanted to create a world where no one was bought, sold, or exploited, we needed to come together. Around the country there is so much good work happening. But the reality is, if I were in Ohio, and you’re in Boston, I likely wouldn’t know that your work was happening, and you wouldn’t know that my work was happening. We were very often reinventing the wheel. We recognized that when we come together and join forces, we’re infinitely more powerful. So, we wanted to be able to leverage those partnerships to speak in a collective voice, in some respects, and then celebrate individuals’ voices on other fronts.
We want people to be marching in the same direction, but we want to celebrate that one group may march forward by providing opportunities for survivor leadership; one group may focus exclusively on demand; one group may be working on the intersection between labor and sexual exploitation. Everybody can and should be doing the thing they’re best at.
If we want to move the needle on culture around human trafficking and sexual exploitation, we can’t just have a messaging strategy, we can’t just shape policy, we can’t just deliver direct services. All those pieces have to work in tandem, exerting pressure on different pieces of the equation. We’re most powerful when we are a united front rather than working in silos.
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