Raising Awareness for Human Trafficking at Super Bowl LV

You probably know the Super Bowl is America’s biggest sporting event, but you might not know that it’s also a hotbed for human trafficking. 

In the week leading up to last year’s Super Bowl in Miami, authorities arrested 44 people and rescued 22 victims of human trafficking, according to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. This will be the second consecutive year the Super Bowl takes place in Florida, which had the third most reported cases of human trafficking in the U.S. last year.

Now, as fans from across the country head to Tampa Bay for Super Bowl LV this weekend, Florida officials are warning attendees and Tampa Bay workers and residents to keep an eye out for potential signs of trafficking and abuse. 

Raising awareness about human trafficking is one of the most important causes we focus on at 1Huddle. Through our partnership with Saving Jane, 1Huddle is working to help educate young people across New Jersey about the dangers of human trafficking. Traffickers often target large-scale, high-profile events like the Super Bowl, since the high levels of activity and large crowds distract many onlookers from realizing the dangers lurking nearby.

We were glad to see that earlier this week Vikings star Kirk Cousins helped raise awareness by calling attention to the disturbing human trafficking that often plagues the Super Bowl. In a recent interview with CBS News, Cousins pointed out that human traffickers are “able to get away with it because it operates in the shadows.”

But if we work together to raise awareness and help educate the public about how to spot and report human trafficking, we can make sure that traffickers are no longer able to operate in the shadows at this year’s Super Bowl. Like Kirk Cousins said, “if it truly is brought to the light and identified for the horrible evil that it is, people will band together to put an end to it.”

So if you or someone you know is attending Super Bowl LV or working near the event, contact us at sam@1huddle.co, and we will provide you with free access to our human trafficking game series, which raises awareness about human trafficking through three key topics: online grooming, prevention and awareness, and forced labor.

All of the games are built by Saving Jane, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NJCAHT), 1Huddle, and human trafficking survivors themselves. Our content and platform is currently being used to help educate thousands of students, teachers, and parents at more than 100 K-12 schools in New Jersey who are participating in the “Slam Dunk Against Human Trafficking Challenge.”

1Huddle is committed to securing a better future for every worker in America, and we can’t do that until we fight for our young people. Because young people are the future of our workforce, our communities, our businesses, our leadership, and our world.

The fight to end human trafficking is one important step toward creating a better, more equitable, safer future for America’s youth. To find out more about how 1Huddle is working to end human trafficking, head to our recent partnership announcement that focuses on our work with Saving Jane, NJCAHT, and Student Global Ambassador Program (SGAP Leaders).

If you suspect human trafficking and think someone might be in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can also call the human trafficking hotline at (888) 373-7888.